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Topic:
MX-500: so close but ...
This thread has 10 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Friday October 20, 2000 at 17:46
Stephen Tu
Historic Forum Post
I'm really disappointed. The picture makes it look so close to my ideal remote but they still aren't quite there yet. It feels like the people who design the remotes don't have home theaters themselves; else how can they make design decisions like this? It's a step in the right direction from the SL9000, having separate cursor/transport keys, but it looks like they still have these keys with two labels on them that only accept one command. So I can have a "menu" key but then I have to give up chapter skip backwards? I can "record" but then can't "exit"? Keys with two labels that only accept one function are just lame, unless it's two functions that tend to be mutually exclusive. On my DVD player I certainly need separate buttons for menu and chapter skip, and I use both often enough that I don't want to put one of them on the LCD keys.

I'm holding out on upgrading my SL9000 until someone gets it right -- like the MX1000 on the top, touchscreen, and with all buttons the MX500 has on the bottom, plus SEPARATE menu, display, clear keys.
OP | Post 2 made on Friday October 20, 2000 at 23:23
Arjen
Historic Forum Post
You could ignore the secondary labels, and instead program these functions under the LCD buttons.

OP | Post 3 made on Saturday October 21, 2000 at 01:31
Daniel Tonks
Historic Forum Post
Almost every device I've seen with "chapter skip" functions do not use the channel buttons. Thus, I always program chapter skip to channel up/down. I'm not sure why they didn't do that in the first place.

Since the labels around the cursor section are somewhat hard to read, I'll post what they are here, starting with the top left:

|<< & MENU
PLAY
>>| & GUIDE
FAST FORWARD
PAUSE & INFO
STOP
REC & EXIT
REWIND

So, assume we move chapter skip to the channel buttons (which I would have done had I designed the remote), you free up MENU and GUIDE. I would move the INFO button from PAUSE to PREV CH. Those devices that have PREV CH probably don't have PAUSE (yeah, I know some VCRs do have a previous channel function, but none of mine do!) That only leaves REC and EXIT on the same button. If I had a device with both (oddly enough none of my devices have an EXIT button, just MENU) I'd probably move REC to the LCD section to reduce accidental usage.
OP | Post 4 made on Saturday October 21, 2000 at 15:04
GregoriusM
Historic Forum Post
Good thoughts, Daniel. This remote blows away anything in the price range, it seems to me......... especially for those of us who are "buttoneers".

Greg :-)
OP | Post 5 made on Saturday October 21, 2000 at 17:47
Stephen Tu
Historic Forum Post
Almost every device I've seen with "chapter skip" functions do not use the channel buttons

That's true with most devices in the past, but now with more digital convergence devices it's not going to be true in the future. For example on Tivo/ReplayTV it's really useful to use the chapter skip buttons for instant replay & jump to live. The channel buttons are still needed for changing channels. The need for both is also going to be evident on DVD video recorders when they arrive.
Even on my old Sony SLV-700 VCR I like to use the chapter skip for fast scan forward/backward, which behave differently from FF/REW which have to be held down.

It just seems to me that there is room on the remote to stick in a couple more buttons in between the volume and channel buttons, especially such frequently used buttons as "menu" and "info" which deserve their own button. The LCD area is fine for "rec" I guess, but it's an awkward hand move so I only want to put rarely used buttons up there.

I still can't believe the MX1000 has a 5-way joystick but no "menu" key, forcing you to give up "pre channel". Not to mention no pause key or chapter skip. I wish they would submit mockups of their designs to the power remote users here on remotecentral before going into production; we could point out the obvious flaws like that.
OP | Post 6 made on Monday October 23, 2000 at 13:19
Randy
Historic Forum Post
No pause key? No Menu key? Are you certain?!? That's ridiculous!
OP | Post 7 made on Monday October 23, 2000 at 16:37
Stephen Tu
Historic Forum Post
Yes I'm certain. See the picture from Daniel's review. No labeled hard keys for menu, pause, display, or chapter skip. It is pretty ridiculous to design a remote whose big selling point over its LCD-centric competitors is more real buttons and a joystick for menus, then omitting those oft-used buttons. I'd love for one of the designers to try to explain the rationale for that.
OP | Post 8 made on Monday October 23, 2000 at 19:40
Randy
Historic Forum Post
Oh I thought we were talking about the MX-500!! But I agree about the MX-1000... though it's still a great remote considering how comfortable it looks :)
OP | Post 9 made on Monday October 23, 2000 at 22:42
Stephen Tu
Historic Forum Post
I was criticizing the MX-500 then switched gears to rip the MX-1000 :). If I'm going to spend $200+ on a remote I don't really want to put up with obvious design flaws. It's really a shame because both of these are a lot closer to what I want than anything else on the market. If they fix these shortcomings in the next iteration I'd buy one immediately.
OP | Post 10 made on Monday October 23, 2000 at 23:38
Daniel Tonks
Historic Forum Post
Well, as the old saying goes "something is better than nothing". For now, the MX-1000 is unique in its position of having both a goodly number of hard buttons and customizable LCD screen.
OP | Post 11 made on Tuesday October 24, 2000 at 04:01
GregoriusM
Historic Forum Post
And while the MX-500 doesn't have EXACTLY what you want in hard buttons, the fact that it has the configurable LCD screen goes a long way. And I do have to say that I love the layout of the menu/transport keys.

Greg :-)


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