I'm considering a rc9800i and have a couple questions for those that own it and like it.

1) My PC's sound card is output through my home stereo. As I understand it, I can use the remote to play songs on the PC therefore controlling which songs play through my steroes speak from the kitchen for example. Is this correct?

2) Does the Philips Media Manager enable queing songs?

3) Does the Media Manager support shuffle? And if so, will it shuffle all titles, an individual folder or selected genres?

I plan on using it to control maybe one or two devices via the universal remote functionality. I also don't care about streaming music to the remote, I mainly want to use it to control my music collection remotely.

While I'm sure it's not as slick as a Sonos system, if it can do these basic items I'd be interested.

Any information about the Media Manager and how this unit works for controling a music collection remotely would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I just got one and have been using it for couple days now and I really like it. So far I haven't had any problems with it. I will try to answer your questions with what I have tried on the remote.

1. You are correct. You can play songs through your stereo speakers as long as the remote is on its cradle and the cradle is connected to your stereo receiver or a set of speakers. It have tried this and it works great.

2. About media manager queing songs, you are able to create playlists and you can also select songs by artist, albums, genres. Lastly, you can play songs that are in your favorite folders. I like the playlist and favorite feature since I can choose the songs I want to play for any party or family reunion.

Another feature I like is that fact that you can install the media manager in as many computer as you want and it creates a differect folder in the remote for music, pictures and videos. This way you dont need to have all your music in one place. If you don't mind installing the software in each computer you own.

So far I've had no problems, specially when connecting to my router at home. Just remember that if you want to control your music collection, the remote needs to be in the cradle if you are going to use your stereo receiver's speakers to listen to your music.

Hope I did not confuse you and I provided some help.

Does the RC9800i support TIVO directly (non-learn)? Thanks !

Just a clarification on number question #1. Although you do have a sound output routed from the PC to your stereo, you do not need this.

The base unit on the Philips also has an analog audio out, which means you can have a PC or MAC on the network, but somewhere far from your stereo, and still stream it to the Philips remote via 802.11, which then transfers it to the base station, which in turn plugs into your stereo system via the analog audio. The downside is that remote must be docked.

So actually you have the option to carry the remote around and still listen to music, but you will need to use Windows Media Center edition (or something that is UPNP compatible) to control the audio output of the PC via the remote if you wish to have it undocked.

Hopefully that helps more than it confuses...


Chris

or you could buy a media station, such as the d-link dsm series. this is an upnp device that can connect to your tv/stereo/etc, even in High Def, and you will be able to browse folders on the remote, select it on the remote, hit play and it will play on whatever you have d-link dsm hooked up to. as far as media stations go there is the d-link dsm-520/320, the phillips sl400i, buffalolink theatre. And just for mp3s and music the roku soundbridge. I would *HIGHLY* reccomend either the d-link of buuffalolink, as the philips is crap. just ask de-pampi ;p