Customer Reviews

EZ Commander - Trackball PC Remote & Presenter

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I cancelled my cable after finding out that I could watch news and shows in HD format for free online, like The Office(NBC), Heroes(NBC), Desperate Housewives(ABC) and The Simpsons(FOX).... you name it. I connected my PC to the big TV and it all looked great. The only thing I hated about it was that I had to run back and forth to my keyboard and mouse to operate it. I was very happy to find EZ Commander.

This PC remote is way more than I expected and I love it. It has two modes - PC and Media modes to choose from. On PC mode you could type in text, do google search...; on Media mode you could operate any PC media players to watch TV shows, movies or online clips. You could switch back and forth between PC and Media Modes with no problems. This little remote control really functions like keyboard+mouse. The EZ Input took me a bit of time to get used to, but it is one of the reasons makes this commander great. You can just sit on your couch and enjoy online contents without getting up.

One more thing to mention is that EZ commander is also a laser pointer. The "Hot Keys" feature makes presentation easy and smart. I am getting one for my aunt who teaches in college. It would be cool for her to use it when teaching large classes.

I love this thing, I have a PC on 2 TV's and I actually bought a 2nd one of these. There are mouse functions and keyboard keys. So if you have hot keys set up for players, it will work great without even messing with the software. It does not have a system volume function, however I found a freeware program that lets you set hot keys for it. It is called 3rvx. Any version works with XP, but you need the latest version of 3rvx (2.5) to work with Vista or 7. I've been doing PC on TV with a remote for over 5 years now and this is the best PC remote I've seen.

I've seen a few negative reviews for this. It's funny that the person always seems to have some strange expectations about what it does, and is then disappointed. Ok. Look at the remote. Think about this for just a second using common sense. Now, do you REALLY think this is going to be a practical solution for entering text? Of course not, that's utterly ridiculous. The guy just states that you COULD do that..... and yea you could, but that doesn't mean you should. I'm not sure why anyone would want to try.

What this thing appears to be for, is using media on a PC, connected to your TV from the comfort of your favorite piece of living room furniture. I use the computer on the TV to view pictures, videos of various types and listen to music. It also controls my surround sound. This remote does all that perfectly. I have even used it in place of a mouse for installing or upgrading software. I do of course have a keyboard connected for maintenance though.

So in closing, if you are looking for a great PC remote, this is what you want to buy.

First, I bought the track ball remote feature as a presenter.

I could use track ball mouse to operate Power point and Adobe PDF files for Page Up and Page Down on air.

Later, I found EZ remote was unique in its software and design.

EZ commander combined multimedia keys with keyboard keys to control PC such as Play, Pause, Zoom, Mute, Up and Down.

It also supported a lot of software

All I had to do was to push remote buttons.

It seemed that EZ Commander knew what I wanted to control my notebook during watching DVD, IPTV & pictures, listening to music and input text......

Now, I connect my NB with LCD TV.

I can comfortably sit or lie on my couch to enjoy Digital life by EZ Commander.

If you like new computer gadgets, buy it and you won't regret!

I have to say, this is one of the coolest gadgets I have for my entertainment system. I plug my TV into my laptop as its external monitor. I plug my laptop's sound out into my surround sound system. Then I use the EZ Commander here to browse the internet, and most specifically watch netflix and youtube from my tv, old school style. This thing works really well. I was surprised actually. I didn't expect it to be so ergonomic like.

No risk, just buy it

Surprisingly good. I took a chance to buy it because I just love different new stuff to try on my computer. No crashes!!! It actually works as it describes in the ads. The input software is so great that you will feel you don't need your keyboard and mouse any more (unless you need to write an essay or report). It's really worth it to pay 79 for it, especially comparing to some cheap and useless products that you'll have to go through the trouble to return them!!! Check out the website and it is COOL!

I was very excited, when I saw this trackball remote for sale on Amazon.
I thought it could be a cool match for my HTPC.
I bought one, gave it a try and I lik it.
It's a good replacement for keyboard and mouse in the PC to TV (or projector) settings.
This trackball remote not only controls my Media Center.
It also controls iTune, and the web browser when I watch my favorite TV episodes online.
Feels like it can do all basic controls to every software I open.
I also like its text input feature which allows me to do the simple type in from my cosy seat.
EZ Commander does create a new simple and easy way to control my HTPC.
If you enjoy the online multimedia like me, you will like this EZ commander.

LCD TV is dirt cheap now, my friend connect those TV to watch TV and use as PC for the same time, I recommend him trying a remote control so he can switch back and forth without holding keyboard.

The remote based keypad is a good way to do a quick job on PC and then jump back to my favorite TV show...I prefer placing my LCD TV far away from my couch and not using a wireless keyboard...it's just stupid to place the keyboard on my lap. the form size matters as I prefer no more keyboard after work.

The quick job control like downloading music and video is a good entertainment as it takes time and I want to place it in a PiP to monitor and switch back when I am having a commercial break.

This thing is great for simple functions like opening videos and doing basic navigating on a webpage, which were the only functions I was looking for when I bought it, but text input has become a nightmare. In fact, I've never quite figured out how to input text and end up just using the keyboard I have plugged into the machine. One thing that has REALLY started to bother me is the trackball. Dirt and grime starts to build up over time so very precise movements become next to impossible. It's hit or miss--very frustrating. I made an attempt at opening it up to clean it but access to the guts is not easy and I was afraid I'd break the plastic. Overall it's a pretty decent mouse (if you wash your hands incessantly) but a horrible keyboard with awkward scrolling and basic windows functions. I'll continue to battle with the trackball until I find a better option for my HTPC.

A few improvements would make this a much better product:
- an optical trackball instead of mechanical. Maybe I just have dirty thumbs, but I keep losing either horizontal or vertical tracking briefly, requiring me to shake the remote or open it up to clean off the tracking wheels. Even then they still stick sometimes.
- RF wireless (e.g. Bluetooth) instead of infrared. Right now it requires line-of-sight, so if my aim is too low (like if I'm sitting on the floor of my family room) then the tracking starts to hiccup.
- A scroll wheel! Web browsing is sort of awkward - you can use the PageUp, PageDown, Up, and Down buttons for scrolling, but a scroll wheel would be so much nicer.
- Programmable buttons, so that I can assign two of my less-used buttons to browser back and forward, or certain key combinations that come up in my media apps.

That all said, the ergonomics are pretty nice. The bumps on the underside fit nicely in your hand and give you more solid control of the trackball, I think. The L and R mouse buttons could be closer. And the other features are nice as well. I don't really use the text stuff (I have a wireless keyboard), but the other buttons are nice to have.

I've never had a remote for my PC and this was the first one I ever tried. The trakerball was the deciding factor for me. This remote did not work with some programs I tried. I think it was Video LAN (VLC). Now, by not work I mean the media mode did not work correctly but in PC mode you can still do everything just as you would if you were sitting at the PC. Especially as you can use the trackerball to complete all mouse operations. I think it works perfectly and I am very satisfied.

I do have two complaints though. When the remote is set to media mode the shift and ctrl keys don't work as they normally would. But this is fixed by just putting the remote in PC mode.
The other thing is that I leave my computers on while I go to sleep and let my monitors sleep while I do. If the remote in on the bed and I move the trackerball is so sensitive that it wake up my monitors. That gets annoying.
But all in all it's great!

Update:
It's been almost a year and I still love the remote. I'm even on the same batteries. The trackerball, however, has degraded immensely in performance. I have not tried to open to clean it because it seems to be a bit difficult. It has very limited functionality but I don't need much when watching movies. If I could easily open and clean it then it would be perfect.

Update:
It's now been a year and three months and I love this remote even more! By some magic I'm still on the batteries that came with the remote. But why I'm giving 5 stars is because I thought to open this thing you needed to unscrew it and stuff. But no. The dots by the trackerball can be turned anti-clockwise to open so you can clean the trackerball compartment! I didn't realise this till 10 minutes ago. Now with a paperclip to open the trackerball compartment and some cleaning the trackerball works great again. I fully recommend this remote. These days I'm using it with Media Player Classic and XBMC.