Customer Reviews

Gyration GYR3101US Media Center Remote

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

 

 

I have owned this product for just over a year now. With that being said im on my second on and looking to get a third. The first one i bought was making a high pitch noise out of the box... so i warrantied it. the second one i currently have just stopped working. Keep in mind i have no kids and i use it in my bedroom so its not falling on any hard floors or anything like that. So im in the process of getting it RMA'd again. Their build quality is piss-poor. I love the remote and its functionality... but please please please build it with pride!

I use this remote with Vista MCE all the time (in living room). The RF reception works great. I occasionally use it as a mouse, it does that part of the job very well too. Never tried to control over devices with it though.

For Media Center, I wouldn't go back to my previous remote. The fact that this can be used as a mouse as well is a definitive plus. It takes some getting used-to to efficiently control the pointer on screen, but once you get the hang of it, it's great.

The product works great until the first time you drop it. I've had 2 of these and they've both broken the same way; the housing gyro in the back end of the unit breaks off and rattles around, rendering the mouse cursor unusable. Both incidents were an 18-inch drop onto a wooden floor from the armrest of a sofa.

If you don't have thick padded carpet in your TV room, stay away.

I've had this remote for about 2 years now. I recently have dropped it a couple times and lost mouse function as others have stated. It makes the high pitched whine after this happens but you can get it to stop if you tap it a little. Mine hasn't done this falling on carpet, only when I knocked it onto tiled floor. If you are patient and leave the batteries in, it will return to normal operation within 2-4 days.
Mine works fine for controlling TV. I did have the issue with not being able to program volume control to the appropriate button when in AUX mode, but you can program it to other buttons. I just programmed volume to be controlled by the up/down arrows instead.
If you own a HTPC, this remote will make operating it much easier.

I bought this (along with the matching keyboard) from Amazon in April 2008, and it has been worth its weight in gold. The convenience of having a media center remote along with a wii-style mouse cannot be overstated. It's even better when you install the "triple tap" software from the Gyration web site (which lets you enter text on the numeric keypad, a la a cell phone). Also, once you use an RF remote, you'll never want to go back to IR - for instance, when turning the music down from another room. I don't have a lot of components, but the universal remote function worked fine for my monitor - however if you want one controller for a lot of devices I'd look at the Logitech line.

In terms of durability and support, we used ours for a year and a half (including exposure to a toddler) and recently the down arrow started to get sticky. I looked on the Gyration web site, and was pleased to see they have a two year warranty. I sent the remote to them on Tuesday and received a replacement by Friday (we're both in the bay area). Needless to say, I'm certainly pleased with that level of support!

Great product, great service - highly recommended!

Ordered this for a media center I recently built. Works great, even across the room. My only complaint is with the device buttons at the top (PC, TV, etc.). They are somewhat small and tend to not work the first time I press them. Other than this minor issue I'm quite pleased with the remote. I highly recommend.

The mouse works great in this remote. Some glitches are that:

occasionally, we have to reprogram for our other devices
the mouse gyros broke, but we have three small kids, so that doesn't mean anything
the other devices are not perfectly matched up to the buttons, as the other reviewer stated

However, we are ordering another one because the TV, PC control and mouse features are indispensable.

I really wanted this product to work. I was excited to have a remote that could control my Vista Media Center PC, TV, Receiver, and Cable Box. It works MOSTLY as advertised (the mouse control is GREAT), except for 2 major problems that are not what you would expect.

1. In the AUX mode, I programmed it to match my Onkyo receiver with the code book provided. All buttons worked properly, except the volume and mute controls did not adjust the volume on the receiver. I tried to override them with the learning function, but they still did not work. Interestingly enough, I could override the TV mode's volume controls to control my receiver volume, but not on the AUX mode. Not sure if it is defective or some limitation of the AUX mode.

2. In the PC mode, you cannot program any of the buttons - they are all tied to the PC so you cannot, for example, make the volume buttons in the PC mode control your receiver. That means you have to switch to TV or AUX mode to control the volume of anything but the PC. A definite deal breaker for anyone who has a receiver or doesn't use the PC to control volume.

FYI - I called tech support, and the man I spoke to said he didn't know anything about the "newer products" and transferred me (after accidentally hanging up on me) to somoeone who did. That guy had no idea what the problem was and insisted that my receiver must be the problem. Not super helpful, and this solidified my decision to return.

Also, there is a label in the box that says "In order to enable all Media Center features, visit http://www.gyration.com/remote-update. This URL does not exist. Searching the Gyration site also yielded no support information, manuals, or downloads of any kind for this product.

Great product idea, but very poorly executed.

This remote is good enough as a media center remote. However, if you are planning on using it to control your TV, receiver and other functions you are in for a lot of frustration. Learning function simply doesn't work properly, and as someone already mentioned overrides don't work in PC mode.

This works like a moouse with more buttons it is great everyone should have one.