Customer Reviews

Keyspan TVU-200C Tuneview RF Remote for iTunes

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

 

 

I've owned this product for about six months. It is a highly frustrating product for four reasons.

1. No support. I've contacted support with two suggestions and two requests for support. All four contacts, through the site contact form, have gained no response. Whatever you get, you are on your own.

2. Goes to sleep for no reason. This product does not go through your wireless network, but uses a wireless usb device which is connected to the computer housing your iTunes library. When the device is awake, it works fairly well (updating the library info can take some time). Unfortunately, mine consistently falls asleep and requires me to go to the 3rd floor of our townhouse, our stereo is on the first floor, to unplug and replug the device. Mind, the device doesn't ALWAYS go to sleep, just sometimes. I have yet to find a consistent reason.

3. As mentioned in other reviews, the screen is small and you have to go through your music alphabetically. One of my suggestions to the support team is to rewrite the interface software so that it allows you to go through artists/albums/song titles with 26 alphabet options. So, you would choose music -> S -> Santana. Not have to hold down the "down" arrow and wait for two minutes while the device surfs from its slow memory to reach Santana. As a result, I rarely get past artists whose names begin with G.

4. Software. The software on my computer, under Windows XP, is buggy. On a regular basis, it crashes. I used to have to remote in from another computer to turn it off, turn off itunes, restart itunes, restart the device software and then go back to use the device. Fortunately, I now have the computer connected to my LCD TV and have a mouse connected to the server. This makes it jsut a bit easier to remedy when the crashes occur. Another issue with the software is that it always loads before iTunes fully loads and then pops up an error which keeps it from loading properly. As a result, I have to go in and click on the error button so everything can finish loading after a reboot.

Overall, I think this is a product with a great service. If our computer was on the same level as our stereo, it would still be useful. But, with the parts so far apart, it only frustrates me and helps me get my exercise and kill valuable moments of my life on a regular basis.

Worked great for three months, but no longer can find iTunes... Now that the iPod Touch and iPhone have the Remote application, this product is worthless.

This RF remote control works great with iTunes, as advertised. The range is about 50ft through walls. I can walk around my back yard and change the song, volume, etc. The only issue I see is that the LCD is small and if you have thousands of songs, it can take time to scroll through them. I have set up a number of playlists and use those for the most part. This remote seems like a no brainer... I am surprised that Apple has not come up with this already.

I personally found the units performance very sluggish and inconsistent. I suppose if you just wanted to turn itunes on or off it would be ok, but searching through a library is painfully slow.

I bought this remote for my home music library. I put it on a mac mini that is hooked up to a TV in my den. I have a 25,000 song library and it took forever to load everything. I thought that there was something wrong with it because it took so long. For an entire day I waited. I finally stopped the loading and checked the Keyspan website only to find out that it's compatibility with Leopard wasn't 100%. I did eventually get my library loaded after I downloaded some new software from Keyspan. Once it is loaded, it works OK. I wasn't overly impressed with it's performance, and for some reason it has caused some problems on my mac mini. I tried it on my macbook pro, with the same results. I guess that it isn't happy with my OS (leopard). I've since removed the software from both computers and will probably put it on ebay to sell it. I wish that someone would have noted this in their reviews because I wouldn't have bought it.

Worked as advertised one time then after that intermittently after much screwing around and sometimes having to reboot. Now not at all. Currently waiting for tech support. Not enough info with the product to be of any use to trouble shoot it. Bottom line I own a mac cause they work, I use iTunes to listen to music cause it works, so something that is supposed to be an accessory for these two things needs to do one thing, WORK.

I like the fact that I can control iTunes remotely, that is great. However, I was hoping that via this remote I would be able to switch the Airport Express station that iTunes is streaming to. I don't see any way to do this - unless I am missing something.

That means, if I'm in the basement and want to listen to my iTunes, I have to run upstairs, in the bottom left corner of iTunes change the Airport Express station to "Basement", then run back downstairs. I was hoping the remote would have this functionality, since it says "remotely control iTunes".

I agree with what the first two reviewers have written. It's tedious with large libraries, the screen is small and it's response is sluggish. The transmit/receive distance is def. overrated as well. On the other hand, when it's working well, it's mighty handy to control iTunes on a computer that's on the second floor of my home while I'm on the first. This product in conjunction with Airtunes is pretty cool. I would recommend it only if you are not very far from the host computer.

The range of the remote is fine and it works well if you just want to skip a track or pause etc.

However I have some playlists of over 3,000 tracks and the remote seizes up if I try to switch between playlists.

I assume this is a memory problem in the remote.

I had high hopes for this item. I bought it before finding out about Remote for iphone/itouch. If you have either of these devices this remote is totally useless in comparison. The Remote app is free from apple, syncs much easier, and allows for a graphic/touch interface just like using music that is native to the device. If you have an iphone go chech it out, its better.

All of that said, this remote had a lot of potential. I bought it to integrate music into my entertainment center without having to connect the computer to the tv and having a keyboard and mouse to play music. When I first bought it it worked great. Within the week it had lost sync and would not communicate. after a half hour of resetting and reconnecting it it still would not connect. Their customer support was good, and they sent me a new unit, but it took 2 weeks to show up. The new unit worked for 2 weeks, and then developed the same problem.

Even while working it had range issues. It would work in the same room as the computer most of the time, but from even the next room had problems. Not much range based on the advertisment.

In all - if you have $130 for one of these, you have $200 for an Ipod Touch. Go buy the ipod. Even if you ONLY use the ipod as a remote for your computer's itunes it will be worh it.

Please see UPDATE at the end. Can't change the stars now. Don't buy this - 1 star is too much.

To begin with, the first three I received (from multiple sources, including the manufacturer direct) had issues with various buttons not working at all. The 4th, tested by tech support at the manufacturer before shipping, actually worked "properly". I would have given zero stars for the three bad units! Additionally, the range was not all I needed, so I had to extend that using the Gefen wireless USB hub (has its own quirks). The Gefen is the only one I have found that will do the distance and go through exterior walls. Anyway, back to the TVU...

During the testing of the 3rd defective unit, I also installed it (with much difficulty requiring tech support) on a Vista 32 system (I am running the 4th on XP 32) and the TuneView software kept crashing. I finally got it to *not* work - proved that one of the buttons was defective on that remote as well. The 4th unit - in which all buttons worked - revealed the quirkiness of the device and confirmed at least on my behalf that there were QC issues in manufacturing regarding the first three that were kaput.

If both the transceiver and remote go to 'sleep', you might find yourself having to disconnect the transceiver or re-pair the two to get them to sync. Re-pairing might also require you to disconnect the transceiver. The device operates in the 2.4GHz range, which tends to be busy in most technology-rich homes. You cannot manually set the channel - a re-pair is your only option, and this may or may not help with RF interference that might negatively impact the device's function.

This unit is like the girl with the curl - but it is the only unit I have found that will allow me to control my multi-zone iTunes-based system from outdoors, and quite far away from the PC that hosts iTunes. The software will crash if you enter the "Preferences" menu in iTunes. The icon sometimes vanishes from the taskbar while it's running (cannot say for sure if this is Windows or the software that's at fault), giving you no access to the Settings without restarting the service - or otherwise the PC. Getting an "iTunes Snapshot" can take some time with a large iTunes database, and this "Snapshot" will happen by default every time the TuneViewHelper software is restarted. In the course of it all, you will find yourself relaunching both iTunes and TuneViewHelper - ad infinitum.

If you are not terribly patient, persistent, and techie-oriented, you might want to stay away - unless you can't find another solution. I wound up speaking with seven tech support employees over about 5 weeks to get something working. At least tech support is based in the USA. By the way, the TVI-200 was much easier to configure and use. Too bad it is limited by the iPod itself.

UPDATE

After living with this junk for a month, I cannot recommend it to anyone today. Spend the extra for a Touch or iPhone (if you haven't got one) and download the free "Remote" app. This remote will aggravate you to no end and is absolutely not baked - not even halfway.