Best media keyboard and mouse for £60

utherpendragon · 7 May 2006 at 22:17

What can I get for a total of £60 a range of around 5m would be nice 9although not essential). It must have a next track, previous track function. Having a remote control (as with the logitech s510) would be nice, otherwise how much does a pc remote suually set you back?

Shootist · 7 May 2006 at 22:22

I bought a second user SoundBlaster Audigy sound card and that came with a remote control as standard. I paid £50 for it and it was only 2 months old.
Loads of front panel connectors like midi, firewire, optical/spdif digital audio sockets, headphones and mic sockets too.

utherpendragon · 7 May 2006 at 22:30

Shootist said:
I bought a second user SoundBlaster Audigy sound card and that came with a remote control as standard. I paid £50 for it and it was only 2 months old.
Loads of front panel connectors like midi, firewire, optical/spdif digital audio sockets, headphones and mic sockets too.

What functions did the remote have, and what model audigy was it?

Six6siX · 7 May 2006 at 23:20

My vote for keyboard and mouse combo would go to the Logitech UltraX Media Desktop. Low profile, quiet laptop keys and 5 button mouse. Batteries last for ages and the range isn't too bad either. Very pleased with mine for the few months I've had it. However, considering your budget is a bit higher, I'd be inclined to look at the MX3000 (never used it myself, so not sure of performance - but a friend has one and it seems very nice)

As for the remotes, it depends what you want to do with it. The creative remotes (I have the one that comes with the Audigy 2 Platinum) are good for working with their own software, but require line of sight being IR and are limited to media playback.

Best remote I have ever used has to be ATi's Remote Wonder. Its RF so works without line of sight, and has much longer range. Can control loads of programs by default - even more through customisation via software. Best of all, allows full control of the mouse/cursor :cool:

Another option - if you have a compatible bluetooth phone and bluetooth dongle for your PC, have a look at a piece of software called Salling Clicker. Allows control of the mouse, and media players including iTunes, winamp, media player etc. And with it being controlled by your phone, you have a small display on your "remote" showing whats playing etc.

Hope that helps

pcoltrane · 8 May 2006 at 10:22

What do you intend to use this for? Is it purely for a media center or is it more multipupose?

If the former then the MS media center keyboard is really nice - and even has a laptop style pointer so you wouldn't even need a mouse. You would also need the MS media center remote as they share the same receiver.

Marc

Shootist · 8 May 2006 at 19:37

utherpendragon said:
What functions did the remote have, and what model audigy was it?

It was the first one with the seperate front panel. There is a later one and it's very similar to look at but it had enhanced capabilities. Then there's one with a black front panel which is called the Audigy 2 (sensible name huh?)

The remote could operate the creative hardware, volume, playlists, normal audio functions like record, pause, ejecting the cd drives etc. and even the surround mixer etc. It could allow you to select audio input levels, balance, bass, treble and even the volume of external surround sound speakere systems like the Cambridge Soundworks.
You could even shut down your pc with it, pretty good if you are in bed listening to some music and can't be bothered to get up to turn the pc off.

I never used the remote so I gave it to my son who had the card without the remote control.

All in all, a tidy piece of kit.