 I approve this remote control | | Review Date: September 19, 2008 | | Reviewer: A. Dent, Minas Anor, GD | I did not think I needed yet another remote control because I thought the six-axis had everything it needed for movie playing on the PS3 and, yet, I bought one. There were 2 initial reasons:
- my wife was missing a 'magic wand' shaped remote for playing movies
- Amazon had it at a great price in one of them lightning deals
I ended up using it myself and, in fact, using it for more than just movie playing - see below.
But, let's do a quick inventory of features:
= It's blue-tooth enabled and, therefore, it's not taking any ports on your PS3. This is probably important for anyone who has a "2-USB ports console".
= It's wand-shaped, allowing the non-gamers to control their movie-watching activities while holding a familiar-shaped device in their hand.
= It maps ALL the six-axis buttons and performs everything a six-axis would do, except for the joystick features of R3 and L3 (but you do have the push-down or 'click' abilities for them).
= 2 AA battery powered (still with the original Sony batteries after 4 months of use)
= Includes additional buttons that the movie-only users would expect on a remote such as:
+ a number pad
+ eject
+ red, green, blue, yellow buttons
+ play, stop, pause
+ slow(step), scan(left/right), prev/next
+ display, top menu, pop up menu, return
+ subtitles, angle, audio
What is interesting about this remote is that you can use it for much more than movie-playing. Given that it has all the six-axis buttons, guess what? You can use it, and I do use it to:
- surf the web
- play music
- shop at the PSN store
- play certain games such as Sudoku
- turn the PS3 on/off when your six-axis controllers are in the charger and I am playing GT5 that is using a racing wheel
And, yes, you CAN turn the PS3 on and off with this remote. Turning it on is easy - you simply press the PlayStation button and the PS3 turns itself on. To turn it off, you either go as far to the left on the X-bar and all the way up and press Enter (the turn-off PlayStation icon will be highlighted) or you simply hold the PlayStation button pressed for a few seconds and then select 'yes' and press the X button a couple of times.
Overall: I am happy with this peripheral. Yes, it's one more remote control but it's a pretty good one, for the reasons I stated above.
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Notes - Aug 29, 2009, after 16 months of use
I find that I'm using the remote more and more, not only for playing movies but for navigating the XMB and at the PSN Store, also when playing music or slideshows. Due to its very convenient arrows wheel with an 'enter' button in the middle, navigating the PS3 and doing just about anything other than playing games is a lot easier than using the PS3 game controller. Unlike the controller which normally requires two hands to hold, this is basically a one-hand operation where you hold the remote in one hand and operate the wheel with your thumb. And because it's Bluetooth, not IR (Infrared), you don't even need to point it at the PS3.
And, one word on battery life. After about 15-16 months of operation, this is probably the third set of batteries so I'd estimate battery life to be about 4-6 months. Not too bad. | bluetooth remote is great!!! | | Review Date: February 2, 2007 | | Reviewer: whiterabbit, Yakima, Washington United States | | A must-have accessory for your PS3 Blu-ray DVD viewing pleasure! I love that it works without having to point it at anything, thanks to being Bluetooth... you don't even have to be in the same room! (not that there is much application for the latter, but thought it worth mentioning). Anyway, it works perfectly and helps add to your PS3 experience. We have a nice universal remote also, but the "Bluetooth factor" makes this Playstation remote our family's favorite so far. I hope all remotes go that way eventually... much better than IR! | I like it. | | Review Date: January 16, 2008 | | Reviewer: Mouse, Texas, USA | First off, when people complain there is no "power" button, they are just too lazy to push the down arrow and then the middle enter button. Whoopdee doo. It takes all of 1 second to power off the PS3 with the PS button so if you can't do that then you are extremly too lazy. Also, if you "accidentally" push a button and PS3 comes on but you don't want to switch your TV to see the PS3 menu, you can get up off your backside and hold your finger over the power button on the PS3 itself and it will turn off. The next complaint people have is with the Bluetooth part of it since they can't use normal IR universal remotes with the PS3. Well, I personally prefer the Bluetooth since you do not have to have line-of-sight with anything to use it like you do with IR sensors. If you like watching movies from your bed and you're all curled up under your blanket you can just keep the remote under there with you and push buttons, the PS3 still picks up the signal. As for it not having the "glow in the dark" buttons... how many of you really press all those un-needed buttons when you're watching a movie? At the most you need to know where "Play" "Stop" and "Pause" are. That's all you really need to memorize. You can easily feel for the big circle and I would hope you know up is up and down is down and so forth with "enter" in the middle.
It's a great remote with every feature you really "need". If you watch a lot of movies from your PS3 then it really is a must have. Much easier to navigate menus with than the PS3 controller as well as knowing the button you're pushing does what it's meant to do. Anyone know how to pause the movie from the PS3 controller? I sure don't. | Nice layout, no more pointing and getting frustrated | | Review Date: January 20, 2007 | | Reviewer: Gadgester, Mother Earth | | This Blu-Ray DVD remote for the PS3 is just great. It's well laid out and the buttons are easy to hit. The best part is you no longer need to point the top of the remote in the direction of the PS3 since this is wireless. It makes Blu-Ray watching on the PS3 even more enjoyable. Some people complain about this not being a universal IR remote. Since I never cared for universal remotes, it's a total non-issue for me. $25 is not a bad price to pay for such a cool and useful accessory. | All the functions | | Review Date: May 22, 2007 | | Reviewer: W. Stohler, Honolulu, HI USA | This remote adds all of the functions that we're used to having on a DVD player...and you can hit the view button to display the conspicously missing elapsed time (not shown on the front of the PS3).
You do have to program the PS3 to work with your specific remote prior to the first use.
It's a remote....Bluetooth, by the way, so infrared and RF programmable remotes won't work with the PS3 (very sad for my Harmony). | |
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