MIKE RECOMMENDED: what it says - a better remote for the watching movies w/the PS3

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Product Description

Playstation 3's Blu-Ray Disc Remote is an elegant, sleekly designed controller for enjoying Blu-Ray discs on your PS3. The ergonomic design feels good in your hand and the Bluetooth connection lets you operate with no lag time. Features all the standard DVD remote functions: Chapter display/select A-B Repeat One-Touch Menu Control

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26 in Video Games
• Size: blue-ray remote control
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sony
• Model: 98046
• Released on: 2007-01-09
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Format: Playstation
• Dimensions: 9.00" h x 14.00" w x 12.00" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• DVD playback
• Program and shuffle play
• 3-speed scan
• Repeat and slow motion
• Time search

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Customer Reviews

I approve this remote control
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).
= 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
= 2 AA battery powered (still with the original Sony batteries after 4 months of use)

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.

Great Start but Missing Some Features
Most PS3 owners enjoy not only the gaming abilities of their system, but also the built in Blu-Ray DVD player. The Sony remote control accessory lets you play those movies with great ease.

The remote combines the regular buttons of our other DVD players with the funky look of the PS3. You have a red, green, blue and yellow button - labelled with their color names! You also get a circle, X, square and triangle to do a few things like brinigng up the options and back choices.

The main buttons - play, stop, forward, back - are laid out reasonably nicely at the bottom of the remote with large buttons. There are small buttons up on top for the number keys, and a very tiny eject button.

Missing completely is a power button!! You have to hit the PS button in the center and go through the regular PS3 menus to get the power to turn off. In fact, while I was writing this review, I accidentally hit a button on the remote and the PS3 turned on. We were watching regular TV, so now I have to wait until our show is over, switch over to the PS3 and use the buttons to turn the system back off again. That doesn't make much sense at all to me.

Also, on our Oppo DVD remote, the buttons glow which makes it REALLY nice to use in the dark or dim light that most people watch movies in. This unit is completely black with black buttons. This makes it pretty much useless in low light conditions until you memorize all of the button locations. You would think by now that remote control makers would have their buttons backlit or at least glow-in-the-dark to handle this.

The unit takes two AA batteries which makes it a bit heavy, but certainly within the normal range of remotes.

It's easy enough to sync up the remote with the PS3. It's bluetooth powered, so you go into the PS3 menu and use the options there to indicate you have a new remote. Note that the base level PS3 will not handle this - you have to have a connection to the internet from your PS3 and run an update routine. If you don't have an internet connection for your PS3, you have to create an update CD on your PC to do this update.

Well recommended - but it really could be much better to be great.

You can turn your PS3 off with this remote - RTFM
Not much can be said that already hasn't. It's an OK remote, on par with most typical remotes that are included with any stand-alone player. Sony really should have included this remote with the PS3, it just makes sense, especially with their renewed push for the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player with the release of the 40GB model.

I can only give the remote 3 stars overall though. The buttons should glow or have backlighting. A few of the buttons could be labeled better or located more prominently. But as far as Sony remotes go, this is pretty good. The bluetooth functionality is great. It eats batteries like crazy.

Many people are incorrectly reporting that this remote does not have a power button. In a sense, that is somewhat true. Any button on the remote will turn on (wake up) the PS3. This was a bad idea, they should have limited the wake-up functionality to the "PS" button in the center of the remote. This center "PS" button is also the "off" button. Simply hold the button down for about 3 seconds and the PS3 will ask if you want to turn it off, push the OK button, it shuts down.

As more and more AV components migrate to bluetooth remote control, I'm sure we will see universal remotes (like the Logitech Harmony) come forth with bluetooth capability. This remote will tide me over for a year or so until that day comes. ...Hopefully before the PS3 has become obsolete.