NoviiMedia is well known for its universal remote for the Palm OS and was my main staple on my Tungsten T3. The software was great and had little flaws outside of the very small and minimal IR codebase that came with NoviiRemote Classic. Having tried every other universal remote application for the Palm OS, NoviiMedia’s was the clear winner. But how did it compare to the PocketPC camp’s stash of offerings? Well, outside of Nevo’s offering for the iPAQ, it held up very well. But it was for the Palm OS, so it was like comparing apples and oranges. Well, now there’s no more fruit salad, NoviiMedia has joined the WinCE universe and we got to play with it!

NoviiRemote Deluxe for Pocket PC is nearly a carbon copy of the Classic version on the surface. It looks and feels the same, which is great for killing any learning curve. But unlike the Classic version, it’s PACKED with IR code bases. Man, I haven’t found a device yet that doesn’t work “out-of-the-box” with the pre-installed code bases. Well okay, I found one, but that’s a whole category NoviiMedia seemed to over look: car audio. Outside of your four-wheel rolling audio paradise, you’ll be easily covered with NoviiRemote Deluxe.

Installation and Setup
Downloading the trial from NoviiMedia’s site is like all others. Click and download, piece of cake. Then install the small application and open it up on your Pocket PC. You’re greeted with a splash screen with some pointers and an option to make sure it never shows again (though it is accessible from the menu if needed.)

To add a device, you select Setup from the Menu and chose the Add button (or Add New Device…). This invokes an easy to use wizard that leaves no questions as to what you’re expected to do. If there is more then one codebase for your desired brand, then you have a few buttons, such as power and volume up. Of all the times I had a multiple selection, the first choice always worked so it may be legacy units are listed after. Smart. After you’ve walked through the wizard, your layout of a few pages is on your screen and ready to take control. It takes maybe a total of ten seconds to set up a new “remote!”

Learning
As I stated at the onset, NoviiMedia didn’t have everything pre-packaged. Missing was my Pioneer AVX-P7000CD and its GPS unit. So I had to teach it the remotes codes so my Pocket PC would be complete with my audio/video haven.

Teaching the software couldn’t be easier then it is. With its audio feedback to indicate a successful acquiring of the signal, you basically just press the original remote’s button after pressing its corresponding button in NoviiRemote and that’s it. There are even templates for you so you don’t have to create the buttons from ground zero. Go through the entire exercise for all the buttons (or just the ones you really use) and presto, you’re remote is now on your Pocket PC. If you’re lazy (and let’s admit - most of us are) then you can always check out NoviiMedia’s forums to find other users codebases already available, like the one we post for Nikon’s DSLR’s remote. Oh, what about this Pioneer’s codebase? Ya, you can get it from MyPalmLife exclusively for the next two weeks and then we’ll have it up on NoviiMedia’s site to share the love. ;)

Customizing
Like the rest of the application, customization is pretty darned easy, too. You can choose a ton of colored 3-D buttons, a long list of icon images, and move them anywhere on the screen you want to. You can even create your own skins for the background of the remote itself if brushed metal isn’t your thing. If all your buttons don’t fit on one page, then create more and simply navigate to them by tapping on the tabs that represent that page. For example, a TV remote may have the volume, channel, and power buttons on one page and then the numeric on another and the menu on yet another. This keeps things nice and neat and easy to get to in a quick manner. The only thing I couldn’t do was move buttons from one page to another, which made the Pioneer setup a drag.

Features
Like most all remote control software applications out there, this baby also supports hard buttons. This is where you assign a button on your device to an event. For example, your volume up button on your smart phone can also act as the volume up for the remote. The Action key can be Enter and the calendar key PIP. Whatever you want it to be. :)

Hot Buttons are five soft buttons on the top of the application that let you quickly select a remote for a specific device. For example, you could have a DVR Hot Button that controls your TiVo. Then tap the DVD Hot Button to get to your Sony DVD player and Tuner to activate your Denon tuner.

NoviiRemote Deluxe also gives you the ability to have profiles for various rooms. This way you can have the Living Room profile for all your goodies there and a Kitchen profile for the shelf mounted TV and radio next to it. When hitting the club, use the Club profile. You get the idea. It’s all about order here with NoviiMedia.

Missing
A few things missing from NoviiRemote found on other remotes are things like macros. If you have a full out media room and want to turn on the TV, set its input to DVD, turn on the DVD player, and dim the lights, you’ll have to do it all one by one with your stylus. No one button activation to impress the neighbors here. You can, however, use the “Double mode” in the learning mode to create a button for changing the channel to a double-digit station, such as 19 for example, which could be like one-button change (if the TV doesn’t require the Enter button to be depressed.) But then you need the original remote (or two NoviiRemote’s) to make this happen. (I am told, however, by NoviiMedia that macros are coming in December.)

Another thing I noted was missing was something I came to love on my Nevo remote on my old iPAQ 3800 and that was “station access” with an associated logo. This kind of ties into the macro thing, too, since that’s what it is kind of doing. Basically, you create a button that will execute a series of commands, namely change a channel. Each remote would have its own button so if you had a JVC TV and a Sony TV, they could both have the same network and logo for the button, but obviously would be different in their innards. Without a doubt, this was one of my most beloved features of the Nevo that I have seen no other remote replicate. To be able to quickly identify ESPN’s logo and press that to bring up SportsCenter while at the club or FNC to watch Neil Cavuto on FoxNews was too cool. We all know that icons, or logos, are much easier for one to identify and since NoviiMedia has done such an awesome job with this concept everywhere else on this program, it surprises me this is lacking from it.

Conclusion
I always dread reading many reviews conclusions because they try to be all elegant and don’t just tell you what you want to read (remember, we’re all lazy and I know a lot of you skipped to here first!) without a symphony of verbiage. So in conclusion, should you buy this? Yes. Plain and simple, this is the remote software to have for the PocketPC. Why? ‘Cause it works and works well.

My major test for NoviiRemote Deluxe was my HP iPAQ 4705. Every other remote application I had put on it had failed and failed badly. I even used Griffin Technology’s Total Remote, which comes with its own IR port. That didn’t work, either. So when I installed NoviiRemote Deluxe on my VGA Pocket PC device, I expected nothing more than to have to uninstall it. You can imagine my immense surprise when my Sony TV turned off and then back on. Or when the channels changed or how even the Menu came up! Wow, this really was deluxe! Further, the VGA screen makes NoviiRemote really look even more impressive then it is on the usual run of the mill QVGA screens most have.

Again, with its ease of use, extensive codebase, and solid support for many different devices out there, this is a winner for any Pocket PC user ready to control every hardware item with an infrared port in the world. Think of the fun you can have at Best Buy now. :)

Pros

• Easy to use.


• Plethora of built-in remote codebases


• Looks good (great on VGA!)


• Very well organized user interface

Cons

• No macros (Coming in December)


• Can’t move buttons from one page to another


• No station logos/graphics for one-press button


• No car audio remote codebases

[tags]palm os,noviiremote,noviimedia,remote,wince[/tags]