Over the past week I’ve been poking round the superficial edges of the ASUS O!Play BDS-700 media player to see what it’s made of. In my last post I talked about the quality of the DVDs that I played in it and the issues I’d had with installation. Today it’s all about the remote control.
We have actually had a few comments asking about the remote control included with the BDS-700 media player. What’s it like? How does it weigh in the hand? Is it excessively fiddly?
I mentioned in the unboxing that the ASUS O!Play BDS-700 gave you the batteries included in the box. It’s a nice touch. There are few things as frustrating as opening a new toy and then having to hike to the shops in order to get it working.
The second thing I noticed was the weight. This remote control is really, really light. I have three other remotes in the lounge – the TV, the cable, and the Xbox controller – and they feel like they need a serious diet in comparison to this baby. I love the weight of the remote for the BDS-700. It almost feels like a toy remote, that there is nothing inside it!
At the front of the remote control is a plethora of buttons which, at first glance, seem a bit overwhelming. Almost every inch of remote real estate has been given a button to press. However, it isn’t confusing. It’s clear where your power switch is, what buttons make the DVD go, and how to access the DVD menu when watching.
Other buttons included are PIP (Picture in Picture display, Resolution which changes the resolution at any time, Angle which will let you control the viewing angle of the movie (if supported by the disc), and Music Mode which will activate the equaliser menu if you are listening to audio CDs or music files.
Oh, and the equaliser menu will also let you preset music genres to match your music tastes and is quite customisable overall.
These are really a fraction of the buttons that you can play around with on the ASUS O!Play BDS-700’s remote control. The instruction manual also provides you with very clear instructions on how to use the various features and get the most out of the O!Play.
The remote also turns itself off after a period of time to conserve the batteries, which I like, and you can tell it’s on by the orange backlight when active. The only negative point is that sometimes it doesn’t react to your commands as quickly as I would like. If it is in standby, your first tap will activate the remote and only your second will deliver the required action. Still, as a choice between a slight delay or forking out a fortune in batteries, I choose the delay.
As for distances, well, I have used this with two doorways between me and the O!Play and have had moderate success. It has worked on and off and, honestly, that is pretty impressive.
Overall, I have to say that I found the ASUS O!Play BDS-700 remote control to be light, easy to use, gentle on battery drain and feature rich. It’s a good accessory for this, so far, very versatile media player.