CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[planetcadillac]

I am thinking about getting a Palm (PDA) unit for the primary intention to use it as a universal remote for various devices around the house. I have an RCA ProLogic 27" TV, a home theatre unit with built in surround sound, DVD player, and MP3 player, and of course a SKT400 CED player among other things. I was just going to grab one off eBay for cheap money. No reason to spend $200 for the latest at Best Buy when a $20 Palm VIIx should do just find. Anyone have any recommendations? The Palm III, IV, and VII are b&w while the Palm Tungsten, M, and Zire models come with color screens. Getting used to the Palm is not going to be a problem, however I would like some insight as to whether its better to go with one or the other. I assume all the Palm models from III on up can serve as universal remotes.

[cedmagic]

I presently have a Handspring Visor Prism and Palm m505 with the OmniRemote software installed. The Prism is the one pictured on the CED Magic pages, and normally wouldn't make a good remote as the IR transceiver is on the side rather than on top. But it also has the OmniRemote Springboard module in the expansion slot, which provides an IR diode at the top as well as X-10 capabilities:

http://www.pacificneotek.com/omnisbplus.htm

The Palm m505 has the most powerful IR transceiver, but it still is a bit expensive on eBay. You can use any Palm with built-in IR although the original Palm III is a bit weak. If you get one of the OmniRemote modules even the earlier Palm models can be used. Check out this page for the remote control ranges of various Palm models:

http://www.pacificneotek.com/range.htm

--Tom

[dejavideodiscfan]

I picked up a Handsping Visor over the weekend at a yard sale for $20. I'm not sure of the exact model. it might be the Deluxe as it appears to have 8MB of storage, runs on AAA batteries, and is graphite (black) color. I might be wrong about the 8MB figure as the Apps Info screen actually says 7936K, which divided by 1024K comes out to 7.75MB.

On saturday night (7/10/04) I installed OmniRemote Version 1.171 from the Pacific NeoTek website. What I've found interesting is when I installed it the Registration screen said I had 15 days remaining. It's now four days later (7/14) and the Registration screen says "This program is unregistered. You have 14 days remaining." I was expecting to see 11 or 10 days remaining by now not 14.

Is this a bug and by some chance of luck I never have to register omniremote or did the company decide that with the pro version now available they would just give free use of the older 1.171 software for people with older obselete palms who didn't require the newer version as their hardware doesn't support a lot of it's new features? I'm assuming my non-registration theory is true because the version 1.171 software also comes installed in the omniremote springboard module for the visors and doesn't require registration.