6. Remote Control

The operating system is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. We won't go back over ground we've already covered; you can take a look at our various articles . It's obviously the best choice, since Media Center 2005 really lets you control playback of all the different content types comfortably with the remote control. And the HP-designed remote is a model of ergonomics. We should also mention that the infrared sensors for the keyboard and remote control have finally been placed on the front panel of the unit.

Keyboard

The PC side of the DEC is controlled with a small keyboard made by HP, equipped with a little trackball to one side. This brings us to the subject of traditional PC activities you might want to engage in on the DEC. You get used to the trackball pretty quickly, but the preciseness and speed of cursor movement are not what you'd call fantastic. And the small "lap-sized" keyboard is not easy to work with from a sofa. Microsoft plans to launch a Media Center keyboard soon that promises to be of interest - we'll be testing it for you (of course!)

Given the ergonomics and the distance from the display, it's reasonable to say that PC activities on the DEC will be limited to organizational tasks and browsing the Web. For classifying, burning, or previewing files, it's fine. But office applications, photo retouching, and video editing will be better done on another PC.

For simple page viewing on the Web, you quickly get used to navigating with the trackball. And if you have a fairly large HD TV monitor or projector, browsing the Web is really enjoyable. You can write e-mails that aren't too long, or chat with Messenger.