2. The System

Taking the above requirements into consideration, I put together the rig described in Table 1 to test BTV.

An Asus Vento 3600 case as shown in Figure 1 housed the components.

Figure 1: The BTV test system

Firefly Remote

I used the Snapstream Firefly R1000 remote for this review (Figure 2). The Firefly is an RF (radio frequency) remote control that comes with a USB receiver and some basic versions of Snapstream's BTV and Beyond Media software. It has a very respectable 30-ft. range and is not limited to line-of-sight since it uses a radio signal instead of infrared to function.

The Firefly works with many programs and automatically applies different control profiles depending on the window that is activated. It has a comfortable grip and seems sturdy enough to withstand the shock of a minor drop. The Firefly's directional pad also gives the device some limited mouse capabilities. You won't win any races with it, and it would be frustrating to use as the HTPC's only pointer, but in a pinch it works well enough to keep you from having to go looking for a standard mouse.

Its shape and function remind me of the first ATI remote Wonder, which I have used for other projects. Fortunately, the Firefly remote did not need any special configuration since it is made by Snapstream and is compatible with BTV right out of the box.

Figure 2: The Firefly R1000 RF remote