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Impressions Before Getting the T2:
When I first heard about RTI's Theater Touch T2 remote over at www.RemoteCentral.com, I was interested only mildly interested. I was very happy with my Pronto and did not think I could find a remote I would prefer to use. I liked the idea of hard buttons combined with a touch screen, so I did keep the T2 in the back of my mind. When I looked at the screen shots of the remote I envisioned it much smaller than it really is. I felt that it's biggest weakness from my point of view was the size of the touch screen and the lack of resolution. When I programmed the Pronto one of the biggest obsticals I ran into consistantly was that I could not fit all the buttons I wanted to use on one page. The Pronto did not scroll between pages quickly so I always tried to avoid the need. This lead to never having enough room and always feeling crampped for space, not to mention small buttons. I was also worried about the ergonomics of the T2. Judging from the screen shots it looks like an uncomfortable remote to hold and use. I worried it would be difficult to move from the hard buttons in the center to the touch screen. Those two concerns weighed heavily on my mind whenever I considered replacing my Pronto with a T2. I was really happy with my Pronto configuration with a single exception. I have a couple of TiVo personal video recorders from Philips. These deviced totally changed the way I watch TV and quickly became the most important component of my home theater. The problem is the TiVo requires the use of the navigation cursor often in every day use. This is difficult to deal with using a touch screen without physical buttons for up, down, left, and right. I never really found a solution to that that was totally acceptable. The T2 seemed perfectly suited to controling a TiVo thanks to the hard buttons dedicated to the navigation cursor. When my Pronto was damaged and had the back light stop working, I realized what a pain it was to need to look at the screen constantly. It was never really a problem for me before, but I was noticing it then. That was the straw that convinced me to order a T2 unit even though I was not able to try one out in a store first. Impressions After Receving the T2: You may have noticed I was a little luke warm towards the T2. I thought it had some real potential, but I was not confident it would measure up. I decided to get mine from www.etronix.com because they have a 14 day return policy and I figured if I did not like it I could return it. I am happy to report that I will be enjoying the T2 for a while to come and have no plans to return it. It has more than met my expectations, it has surpassed them in every area. When I thought about how limited the LCD display is I did not take into consideration the number of buttons that would not be needed because of the hard buttons. That combined with the fact that switching between pages is much less painfull than with the Pronto has removed that concern. I mentioned that I was worried about the ergonomics of the remote and that concern has been laid to rest as well. I am able to easily move from the center buttons to the LCD screen. I do have trouble getting at the number pad and the channel up and down buttons, but everything else is no sweat. I don't use the number pad that often, so that is no big deal. It is not THAT difficult to get at the channel up and down buttons, just less natural than hitting the other buttons. It is far better than I expected in this regaurd. The touch screen is a little on the small side, but it is much bigger than I expected. It allows for 6 buttons per page to be easily acessible. These buttons are much bigger than what I normally used on the Pronto which adds to the ease of use. The arrows to switch between pages is also much larger than with the Pronto, and that makes it less difficult to switch to another screen to access some of the lesser used buttons. The build quality of the unit is very high. It seems quite sturdy and like it could take a beating. It is my hope that never gets put to the test, but I realize it is inevitable. I do wish that I had thought to ask about repair policies prior to ordering the remote. :) I do not mention that because I am worried about the remote breaking, mostly because I know what a hassle some people have gone through to get thier Pronto's fixed. I was very impressed by the software that came with the remote, it seems quite stable and looks pretty easy to use. The manual is wirebound and is well put together. I actually skimmed through it and had enough information that getting started with the software was no problem. My only real disapointment was that the two battery packs it ships with did not come charged. It was torture to have this super cool remote sitting on my desk and having to wait 12 hours for the initial charge. I know that is kind of silly, but it did put a crimp in my plans to work on it the day I received it. Other than that my first impressions are that the remote is very cool and looks like it will more than handle my needs and make me very very happy. :) If you are interested you can check out my T2 Review, or for an even better review I suggest checking out www.RemoteCentral.com. Go back to the Main page. |