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Posted by Thomas
McGuire on June 4, 2001
Company: Sigma Designs Product:
REALmagic Remote Control
Program
Setting up the software for the Remote was rather easy, run the Set Remote Control file & the following windows appears.
Just point the setup utility to where the DVD Station executable is located & select the COM Port which the Remote’s receiver is connected to & you’re all configured & ready to use the Remote. NOTE - The Remote Controls software is set to automatically load at startup of Windows so it may be used immediately, this can be easily changed & if you wan to use the Remote at any time simply execute the Remote Control shortcut.
When this program (rdvd.exe) was loaded (Needed for the Remote Control to operate) it used about 3MB of memory.
This shouldn’t be of too much concern to most, although for those on low memory systems (Less than 128MB) it would be a good idea to only load the Remote’s program when you actually intend to use the Remote Control, rather than have it automatically loading at startup & wasting RAM.
COM Port Testing
Given that the Infrared Receiver used by the Remote Control was connected to the PC via a COM Port I tried testing out how to unit worked at higher Port speeds. In Device Manager I tried increasing the Bit-rate from 9600 (Default) to 57600, then 115200.
Whether or not this can actually improve the responsiveness of the Remote is fairly questionable, although the placebo effect makes it all the more comforting. Personally I noticed no real difference in responsiveness over the Default port settings of Bits per second - 9600 & Flow Control -
None. Given the relatively small amount of data that need be transferred this isn’t too unexpected, although this may be of more use should you need to enter in a series of buttons in quick succession (Such as increasing/decreasing the volume level during DVD playback).
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