It’s great to finally have the product shipping, and you know it’s hit the real world when you see the first review. Mike Garcen over at MissingRemote.com was quick out of the blocks and got his hands on the first of the first of a kind Amulet Voice Remote Control. He seemed pretty happy with the performance and quality, but that’s perhaps to be expected for a keen user. Still it’s great to get feedback and see someone enjoying a new way of interacting with their Media Center. I’d like to comment on a few of the points he made during his review.
He’s not using the voice feedback. We had a lot of discussion internally on this feature, before it shipped! Some people will love it, some won’t, that’s why you can turn it off or on in the settings. If you don’t like the sound of the default voice, then you can install any standard SAPI voice for Windows and pick it from the list. The software ships with a high quality voice at the moment. That’s why it was such an issue, but we felt it important not to skimp in this area. See our FAQ section about Amulet’s Voice.
There can be a delay on startup, before Amulet is completely ready to accept commands. This is because it is loading in grammars, and due to Media Center’s handling of plugins. We are checking our systems to see if we can reduce this any further.
Channel Names! A lot of older US channel names are a bit awkward. You can always use the channel number if the name is really awkward.
A key point that Mike got, which I was happy about, is that we aren’t attempting to completely replace the remote control. There are times when it’s easier to hit one button and have the volume go up a step, and there are times when saying “skip to 40 minutes” is way easier. You could do all the buttons via voice, but we’re not going to force you to do that.
