Digital Trends

Logitech diNovo Media Desktop

July 29th, 2004 | by Brandon King

Usage and Testing

The DiNovo is the first piece of Logitech hardware we have tested that ships with the Logitech Media Center. The keyboard and numeric pad have a "Media" button that launches the application in full-screen. The numeric pad can be used as a remote by switching to NAV mode. Logitech's Media Center is not by any means a complete media solution, but is a surprisingly good first step.

The main screen allows quick access to the user's pictures, music, and videos, as well as options. The media database is not updated automatically, so the user has to rescan their media directories if they add content regularly.

The MediaPad inlcudes an LCD to display information on the media you are playing.

We experienced some issues with ID3v1 tags getting preference over ID3v2 tags for some MP3 files, which may be an annoyance to some. Notably lacking in this full-screen music application are visualizations and a minimizable interface. We also found that most of the keys on the media pad were functionally duplicated - the right arrow does the same thing as the next track button, which does the same thing as the forward button. There are several media players that are supported by the MediaPad but none of them that we tested could be controlled solely by it - all required some use of the mouse. Also, the LMD has no discernible way to scan in either MP3s or videos, or the ability to make playlists. However it does support playback of playlists, and music by genre, artists, album, etc. One cool little feature is the MediaPad's LCD, which displays the track progress and title.

The diNovo has the overall best range out of the box that we've seen so far. We were able to walk 20 feet from the receiver with no dropped keys. We did not have to adjust an antenna, which was an issue with the Gyration products, and experienced no significant wireless interference. The tests were done in a multiunit building in downtown Chicago, with up to eight sources of possible interference within 30 feet of the receiver. Possible sources of interference included an 802.11b/a/g base station, 5.8GHz cordless phones, cell phones, an ATI Remote Wonder, a microwave, plus whatever was in the other surrounding units. We noted no interference between the Logitech diNovo, MX Duo, and wireless gaming controllers (PC, Xbox and PS2). This is to be expected, since the diNovo uses Bluetooth, and not 2.4GHz transmission.

As we noted in our Bluetooth Desktop review, Logitech's Bluetooth wireless hub can be used as a central connection point for all of your Bluetooth-enabled devices such as phones, PDAs and headsets. It should be noted though that there are documented incompatibilities between Microsoft and Logitech Bluetooth devices. Also, because of bandwidth limitations, Logitech has recommended not using their Bluetooth headset at the same time as the keyboard. Some symbols that require the alt key are not accessible (such as some Spanish punctuation).

These minor limitations aside, overall we found the reliability very high, experiencing only a few dropped connections over several months of testing at 15 feet away. No noticeable lag was experienced when playing several first person shooter games, placing performance on par with former wireless king, the MX Duo. There is no official Mac support, but postings on other sites have indicated that the diNovo will work, but without the custom software provided to Windows users. If you happen to have any experience with this, please post about it here in our forums.