ATI Remote Wonder -- It's a Wonder When It Works!

(At the bottom of this post is a quick note about Hydravision)

When you buy your ATI All-In-Wonder Card they advertise a free remote to use with it -- you'll find that it's "free" plus a $20 shipping fee. When I tried to order it, it was not available for 2 months. Once the wait was over, it arrived in a cute little box. What's in the box? A remote and a USB receiver.

ATI Remote (left) and receiver (below).










The remote has the ability to run all the ATI Multimedia programs and can be used as a mouse to hunt around Windows (the big blue circular button). However, actually using it for these functions is more difficult than it sounds. Frequently, the remote software (Remote Wonder) will crash for no reason, even when its not in use. I am so familiar with this error message that we are best friends now:
Unfortunately, figuring out how to decrease the frequency of this problem is not obvious (at least to me). When it does crash, there is a shortcut in the Programs folder called "Restart ATI Runtime", this will often reinitialize the remote so you can try again (and again... and again...).

The ATI All-in-Wonder card comes with software to use the remote, called "Remote Wonder".



In the Programs Tab you can set up the remote's shortcut buttons (A-F), and each can do different things depending on the active program (Windows, TV, DVD player, etc.) Ok, this is handy (if the remote is working). Frequently, however, pressing an unassigned button will cause the Remote Wonder program to crash.














The Plug-Ins Tab (shown below) allows you to view the preprogramed buttons for several features (GuidePlus, the Multimedia Library, MS Powerpoint, and Winamp). It appears that these buttons cannot be reassigned.

The Mouse Tab allows you to change the how the mousing with the remote functions (if it works). In theory, using the remote as a mouse allows you to navigate around your desktop while viewing the screen on a TV (someplace far from your usual mouse and keyboard). However, the frequent crashing of Remote Wonder negates this benefit.






The Options Tab contains controls for 3 features: the remote's Power button, the remote's ID (can be used if you have interference problems from other devices), and 3 buttons (TV, TV2, and FM), as well as options to display icon for the Remote Wonder in the task bar and to load Remote Wonder on startup. The image on the left shows how to step-by-step program an ID for the remote.

The final tab is called Laser Pointer and contains controls for some sort of lasing function. However, this remote does not have a laser, and there is nothing about how to use the "laser pointer" in the help guide.


EASYLOOK: not so easy.

EasyLook is the "happy land" that takes over your computer when you play a recorded file, video, or DVD using the remote. No, there aren't any dancing elves, but what it will do is display your file full-screen without any controls (meaning you no longer have the option to use a real mouse) and it will send the same view out to a TV. Why it sucks? If the remote fails while in "happy land" you have to press ESC (default) on the keyboard then reinitialize the remote (and possibly restart the computer in the worst-case scenario). You can use the remote to adjust the volume of the playback, as well as all the other usual features while in EasyLook. Why this sucks? Because when the remote fails or you exit "happy land" (by pressing ESC) with the volume turned down or muted, you will no longer have any sound on any ATI Multimedia programs until you remember to renter EasyLook and unmute the sound or turn it up using the remote. Why this reallllly sucks, if the remote crashes after you've adjusted the sound, you may have to restart your computer before you can get back into EasyLook and turn the sound back up.

The Bottom Line:
How to tweak the remote so that it actually works? I don't know, nothing yet has stopped the constant crashing of the Remote Wonder program. There is an update to a newer version of Remote Wonder on the ATI website (I'll let you know if this helps in a future post).

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A quick note about Hydravision:
It's not a remote function, so what is it? And why would you want to install it even though the install wizard doesn't specify why you would want it or what it does?

Hydravision is a program that allows you to extend your desktop onto 2 monitors. So, install it if you think you might ever want to use this function.

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Previous Posts: ATI All-in-Wonder Out of Box Review (includes review of Catalyst drivers), ATI Multimedia Center Out of Box Review, and ATI: TV Leftovers (includes note on some weird icons and how to disable TV-On-Demand).

Tags: Remote Wonder, ATI All-In-Wonder, ATI Remote, ATI Hydravision, ATI Multimedia Center