Palm Discovery wishes to give a BIG THANKS to Vladimir and Natalie of Novii Media for providing the product for this review.

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Pics of Novii Blaster

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

One of the popular complaints about the Treo 650 (now, don’t get me started… ) is its extremely weak infrared beaming capabilities. Those of us who attempted to “beam” an address book entry or other files from a Treo 650 to any other Palm device will notice that it’s very weak. And those of us who have tried using a program like Novii Media’s NoviiRemote on a different Palm or PDA device will notice that the program won’t work on a Treo 650. But don’t be mistaken. It’s not the fault of the program. As you will find out, if you stand about a foot (or less) away from your TV and use it, it will work. Instead, the problem lies in the extremely weak infrared signal beaming of the Treo 650. If the Treo 650 doesn’t have enough power to beam the infrared signals over 3 feet or further, it’s not surprising that the beaming capabilities will be very limited and thus why NoviiRemote won’t work properly on a Treo 650. But fret not! There is a solution!

Novii Media, makers of the award winning Novii Remote Universal Remote software program that enables your handheld device like a Palm or PDA to replace all the infrared remote controls in your home, has come with a solution. To strengthen the infrared signals, they have created NoviiBlaster, an infrared extender that fits into the SD slot of your Palm or Treo, using the power SD card slot to beam the infrared signals from this extender. So, with a higher powered extender, the signals can carry a lot further, reaching your TV or DVD player, when it was able to before with the Treo’s infrared port. This can solve that dreaded problem that most Treo 650 users face with a weak infrared signal. Now, with Novii Blaster, we can reclaim control over our entertainment center again.

The package comes with a users guide, a installation CD, the Novii Blaster SD card, the Novii Blaster base (for holding the SD card when not in use), 90 day warranty card. The installation was very straightforward and easy. Here are some screenshots of the installation menus and screens.

Click on the thumbnail images to view a bigger picture

Once you’ve gone through the Windows installation, you simply need to perform a hotsync to install the Palm program onto the Palm or Treo device.

You will need to set up the Novii Blaster with the correct infrared codes for your TV, CD, DVD player, cable box, etc.

Here’s a Flash simulation/demonstration of the menus in the Novii Blaster program

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the or button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the or button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.

To scroll forward or backward in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

Alternative Flash link: Photobucket

Video of Novii Blaster

Novii Blaster Part 1 at UndoTV

Alternative links: YouTube, Vimeo

Novii Blaster Part 2 at UndoTV

Alternative links: YouTube, Vimeo

OVERVIEW

Blaster SD Card
Blaster Base*
4-Color User Guide
CD-ROM Warranty Card

The Novii Blaster program is very much like the Novii Remote program. You can set different skins, set up profiles for each room (eg. livingroom controls all devices in the livingroom), custom the codebases and button layout and a lot of what you are familiar with in Novii Remote is available (exception of infrared code learning) in the Novii Blaster program.

Here are my observations with regards to NoviiBlaster.

This is a very innovative product that will extend the normally weak infrared capabilities of the Treo 650 device. For those of us who enjoy being able to use our Palm or Treos as a universal remote, this may be the solution! It does work very well and I was able to control the cable box and TV with the Novii Blaster at least 10 feet away when it was not possible with the Treo, standing even a feet away. So, it is great that we can now control our TV, DVD, CD player, cable box, etc with our Palm or Treo.

Now, enough praises about the product. One important note that I must stress is the fact that Novii Blaster has a fixed set of infrared codes embedded in the Blaster. There is no import or learning capabilities in the Novii Blaster. By that, I mean that you are limited by the infrared database codes that the Novii Blaster comes with. Unlike Novii Remote Classic or Deluxe programs, where you can beam the infrared codes to your Novii Remote program so that you can use it, Novii Blaster does not have that capability. Novii Blaster can’t “learn” or “mimic” the infrared code of your original remote console so if there is no code that will work on your TV, then you are out of luck. Also, there is no “import” capability either. The Novii Blaster program and Novii Remote programs are very different software programs and are not compatible. So, the infrared database you have for Novii Remote won’t work on Novii Blaster. They are completely different. I have tried to do some manipulation but it resets the Treo and doesn’t work. So, with Novii Blaster you have a fixed number of infrared codes. Most popular brands will offer a decent number of codes to choose from so the chance of finding one that works are pretty good. But, with me, I have found that I wasn’t able to find a working infrared code that will work on either of my Citizen TVs (they both use a similar infrared code). I was able, however, to use Novii Blaster to control an older Magnavox TV. You may have a better chance of being able to control something that you didn’t buy in the past year or so since I believe the problem is that newer products will likely have a different infrared code. It is virtually impossible to have all the available infrared codes for everything out there in this world.

Personally, here are my thoughts and suggestions on Novii Blaster. I love how Novii Blaster can extend the infrared capabilities of the Treo 650. I would however, prefer that Novii Blaster be able to “learn” infrared codes, similar to what Novii Remote can do. Another alternative would be to allow the Novii Remote program’s infrared database to be compatible with Novii Blaster software so that at least I can “import” the codes over and still be able to use Novii Blaster. And lastly, it would be very helpful to be able to have a good idea of whether the infrared codes of Novii Blaster will work with my home media components, rather than discovering them myself after making the purchase. This would most likely involve a lot of testing on what infrared codes will work on which series of brands of components. I guess one way is to at least try the supplied infrared codes that Novii Media supplies and try out the Novii Remote program first to see if they work. But that would only work for those who own another Palm or PDA device, which may not apply to many of us. But, I’m quite sure that Novii Media will accept returns if you find that you are unable to use it on your home media components. You may want to contact Novii Media for confirmation before making the purchase.

Overall, this is a great solution for most Treo 650 owners who wish to reclaim our control over the entertainment center. The accessory works as claimed. I am able to easily control the TV, cable box, DVD player from far away. I would have preferred if this accessory offered the “learning” capabilities of Novii Remote or at least the ability to import databases from Novii Remote but it does come with a good selection of infrared codes. Keep in mind that if the majority of media components in your house isn’t at least a few years old that Novii Blaster may not have the codes to control them. Novii Blaster was released in 2005 so you may want to keep that in mind. If your home media components are supported, this may be exactly what you need to reclaim control over your entertainment center. Again, this can be a great device if your home media components are supported but due to the limited database of infrared codes, your mileage may vary.

Again, I’d like to thank Vladimir and Natalie of Novii Media for providing the product for this review.

If you own other Palm devices, you may be interested in checking out the other Novii products that are offered:

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for the following Novii products below (I am not an affiliate for the Novii Blaster). Purchases made from these links will help keep Palm Discovery running. Thanks for your support!

Novii Remote Classic

(Esellerate) (Handango)

Novii Remote Deluxe

(Handango)

Novii Remote Classic B&W

(Esellerate)

Novii Remote Mac

(Esellerate)

and something unrelated to TV remotes:

Novii Animator

(Handango)

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