Figure 1: Top view of the TuneView remote.
From the side, the buttons do protrude slightly from the face. The bottom half of the remote is in black plastic, and as you can see in the example, with the batteries in place, the battery door doesn’t seem to fit quite right (Figure 2). This doesn’t cause any problems with the operation of the unit, but does lend itself to making the remote feel a little on the cheap side. Squeezing the remote brings on various creaks and pops from all over the place. In fact, I was able to start prying off the top of the unit with very little force at all. This would be a great feature if multiple faceplates were available, but sadly, they are not.
Figure 2: Remote from the side.
The base of the remote has a mini USB port to provide firmware upgrade capabilities (Figure 3). At the time of this review, there were no additional upgrades available from Keyspan.
Figure 3: Close up of the USB port.
Popping off the battery door, we find the slots for two AA batteries (Figure 4). After quite a bit of use, I still haven’t needed to replace the first set I put in. I would have liked to have seen a battery meter on the display of the remote, but at the time of this review, it had none. As mentioned before, but door itself just doesn’t seem to fit right when the batteries are in place. This could be the unit we received, however, and may not reflect to retail models.
Figure 4: The bottom of the remote.
CRADLE IT
In order to accommodate the various size and shapes of iPods on the market today, Keyspan also includes multiple adapters that fit snugly into the dock itself (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Multiple iPod plug adapters are included.
On the back of the dock itself, there is a Line Out, S-Video, and Sync/Power jack (Figure 6). No optical to be found. With the Sync/Power jack, one can use the dock to sync the iPod, but the TuneView remote doesn’t work at the same time.
Figure 6: Ports include Line Out, S-Video Out, and Sync/Power.
The jacks are a simple as one would expect. Simply plug in the power, plug in the audio, attach the audio to your amplifier (or other stereo with an aux input), and dock the iPod (Figure 7).
Figure 7: The TuneView, plugged in for use with a Nano.
Simple and black, with only the Keyspan and TuneView Dock logos, the dock looks great next to any system. The low profile also makes placing it out in the open a more appealing option (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Front of the cradle with the iPod docked.
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The only distraction is the green light, which blinks every time it receives a signal from the remote (Figure 9). And speaking of signal, this is where the TuneView really shines. Since it is using RF rather than IR, the remote works not only from long distances but also through walls. No line of sight issues to be had here. As long as you stay in TuneView mode, the only thing the iPod shows is the TuneView "OK to disconnect" (Figure 10). A nice feature as you don’t need to power off the dock so you can take your iPod with you. The iPod will turn off the display (as set within your unit), and the dock does provide charging power to the iPod. Switch over to iPod mode, and the display and controls work as an iPod normally would. The setup menu allows you to specify the language, and turn Shuffle and/or Repeat on/off (Figure 13). Pressing the Wizard button (looks a bit like a crown with a slash underneath) brings up a contextual menu from which you can mute the iPod, change the Mode, Sleep the remote, and navigate to the Start, Middle, or End of the screen you were just looking at (Figure 14). This is important as there is no scroll wheel to quickly move through, say, a list of artists. And if you want to get from Adam Ant to The Police, you are going to be clicking the down arrow quite a bit without the Wizard button. iPod volume can be controlled from the TuneView, but there isn’t currently an option to control one’s stereo. In my case, this means I have to turn up the stereo manually before adjusting the iPod volume (Figure 15). Playing a song is as simple as it seems, just select the track (or just press play to shuffle), and the titles appear on the remote almost like they would on the iPod (Figure 13). Press Pause, and the icon changes accordingly. Switch tracks, and the song display changes. A great idea, but one that could use some sort of scroll capability to help navigation. CONS To see more…here’s a video that shows the functionality of the device:
Figure 9: The green indicator light shows when the unit is receiving signal.
Figure 10: Default view when in TuneView mode. The screen on my iPod has seen a bit of abuse *grin*.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
First launch of the TuneView shows off the Firmware on the 1.4 inch CST (color super-twist nematic) screen (Figure 11). Assuming the iPod is connected, the unit will move on from here to the very familiar main iPod menu (Figure 12). The display is bright and easy to read, with very little flicker when moving through large lists.
Figure 11: Firmware display.
Figure 12: The familiar looking iPod menu.
Figure 13: The TuneView setup menu.
Figure 14: The Wizard menu.
Figure 15: iPod volume can be controlled via the remote.
Figure 13: The somewhat familiar playing view.
PURCHASING
You can purchase Keyspan’s TuneView (TVI-200C) here for $179 USD.
PROS
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
For the music classroom setting alone, the TuneView receives high marks. It is a great concept that will make, at least for my wife, life even easier. In the home setting, the fit is still grand. If only the remote felt a little more sturdy, and lacked the buzzing noise. Or, and more importantly, if the TuneView had the capability to also control the volume of your respective head unit. But perhaps this could be upgraded via firmware in the near future. A scroll capability would also be a very helpful addition. Overall we give Keyspan’s TuneView (TVI-200C) the following score:
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