Actually a PC was the perfect device for a home entertainment system. It has everything what is needed for playing movies, presenting photos or for listening to music. Also there is usually more than enough memory space to store a lot of movie files and other multimedia files on the harddisk. The TV output of modern graphics cards offers the possibility to enjoy these things on the big television in the living room. Nevertheless one thing is missing what we are used to have when operating a standalone DVD player, CD player or VCRs: the pleasent and easy way to control these devices.

That is where the Palmbutler comes into play. It is designed to transform the PC into the ultimate entertainment machine by making its operation very comfortable and easy. Someone or other might think about a standard PC remote control now, what can be found on the market sometimes. But the PalmButler concept goes much farther, because it doesn´t provide the hardware only but, and that´s at least as important, it comes with a very ingenious software. This provides a complete new user interface resp. surface, all applications like movie playback or foto presentation run on this surface. It´s not necessary to mention that this surface is adapted to the TV screen perfectly. So the user looses the impression quickly to control a computer, in contrast you get the feeling of controling a new type of electronic entertainment device.

To get a first impression of the PalmButler system, here are some snapshots (please click it to enlarge):

	The remote control is the central of the system. It´s a radio remote control, that means it has a wide range and there is no direct connection to the receiver required.
	The linkbox is the interface to the PC. Also this is the place where the receiver is connected to. It contains a high frequency modulator, which enables the user to connect the TV signal from the PC easily to any TV or VCR. You can even attach it to a cable system to feed all TVs and radios within a house.
	On the TV screen the system is presented with an attractive user interface, which allows the comfortable selection of all entertainment options.
	For example the playback of DVDs or DivX movies...
	the presentation of holiday photos...
	or the selection of your favorite MP3s, playlists and collections.

These are not the limits of the system. A more detailed descriptions follows in the third part of the review. Now we will have a closer look on the parts of the PalmButler package.

Let´s go on.