I am very much into trying things and played a lot with LIRC and different remotes. There was only one big problem, most HTPC and TV card remotes focus on TV watching. You can notice that because you can press the number-pad and channel +/- easily. With XBMC you almost never use those keys, you want the media control buttons which are placed at the bottom. You have to hold those remotes with two hands before you can comfortably reach those buttons. Big plus for Motorola to put those buttons on top!

Another great features is of course the keyboard for those moments you need to search YouTube or put in a password for your plug-ins.

Also this is the first remote i've seen that has an intuitive way of making it work with your TV. No more typing in 4 digit codes and trying which one matches your TV best, no more mapped buttons you never use and no more endless typing in the same sequence of keys to map another button. Just activate the "learn"-mode, press the button on your old remote, press your button on the NYXboard and it's set-up within 2 minutes.

First I was skeptic about paying quite a sum of money for something like a remote, but it's really worth it.
It gives you a lot of comfort and saves you so much frustration so that your "appetite" for enjoying your media doesn't get spoiled just by using three remotes or missing that special function. Highly recommended!

From: Djuri | Created on: 8/20/2012 7:27 PM

First of all I would like to thank Pulse Eight for their great service and super fast delivery. I orderd my remote on a thursday and received it 2 days later at saturday.

I'm totally loving the remote it has a great feel and build. The remote worked straight out of the box with windows 7. The two minor cons are the following:
- When the remote lays on the couch and somebody on the couch moves, sometimes the keyboard is activated and a search box appears in xbmc.
- When you want to move the mouse cursor you have to hold the FN key and use the directional keys to move it. It would have been better if you didn't had to hold the FN key

Overall it's an excellent remote wich pushes the XBMC experience to the max!

Thanks Pulse Eight!

From: Jordi | Created on: 5/14/2012 9:52 AM

First I would like to talk about Pulse Eights awesome customer service. I had a mishap with a typo in my address and ended up having my remote get lost for awhile. I emailed them about the issue a few weeks after it was shipped and I recieved very fast and helpful info from Martin. He made his best effort to assist me and let me know what my options were and suggest some courses of action. After a few weeks struggling with my local Post Office I finally received the remote.

I am more than  happy with the remote. It has performed as advertised and was almost too easy to setup.

I do have to agree with some others on some of the remotes lacking features. An illuminated surface would be awesome. An 'Esc' key on the keyboard side would also be nice.

Otherwise I can't say enough good things about this remote.

From: Kris | Created on: 4/22/2012 4:35 AM

Good remote, I own it and use it daily.
** PROS:
- Working on XBMC out of the box.
- Combines both RF and IR.
- Great RF range.
- Nice build quality.


** CONS:
- No buttons backlight (this is the most important missing feature, especially when operating the remote in thee dark!!).
- Too sensitive tilt sensor with no way to manually disable it and manually choose the side of the remote
- IR Range too short
- Mouse controls are not as good as say the Rii Mini mousepad.
- Missing CTRL & ALT buttons on the keyboard

Fixing all the cons above would make it a perfect remote!

From: AMIKAM | Created on: 4/11/2012 6:35 PM

I was excited the first time I heard about this remote and the functionality it could bring to XBMC. A lot of time has passed since then, along with some issues that were experienced with early builds.

I have just received my Nyxboard and extremely pleased! The build quality is great and it works perfectly. No range issues, and all buttons work with a solid, satisfying feeling. After some messing around I have mapped the power button in Openelec to work how I want, and disabled the "flip" functionality opening up search.

Overall, this is a fantastic remote and highly recommended if you are an Openelec or XBMC user.

From: Nathan | Created on: 4/5/2012 1:44 AM

Although I had issues with my first remote from the first batch, Pulse-Eight was great about replacing the remote as soon as the revision was available.

I have the updated version and it works fantastic! The minor issues I had with the first remote are gone, and I am truly enjoying this remote. It learned IR codes for my TV on the first try, and I've been able to map all the keys for MediaPortal and iTunes seamlessly.

Although designed for XBMC, this works great for any HTPC!

From: Ralph | Created on: 3/26/2012 10:27 PM

Received the Nyxboard 3 days ago.  Plugged it in, and gave it a spin.  Behaviour was quite strange, remote wouldn't respond sometimes, then would give 10 key presses where I had made only 1, etc.  Range was quite minimal at about 2 metres.

So, I mailed the Pulse Eight guys and received very quick response suggesting a few things to try.  After going through all the steps but one with no success, I tried their final suggestion, that being to try the USB receiver on a USB hub.  This final step solved the problem, and seems to relate to possible problems with the PSU (mine is 7 years old so I can believe that it is failing).

Now that it was working, I put it through it's paces, no problems at all now, everything worked smoothly, I didn't read the guide about the button positions, but they all seemed quite logical and well spaced out, very intuitive.

The remote itself is smaller and lighter than you would expect, there is a very nice tactile feel with the backing around the keyboard.  The keyboard is small, but the buttons are easy to work with, and make, e.g., youtube search very easy compared to the on screen keyboard options.

My HTPC is in a different room to where I use XBMC.  From where I sit, the distance is about 7m -8m from the USB receiver, and there's a thick brick and concrete wall separating the rooms.  No problems at all for the Nyxboard.

I would like to highlight, that the support to resolve my issue was excellent, very fast response, and very good troubleshooting steps.  Also, clearly, the problems I had were not about the remote, but with my own setup.

I highly recommend this remote for any XBMC user, it's just plug and play.

XBMC FTW!

From: Colin | Created on: 3/23/2012 8:25 AM

Just got my nyxboard today.

And I have to say; I LOVE IT! :D

Previously used a MCE remote, This is night and day.
Super responsive. Great range. the built in XBMC support is awesome!
Fast shipping from UK to Canada. :)
Amazing customer support.

Thank you pulse eight and Malard! and all of Team XBMC for the amazingness that is XBMC :D (been using it since i put my smartxx chip in my original xbox (almost 10 years ago!))

From: Dan | Created on: 3/23/2012 3:39 AM

Just got my Nyxboard, this is the one from the 2nd batch (got it on early pre-order).
So far I am loving it !
The build is O.K., plastic made with nice quality, nothing fancy, buttons are comfort, firm and give good feedback.

It is smaller than it looks in the pictures, but that is a plus to me, compared to the RM200 remote, it is just as thick but much shorter.

Performance:
- The RF here kicks ass ! simply put, there is no lag at all, 0, nada (I am sick of IR lag so I am very sensitive to this).
- Range is superb, this works from 5m like nothing and will probably work from even a greater distance.

The IR:
At the beginning, I thought something was wrong as I could not see any IR transmitter on the remote.
But, I went on and programmed the Nyxboard (according to the detailed instructions) to do ON/OFF and Volume Up/Dn for my Amplifier and it works great, even better than the original remote.

The layout of the keys for the XBMC remote is nicely done, all the important and critical functionality keys for XBMC are located around the circle, thus making the use very easy.

The Keyboard:
It is cool, very small yet responsive, I tried crazy typing (just gibberish stuff) and it never lost any key.
The mouse functionality is very nice, accurate, constant and accelerates progressively which makes sense and easier to work with.

Functionality wise, there are some keys (like OK and Back) that will let you use XBMC on the keyboard side without flipping the remote, I find it very well thought.

It also put's the computer to sleep and wakes it out of the box, no additional configurations needed.

Overall, I am more than satisfied and compared to my RM200 remote, the Nyxboard puts it to shame (or should I say to the trash can).
It was well worth the wait and price, highly recommended.

From: Omer | Created on: 3/19/2012 3:18 PM

This has been my first purchase with Pulse Eight, unfortunately i've had to return it since i've preorder it and there were some issues due to Motorola first shipments of this remote.
First of all, this remote is quite unique: some may love, some may not, but indeed the quality is very high and it worked wonderfully with XBMC. No setup at all, simply plug in and enjoy. A bit bad for the lack of backlit, but backlit isn't so important for everyone.
A recommended remote, surely over more expensive Harmony for the features that it delivers!

From: Matteo | Created on: 1/13/2012 4:13 PM

just got my new nyxboard back ,as the first one had a few faults, I must say this one is perfect, can't find any faults at all. At this moment and I would like to say that the support team at pulse soon replaced my nyxboard. great

From: | Created on: 10/19/2011 10:15 PM

I love how this remote can control my computer and my Speakers/TV. This remote in my opinion is designed perfectly, the buttons feel good and don't need to be lit because of their good position.
What isn't perfect is the build quality. I noticed a few bugs that others have noticed as well.
*A harder to press left arrow
*Bad range in RF mode (I fixed this by getting my dongle in line of sight)
*The battery contacts could be made better as they don't always contact the + side of the battery.

All in all I was expecting a near perfect remote and I got one. The bugs a did find in it are redeemable because of this remotes dual modes and Pulse Eight's excellent customer support.

From: | Created on: 10/19/2011 2:31 AM

Is actually quite nice to old and not as chunky as it looks in pictures.

The remote itself is perfect as long as you don't want to use it more than 2m from your PC as it seems to have a range issue. I should note Pulse Eight are stating they are seeking a fix for this.

The directional Pad works OK as a mouse when needed but is not as easy to use or as responsive as a true touchpad like I was used too on my Rii keyboard....basically I was hopeing for a Rii on the back of a remote.

Once the range issues are sorted I am still hopeful this remote can replace my three current devices (TV remote, MCE Remote, and Rii Keyboard). But as I have learned since ordering in April, the flow of information and fixes to issues can be a long journey indeed......though the one update you can count on is the "not our fault, it's Motorola!".......

Basically, the remote has potential,,I'm just yet to see it reach that potential

From: | Created on: 10/15/2011 10:43 PM

So having pre-ordered back in April, my Motorola Nyxboard Hybrid finally arrived yesterday. I intend to dig into custom configuration in the coming days, but here are some first impressions.

Installation was trivial; it ships with one of those tiny usb dongles that practically disappear when you plug them in. I jammed that into the Zotac mini-pc I have running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and XBMC Dharma, slapped the included 2x AAAs into the remote and it worked immediately. Buttons are "clicky" which I like, and the pad beside the keyboard worked right away to control the mouse while holding the [fn] button. I was easily shifting focus between various terminal windows and windowed xbmc. Flipping into full screen mode required hitting backslash on the keyboard side, so i'll be looking into rebinding some button on the remote side. Channel up/down buttons seemed to jump to the top and bottom of lists in xbmc. Volume rocker and mute button worked, as did the central pad's left/right down/up to jump back/forward by 30 seconds/10 minutes. Scrolling up and down through lists with the same pad was refreshingly snappy -- I've become accustomed to laggy IR remote inputs since so many DTV boxes have terrible response times. I tried out the keyboard side by searching in the youtube video add-on and it works exactly as you'd expect. I also typed a bit in IRC which worked fine. Clearly not a replacement for a full-size when you're doing real work, but great for typing a quick message. Since this setup is on a 52" wall-mounted LCD in the living room, i was keen to replace both my bluetooth keyboard & mouse with this one device. This device exceeded my expectations by not only doing that, but providing a learning IR interface to duplicate the buttons on my TV remote, effectively replacing it as well. My coffee table is clean now! And thanks to the designers for the batch button learning mode; duplicating codes from my Samsung remote to any buttons I wanted on the front side of the Nyxboard was super easy and took maybe 60 seconds.

One gripe is that the [home] button doesn't seem to serve the purpose I expected (equivalent to ESC) out of the box. It seems to do the same thing [back] does, which looks like the equivalent of backspace. Swapping to now-playing from a list (usually spacebar, right?) and to that other view (embarrassed i don't know the name of these, but when you press tab) don't seem to have buttons on the remote-side. Of course [tab] and [spacebar] are on the keyboard side, so I'll be using those for now.

There's only one weakness I've noticed that can't be fixed via customization. A few times I have hit buttons on the underside of the remote accidentally, both with my hand while holding it and when putting it down on the table. It doesn't happen frequently, but I feel as though the buttons should have been more recessed, or a slightly higher rim built around the edge to prevent accidental button presses when putting the remote down.

I've tried customizing Harmony remotes and smartphone apps over the years, but with its purposeful design and integrated keyboard, the Nyxboard Hybrid is the best remote I've used with XBMC. At least after day one!

From: | Created on: 7/19/2011 7:17 PM