Digital Trends

Logitech Z Cinema

February 26th, 2008 | by Josh Norem

Control Issues

The biggest problem we had was with the four “presets” buttons, which are supposed to let you easily create one-touch launch buttons for your favorite music, videos, etc. In reality, they were difficult to configure, and equally difficult to use. Holding down a preset button did nothing, but releasing it would some times trigger a certain song across all four preset buttons. We couldn’t find any way to change the presets, nor could we successfully add new presets beyond one that we added initially. The overall setup process for these presets is flawed, and it would be great if we could manually change them in the Z Cinema software.

It also annoyed us that we could open programs with the remote, but could not close them. A simple “close application” button would be appreciated. We also experienced numerous little irks that detracted from the overall experience, like when you press the Shuffle button the word “shuffle” appears on screen, but if you press it again to turn off shuffle it still says “shuffle” on screen. We also had issues adjusting bass and treble volume, as it would instead change the overall volume. Finally, every time you make a change to anything, the Cinema software pops up on screen, which is annoying.

We do like the soft orange backlighting on the speakers though, and thinks it’s both classy and effective. It’s too bad there’s no backlighting on the remote since it would make it easier to use in low light.

We also have to mention the SRS Surround sound, which gives you pseudo surround sound from just two speakers. It works okay in the sense that it certainly broadens the soundstage a bit and adds more ambience to the sound but you will not be fooled into thinking you have a phantom rear channel of speakers.

Conclusion

The Z Cinema is an interesting approach to integrating a home theater PC remote with a set of better-than-average speakers. Overall the package accomplishes most of the goals it set out to achieve, making it somewhat easy to control a wide range of media from the comfort of your couch. Of course, we did have a few difficulties, and must also point out that you must have Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, or XP Media Center Edition to fully utilize the software. And then there’s the price: $300 USD is a lot to pay for a 2.1 speaker system, even after taking into the additional cost of the remote control into consideration.



Pros:

• Decent sound quality
• Remote works very well
• Easy installation

Cons:

• Expensive
• A few interface issues
• “Surround” sound is so-so