URC Product of the Month - PSX-2 Personal Server

Everyone’s trying to do more with less these days. With that in mind, URC’s PSX-2 Personal Server is one of the signature products of our times. At $399 (plus installation and tax), the PSX-2 delivers an incredible amount of bang for your buck.

The PSX-2 turns your iPod into awesome, easy-to-navigate, customized, very personal A/V server. The PSX-2 is such a potent combination of power and simplicity that CE Pro editor Julie Jacobson called it “Best Product of CES 2009: URC’s Magical iPod Server.” And the accolades don’t stop there. The Consumer Electronics Association this winter named the PSX-2 a 2010 Mark of Excellence Awards finalist in the Media Server of the Year category.

Unlike other mere iPod docks, the PSX-2 takes the iPod to the next level, adding features most iPod users never imagined possible. Of course, the PSX-2 enables 2-way, on-TV browsing with cover art. But URC also developed an advanced alpha search feature that gets you to your music fast. “Smart shortcuts” vastly simplify navigation of content; you can find your favorite music with just a couple of clicks. A fully configurable, plasma-loving TV screensaver continually displays cover art, artist and track info.

With one button-press from any URC or RTI remote, you can do things that might take dozens of presses on the iPod alone: operations like “Play more from this Artist” or “Shuffle this Genre” are only one touch away. You can even add songs to a jukebox playlist on the fly; try doing that with just an iPod!

How is all of this possible? In an industry first, URC powers the PSX-2 with a bank of 250 discrete IR commands. These discrete codes, a hallmark of URC, enable us to automate the operation of an iPod like never before. We can create “one touch to music” programming.

For example, if you are a fan of a certain artist, we can create a macro that automatically searches and finds the artist and launches a selection. The same macro can even select one of the iPod’s 24 EQ settings and activate it—all automatically and all from one button press.

That’s not all the PSX-2 can do. The PSX-2 also includes the very powerful PSXLink Software for both Macs and PCs. Any new content that is added to the user’s iTunes library on the PC or Mac can be synchronized to the iPod in the PSX-2 without touching it.

The PSX-2 is compatible with all iPods (except for first generation). And the firmware can be updated through the home network for ongoing compatibility. It can be controlled by any remote that can learn IR codes, so it can be included in the system you’re installing today.

When used with URC’s flagship MX-6000 two-way WiFi IR/RF color touch screen controller, iPod metadata (including cover art) is displayed on the MX-6000’s huge 4.3-inch LCD screen, so it’s not even necessary to turn on the TV to use the PSX-2.

If you have an iPod, you should have at least one PSX-2 in your home.