hardware and accessories

Although the official remote released by Sony is deffinately the best remote for the PS2, I have a few complaints about it.

My first complaint is the lack of a zoom feature. Since selling my standalone DVD player I have missed my three speed searching, a numberpad (using the on screen contols doesn't always work the way it should), and most importantly my zoom feature. Although many of these features were added in my new remote, my zoom was still left out.

Okay, I have to admitt, I rarely used my zoom feature, unless I thought I saw something and wanted to make sure was really there(my nit-picking of films has resulted in several beatings by people who "want to watch the movie"). The one thing that also really bothered me was the 2 Mg off my memory card that is required! Why can't they just update the drivers that are obviously stored in the stinking machine!

Well, now I need to use my computer to zoom in on anything I want to look at closely, and I'm forced to buy another memory card for my dozen+ PS2 games.

1. If you have the newest PS2 (SCPH-30001R), the 2MB won't get eaten from your mem card, as the necessary support is already built into the PS2 (I wonder if Sony actually built in Flash ROM support or if they just hard-coded the new DVD software into the ROM).
2. This remote is about 10x more useful than any other PS2 remote out there.
3. (I didn't know this before, but I hoped and I was right) You can use a universal remote with the IR reciever.
4. Doesn't void your warranty.
5. Newsflash: NO remote can turn off the PS2. It's the design of the system itself that prevents it. Sheesh. I wish that people would stop docking this remote for that "shortcoming".
6. ok, so there's no passthrough...I'm pretty disappointed about it too, but hey, it really isn't that hard to switch them when you want to play a 2-player game (and how many of those do you have anyway?)

Pros are so much more than the cons (esp. if you're a new PS2 owner like me) that it's ridiculous. Even WITH the 2MB price taken for older PS2's, this remote is so much better than anything else out there, if you're going to get a PS2 remote, then there really is no question.

Now all you have to do is find one.

There are two different DVD remote controls (for PlayStation(R)2):

SCPH-10171 DVD remote control (for PlayStation(R)2) with IR Receiver Unit
SCPH-10420 DVD remote control (for PlayStation(R)2)

The SCPH-10171 is compatible with all models of the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system.
The packaging for this peripheral contains the following items:

1 DVD Remote Control (for PlayStation(R)2)
1 IR Receiver Unit (for PlayStation(R)2)
1 DVD Driver Disc

The SCPH-10420 is only compatible as packaged with the following model numbers of the PlayStation 2
console:

SCPH-50001
SCPH-50010
SCPH-50001N
SCPH-50010N

Because the models mentioned above contain a built-in Infrared (IR) Receiver and pre-installed
drivers for the DVD Remote Control, the packaging for the SCPH-10420 does not contain an IR Receiver
Unit or a DVD Driver Disc.

The SCPH-10420 contains the following new features:

Power/Reset button
Eject button

The SCPH-10420 is compatible with the following model numbers, provided you already have an IR
receiver and the appropriate software*: SCPH-30001, SCPH-35001, SCPH-30001R, SCPH-39001, SCPH-39010,
SCPH-39001N, and SCPH-39010N. However, the Power/Reset, and Eject buttons will not function with
these models of the PlayStation 2 console.