... I work in an IT Department for a company in the North East and go through lots of new hardware daily; however I\'ve stayed with the Microsoft Digital Media Pro as my primary keyboard for a number of reasons. Hopefully by the end of this review you\'ll see why it\'s my work keyboard of choice ... Read review
The Digital Media Pro Keyboard features a new Zoom Slider that lets you zoom in and out of ... more
documents and pictures with ease. Customizable My Favorites keys, Media Center, and Hot Keys give you one-touch access to commonly accessed media, programs, and ...
Advantages: Great build quality, excellent key travel, My Favourites shortcut system, included wrist rest Disadvantages: F Lock system a little fiddily and time consuming
...however I\'ve stayed with the Microsoft Digital Media Pro as my primary keyboard for a number of reasons. Hopefully by the end of this review you\'ll see why it\'s my work keyboard of choice and I also hope it answers all your questions.
Unboxing
-------------------
The Digital Media Pro Keyboard comes in a rather long flat landscape shaped box and thankfully is packaged rather well, ensuring small knocks during transit ... ...preferred Yahoo Messenger over the Microsoft version then you can always change it so that when you click \'Messenger\' it opened Yahoo. Its a nice welcome addition so you can rest assured that just because its a Microsoft keyboard you don\'t have to be tied in to short cuts to Microsoft\'s own products.
Down the left hand side of the keyboard are three volume control buttons, (Increase, Decrease and Mute), and a Zoom slider. By touching ... more
I\'ll be honest and say that I use my Digital Media Pro Keyboard mainly whilst at work, (not at home), but I reckon that will help me give a much more reliable review as I end up using it every day for potentially hours on end. I work in an IT Department for a company in the North East and go through lots of new hardware daily; however I\'ve stayed with the Microsoft Digital Media Pro as my primary keyboard for a number of reasons. Hopefully by the end of this review you\'ll see why it\'s my work keyboard of choice and I also hope it answers all your questions.
Unboxing ------------------- The Digital Media Pro Keyboard comes in a rather long flat landscape shaped box and thankfully is packaged rather well, ensuring small knocks during transit won\'t damage the goods inside. Upon sliding the keyboard out from it\'s cardboard enclosure, I noticed a CD was included (which contained the drivers) and a small guide to assist in the setting up and use of the keyboard.
Setting Up ------------------- As keyboards go this wasn\'t any more painful to get going than keyboards from other manufacturers. The connector is USB, however I used a USB/PS2 converter to save on a USB socket. I shut my machine down, changed over to my new Digital Media Pro and booted back up. The keyboard began to work immediately, however before the special extra keys worked I did need to install the keyboard drivers.
Additional Keys ------------------- Alongside the standard QWERTY layout and the seperate numeric keypad on the right you do get some additional keys. First and foremost is the My Favourites panel along the top. This panel is completely configurable and lets you establish four shortcuts to 4 frequently used programs on your computer. Pressing the Star * key brings up a small window that lets you say what each My Favourites button will open. Afterwards, simply press the numbered key of choice to launch that program. Nice and straight forward!
The keyboard also has a row of one-click access buttons to various features such as your E-mail, the internet and even Windows Live Messenger. Something to note however is that even though these one-click access buttons go after specific programs... you CAN recalibrate them. For instance, if you preferred Yahoo Messenger over the Microsoft version then you can always change it so that when you click \'Messenger\' it opened Yahoo. Its a nice welcome addition so you can rest assured that just because its a Microsoft keyboard you don\'t have to be tied in to short cuts to Microsoft\'s own products.
Down the left hand side of the keyboard are three volume control buttons, (Increase, Decrease and Mute), and a Zoom slider. By touching the slider up and down, your screen will zoom text and images by small increments. All truth betold, the results do vary as its application dependant; in other words if you have a program that doesn\'t support text resizing then it wont do much good I\'m afraid. It\'s mainly good for browsing the web and increasing font point size.
Driver Software - Microsoft IntelliType Pro ------------------- The drivers for this keyboard, and pretty much every Microsoft branded keyboard, comes in the form of IntelliType Pro. This software adds a screen to the Keyboard Control Panel window that allows you to reconfigure what all the additional, non-standard buttons do. IntelliType Pro rarely gets large updates as the hardware on your keyboard doesn\'t exactly change; however the driver software supports a wide number of Microsoft Keyboards. For this reason lets say you currently use another keyboard from Microsoft and are going to move across to the Digital Media Pro. Chances are you wont need to install the driver package as your copy of IntelliType Pro will pick up on it and work out the box.
Use/Ergonomics ------------------- By its very style its very comfortable to use and whilst it\'s not shaped in an arched \'v\' shape like Microsoft\'s Ergonomic Keyboard to aid a more natural typing approach, the inclusion of the wrist rest adds great support and aids with daily use. I can easily touch type nice and fast with the Digital Media Pro Keyboard and along with the extra buttons, (some useful some more of a gimmick) add just the little bit extra to make the purchase all worthwhile.
Keys give satisfying travel, unlike some cheaper keyboards where you\'re not quite sure if you actually properly depressed a key or not.
The only downside I can give to this keyboard at the moment would be in regards to the F Lock system. The top row of F keys (Function Keys) are present and work fine, but when you disable the special F Lock key, these very same buttons become frequently used options such as Open and Save, Undo, Redo and Print. I can see the interest that this may bring to many peopl but I don\'t find it all that useful personally. If I want to save, for example, I use CTRL + S. Having to take a look at the F Lock key to determine whether or not I need to enable or disable it before then locating the Save key and pressing it is too much like hard work.
All in all though, this keyboard is a great solid investment that will last you for a very long time. I\'ve been using this keyboard for around 10 months, 5 days a week for hours on end. No sign of damage, wear and tear... you\'ll love it!
Advantages: Great Keyboard, For casual and excessive users. Disadvantages: Took a while to beable to use it.
...with it was the fact that most Microsoft keyboards nowadays have a slot inside where you can plug USB computer mice, directly into. And this one didn't. Not really a problem, but would have been a nice additional feature.
Overall I'd give this keyboard 4 out of 5 stars. ...
Leigh36295 12.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard keyboard
Advantages: Light, quiet key action, well sized buttons. Disadvantages: Fairly deep/wide for small desks, shakey space bar.
The Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard was something I bought fairly recently after trying out a friend's with much satisfaction. So, now that I've bought the keyboard and had time to play, what do I think of it?
Style/Looks/Design
===============
Straight out of its fantastic bright red box the board looked large. In fact, a lot bigger than I had realised or was used to before. My now ex-keyboard was a tired looking retro no-name piece of scrap ... ...desk.
As the photo shows the keys themselves are black with relatively small white letters and numbers stuck on them. The body of the board is a silver colour, and at the top is a shiny black plastic strip where the (very handy) short cut buttons are located. Overall the looks are well balanced, resulting in an interesting-looking complement to my home desk.
There are four LEDs in the top right of the keyboard that are green when on, however they ...
cheenoboftio 25.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard keyboard
Advantages: Lots Of Easy To Configure Functions, Includes Wrist Rest, Comfortable. Disadvantages: Very Bulky, Consumes A Lot Of Deskspace.
The first thing that struck me about this keyboard was the sheer size of it, although what can you expect when you have so many customizable buttons.
Once I connected it to my PC, i was up and running without having to install any software or drivers, although a CD is included that allows you to customise the keyboard.
This keyboard connects to your PC using either a USB connection or a P/S2 connection, whichever suits, and is both PC and Mac compatible.
... ...buttons, you also get shortcuts for My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, Mail, Browser and MSN Messenger buttons, and even a Calculator, Log Off and Sleep buttons.
Another neat function is the slider on the left hand side that allows the user to zoom in and out of graphics on the screen. All of these keys are fully customizable using the software that comes included, allowing you to change around buttons to suit your needs. This is especially handy ...
DanielGrant 04.04.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard keyboard
Advantages: Great extra features Disadvantages: Little costly comparetively
A great Digital keyboard to work and play with.The Digital Media Pro Keyboard features a new Zoom Slider that lets you zoom in and out of documents and pictures with ease. Customizable My Favorites keys, Media Center, and Hot Keys give you one-touch access to commonly accessed media, programs, and files. Easily zoom in on pictures, maps, documents, and Web pages - without taking your hand off the keyboard. It's easy to access your favorite music, ... ...key.Five customizable keys are as easy to set as your car radio, so you can enjoy convenient, one-key access to your favorite Web sites and files. Open documents or reply to e-mail messages at the touch of a button. For more flexibility, toggle between standard and enhanced F-key commands.To save energy and protect your data, you can simply put your computer in sleep mode or log off completely by pressing a single key. ...
prattt69 16.12.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard keyboard
"Compatible with Windows 7" software and devices carry Microsoft’s assurance that these products have passed tests for compatibility and reliability with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.
Cables Included
1 x USB cable
1 x keyboard adapter, 1 x USB cable - 2 m
1 x keyboard adapter
Compliant Standards
UL, VCCI, BSMI, GOST, cUL, EN 60950, ICES-003, NOM, WHQL, EMC, MIC, FCC, ISO 9002, ACA, VCCI, BSMI, GOST, cUL, EN 60950, ICES-003, NOM, EMC, FCC
Software / system requirements
OS Required
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional , Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Apple MacOS X 10.1 - 10.3, Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP, Apple MacOS X 10.1 - 10.3
System Requirements Details
Windows 2000 Pro/Server - Pentium - 233 MHz - HD 35 MB
Windows XP - Pentium - 233 MHz - HD 35 MB
MacOS X 10.1 - 10.3.x - HD 30 MB
Software Included
Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft IntelliType Pro
Manufacturer warranty
Service & Support Details
Limited warranty - 3 years
Service & Support
3 years warranty
Environmental parameters
Humidity Range Operating
5 - 80%
Min Operating Temperature
0 °C
Max Operating Temperature
40 °C
Manufacturer's product description
The Digital Media Pro Keyboard features a new Zoom Slider that lets you zoom in and out of documents and pictures with ease. Customizable My Favorites keys, Media Center, and Hot Keys give you one-touch access to commonly accessed media, programs, and files. Easily zoom in on pictures, maps, documents, and Web pages - without taking your hand off the keyboard. It's easy to access your favorite music, video clips, and media programs with the press of a key. Five customizable keys are as easy to set as your car radio, so you can enjoy convenient, one-key access to your favorite Web sites and files. Open documents or reply to e-mail messages at the touch of a button. For more flexibility, toggle between standard and enhanced F-key commands. To save energy and protect your data, you can simply put your computer in sleep mode or log off completely by pressing a single key.
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