Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier Review

SoftwareThe Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier comes supplied with with the iMedian HD & iMon software packages from sound graph which controls the Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier.

Unfortunately the software installation of the iMon & iMedian HD was not as simple as it could have been. Rather than installing the software off the supplied CD (version 7.16.0325) I downloaded the latest version from Antec’s website (version 7.90.0702). However even after installing the latest version off Antecs website I was then advised it was out of date and to upgrade to the latest version from the forums on the sound graph website (version 8.03.0525). I would therefore advising downloading the latest version from their forums here (Shows as 8.00.00408 at the time of writing but is actually version 8.03.0525) rather than having to upgrade.

The software installation process was a simple process of following the onscreen prompts and instructions, it then prompted for confirmation before installing the device drivers. After the drivers had been installed it asked for confirmation of which type of remote control the device uses and confirmation of the default selection for the quick launch application (Default = iMedian HD). It finally prompted for confirmation to allow FrontView to start automatically on system boot.

Ok so now the software is all installed and setup, let’s take a look at around. When opening up the iMON Manager the first thing that’s displayed are the settings for customising the window. This allows you to change the look and feel of the iMON Managers features, these include the IR signal indicator, Indicator size, Opacity and text background opacity.

The settings section of the iMON Manager allows the settings to be changed and customised for the remote control. The first screen allows the configuration of the basic setting, the Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier comes supplied with an RM200 remote control however the iMON Manager software is also compatible with the RM100 and MCE remote controls. It also allows you to choose the default action for the pad of the remote control allowing its default function to be setup as either a mouse or keyboard arrow. The program command sub menu is used to configure the remote control features for your installed applications. You can also modify and customise the remote control keyboard and mouse commands for use within windows and its power management with the Windows Command sub menu. This adds the flexibility of allowing you to setup some custom remote control commands. Finally the settings menu also allows you to customise the mouse and keyboard speed.

Within the options it allows for the general system options to be setup, including sound card playback device and default optical drive to be used. This is also where the news feed can be configured, this is used to display news on the LED display of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier. It comes preconfigured with a range of popular newsfeeds or you can add any RSS feed into it. I added on the eTeknix newsfeed which worked well although because of the extensive details in the RSS feeds they did come out a little overwhelming, its a shame that the controls on the front of the device can’t be used to allow you to scroll though the newsfeed. The webcasing of internet Radio and You Tube content can also be added to and customised within the options menu although it comes come with a large selection of radio stations preconfigured for various types of music. The remaining options allow you to configure language, check version and for updates of the iMON software.

The final section of the iMON Manager is the utilities which allows you to configure and setup various goodies. The Application Launcher allows you to select your default quick launch application of which the default is the included iMEDIAN HD which was set during setup. The FrontView allows configuration of various things which can be displayed in the inbuilt LED screen, we will look closer at these shortly. It also includes a virtual keyboard, an alarm / timer and resolution changer. The virtual keyboard option allows you to change the opacity and size. Within the timer feature its flexible to include an alarm function, timer to turn your PC off and on or even hibernate or standby. Finally the resolution changer allows you to change the screen resolution.

Ok so lets take a look at FrontView, this allows you to control the content that’s displayed on the LED screen of the Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier. The common options allow you to choose when FrontView runs and how you would like it to act when playing back videos and selected applications.

Within the auto mode it allows you to select which media is displayed by categories as you can see in the screenshot below. The clock is displayed when the PC is turned off on the LED screen.

The graphics equalizer is displayed on the screen when playing back media although unless all the sounds options are ticked it will only operate within selected supported software, the full list of software can be found in the screenshot which displays the Media information further down this page.

The system information screen allows you to display various details about your computer’s hardware and software, these can be customised using the preconfigured categories.

The media information tab allows you to set which of the supported software installed software can be used with the Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier.

The FrontView software can also be configured to alert you of newly received emails, it also contains a shortcut to edit and customise the RSS feeds which we looked at within the options section. It can also be configured to display weather information although I was disappointed to find that my town was not listed and it seems to be only major city’s around the world.

The iMEDIAN HD software splash screen can be seen in the screenshot below, it labelled as being presented by Antec.

In the menu it uses the tried and tested media centre design with the menu items scrolling down the screen. It has a wide range of features including the ability to playback music, video and pictures from both local and network locations. It can access the Webcasting (radio stations & youtube) as well as weather that was previously setup within the iMON software.

Throughout testing I was very impressed when using the radio and its extensive range of stations available. Unfortunately I was unable to get the youtube webcasting working, there appears to be an issue with this after youtube have changed the way which videos are played back though it.