Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier Review

Andy Ruffell / 14 years ago

Antec Inc was founded 25 years ago. They aimed their high-performance computer components and accessories products at the gaming, PC upgrade and DIY markets. Over the last 25 years Antec has built up a very good reputation and are now best known for their PC cases and power supplies. As they have moved into the HTPC case market it makes sense to expand on that segment to release other products which might give them an advantage in the market over their competitors.

They now produce a range of media component products from hard drive enclosures to multimedia stations. Today we take a look at the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier which is designed to be a complete solution for home theatre PC builders or those users looking to enhance the media experience of their PC.

The Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier fits into two 5.25″ drive bays and provides access to your PC using the supplied remote control as well as providing information on its inbuilt LCD display.

Features

IR receiver with LCD display to see system information, adjust the volume, check email status, and more
IR receiver mounts in external 5.25″ drive bay
Sleek remote with incredible functionality, allowing user to play and manage media, change settings, and browse via the easy-to-use Thumb Pad Mouse controller
IMEDIAN software allows the playback of most media formats through internal codecs, full 1080p HD support, and a simple and convenient graphical interface
Support for CD/DVD, removable storage, network media, and digital/TV analog cards
Fully compatible with all versions of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

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PackagingOn the top of the box it displays the Antec and Veris Media Components branding on the two opposite diagonal corners. In the top right of the box it displays a very small Quiet computing logo. It then provides some basic product details listing the name of the product and the primary use which they are targeting it at. It also describes that its powered by iMon. The rest of the top of the box displays pictures of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier in use. You can also see the base of the box in the picture below which has the same Antec and Veris Media Components branding following on from the design on the front of the box, it also has a picture of the supplied remote control on it.

The logo layout is continued throughout the entire design of the box and is therefore also displayed on this side of the box. This side also includes a picture of the iMedian HD software in action which is being displayed to show the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier being used with the iMON software. It also displays the supported applications which are the included iMedian HD software by iMON as well as being fully compatible with Windows Media Center, Windows XP and Vista although not mentioned Windows 7 is also supported.

The logo layout is continued throughout the entire design of the box and is therefore also displayed on this side of the box. On this side of the box it also displays a picture of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier product and remote control. It then lists the features including fitting compatibility, ability to power the PC on and off using the remote control, USB connection type and dimensions.

The logo layout is continued throughout the entire design of the box and is therefore also displayed on the back of the box. On the back of the box it includes a brief description of the product and what’s its intended to be used for as well as its benefits. It also includes a more detailed feature list in various different languages.

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BundleThe Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier comes supplied with all the required accessories for installation and use. The picture below shows all the included content which comes with the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier.

24-pin Power Adaptor
Internal USB Cable
Mounting Screws
Installation Guide
Installation CD
RM200 Remote Control

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A Closer LookAs you can see below the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier fits into the space of two standard 5.25″ drive bays which must be located next to each other without anything in the middle to allow the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier to fit into both of the bays seamlessly.

It features a decent sized LCD display which can be configured using the supplied iMON software to display your chosen information which could be about your PC or from an external source such a news or email alert.

The picture below shows the left side of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier as you can see it only screws into the top of the two 5.25″ drive bays which it installs into. Despite its otherwise all black look the side of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier is grey.

The back of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier has a PCB board with four connections. These connections are used for connecting the power input, power switch (In and out) and a USB cable. The USB cable can either connect to an internal USB header or be connected through the back of the case into a standard USB port.

The underneath shows the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier is black and grey, the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier does not really take up much space beyond the frontal controls and the PCB in the picture above.

This standard USB cable can either connect to the supplied adaptor to be used with a motherboard USB header or throughout the back of the case to a standard USB 2.0 port.

The power switch connects to the motherboards standard 2 pin power switch connector and allows the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier to control the power of the PC.

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InstallationBefore installation or purchase of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier there are a few considerations which you need to keep in mind.

To install the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier the cable for your case’s power switch will need to be long enough to connect to the back of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier mounted in your 5.25″ drive bays. For the majority of cases this is unlikely to be of any issue but we would recommend checking before purchase that your case meets this requirement.

The Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier requires the space of two standard 5.25″ drive bays which must be located next to each other without anything in the middle to allow the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier to fit into both of the bays seamlessly. This device is therefore more suitable for standard ATX or MATX cases than most HTPC cases.

During the installation process there are four things which need to be connected to the rear of the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier we would therefore recommend that you firstly connect these to your PC before screwing in the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier into your case, otherwise you will find yourself having to unscrew the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier to connect them.

Connection for power cable (Left)
Power Switch Out (Middle Left)
Case Power Switch In (Middle Right)
USB Cable (Right)

The first connection on the left powers the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier from the 24-pin Power Adaptor which comes supplied, the adaptor connects to your motherboards standard 24pin ATX power connector, the 24pin connection from your power supply then connects to the supplied adaptor. It also acts as an extension cable however could also cause issues for cable managements depending on the design of your case, in the Antec 1200 test case it could be hidden within the cases cable management.

The two middle connections are for looping the power switch through the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier, this gives the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier the ability to turn the PC on and off using the supplied remote control. Of the two middle connections the left is for the output of the power switch and connects to the motherboard, the connection on the right is where the power switch connection from the case connects.

The last connection on the right is used for the USB connection, the Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier uses a standard USB A connection and can therefore be connected to a USB connection on the back of the motherboard. Alternatively the cable can be connected using the supplied USB converter to an internal header.

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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.

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Final ThoughtsThe Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier surprised me, on first thoughts I felt it might not offer much more than adding remote control functionality and an LED display but it’s much more. It was easy to install and setup and worked out the box without any problems.

The supplied software is easy to install and use, I like the small like extras that are included like the ability to use your pc as an alarm or schedule it to turn off and on at certain times. The remote control works well and software allows easy use to navigate through your local and networked media.

On the negative side it’s a shame the latest software was not supplied with the device or on Antecs website. Its offers a wide range of flexibility in the different things which can be displayed on the LED screen but I think it would have been nice to have an option to set some customised scrolling text.

Overall I would recommend the Antec Vertis Multimedia Station Premier to anyone looking to enhance the multimedia experience of their PC.

Pros: