Antec Veris Multimedia Station Premier
Packaging & Front Panel
Published: 30th June 2009 | Source: Antec | Price: £70.40 |
Packaging and Front Panel
The Multimedia Station comes in rather attractive packaging, with white text on a background mix of purple and black. The colours work incredibly well together, and are printed on a thick glossy card, which is double walled to protect the precious components inside. The box opens by lifting a flap at the front, which reveals just the remote at first. Two slots at the sides allow you to insert your fingers and lift out a cover, revealing the remainder of the contents.
Included in the box you have a 24pin power cable, external to internal USB adaptor, Driver Disc, Instruction manual, 2x AAA batteries and the remote. The remote control is fairly large in the hands, which makes it very difficult to use all of the buttons with just one hand. On the plus side, it does mean that you have all the buttons you could possibly need on the remote, rather than pushing some over onto the drive bay device.
The drive bay itself has a satisfying, quality feel to it. The front is made out of what looks like aluminium at first, but is in fact plastic. However, the plastic is quite thick, so is still nice and sturdy. The knobs on the front give a satisfying amount of resistance, and also have a nice click as they turn- top marks here for Antec. The display takes up most of the upper half, with the buttons and dials taking up the bottom half. On the left there is a small IR receiver, with a large 'go' button just above for launching the included iMon software.
The buttons on the front of the display are all fairly self explanatory. The big 'go' button located to the left of the LCD launches the iMon software, taking you to the main home screen. The first row of individual buttons (music, videos etc...) all launch the iMon software under that respective category. Finally we have the bottom row of individual buttons, which give you you're standard media controls such as play, pause, next etc...
In between the dials there is a variety of buttons, giving you basic control over your media. The top row of buttons selects the type of media, whilst the bottom row is used for navigating through media (play, stop, pause etc...). The dials are dual function; rolling them scrolls, and pushing them in selects. The dial on the left, therefore, is used for navigating the menus, with a push on the dial selecting the highlighted sub-menu. The right hand dial is used for volume control, and pushing this one in mutes the sound altogether. The screen itself seems to have a rather clever coating on it: when the device is off, the screen is almost mirror like in reflectivity, yet when the screen comes on, it's easily visible.
I'm actually quite impressed with the build quality of the Multimedia Station; the plastic gives it a solid and sturdy feel. Undoubtedly aluminium would have looked much nicer, but the cost involved with this would obviously have an effect on the price. The front of the device is well laid out, with a nice amount of space between the buttons, making them easy to use, even if you have larger fingers. The reflective coating rounds it off, making the screen an intriguing part of the Multimedia Station, even when it is off.
Most Recent Comments
A very good review,been looking at the Veris for a while. After reading this review I will be buying one in the near future.
Nice review as usual.
Not all Aluminium so be careful there. 
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Originally Posted by name='Msm2'
A very good review,been looking at the Veris for a while. After reading this review I will be buying one in the near future.
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A real good look (in the flesh) at the front panel first.
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Originally Posted by name='Msm2'
A real good look (in the flesh) at the front panel first.
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Originally Posted by name='Luigi'
I have to say it doesn't look cheap, and looks good for plastic. However, if you have an alu case it just wont look as good.
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Antec300 case may look ok.
been reading though this a couple of time now.
Ive come to the conclusion a £70 7" lcd touch screen is still a better option.
when you consider the fact that the lcd screen isnt compatible with any other software and to be honest is quite a old technology and why do you need it to tell you you have an email when there is plenty of free software that will do that any way.
All so consider what it is, its not really that good. You could chop that down to 1 bay and lose the knobs off it as really who in the modern day world is going to walk over to it and start pressing buttons and fiddling with knobs when they have a remote. If they removed that section and just left the LCD and IR receiver and dropped the price By £20 it would make it worth while.
Looks to big and clumsy in its present form.
Ive come to the conclusion a £70 7" lcd touch screen is still a better option.
when you consider the fact that the lcd screen isnt compatible with any other software and to be honest is quite a old technology and why do you need it to tell you you have an email when there is plenty of free software that will do that any way.
All so consider what it is, its not really that good. You could chop that down to 1 bay and lose the knobs off it as really who in the modern day world is going to walk over to it and start pressing buttons and fiddling with knobs when they have a remote. If they removed that section and just left the LCD and IR receiver and dropped the price By £20 it would make it worth while.
Looks to big and clumsy in its present form.
There is one you can get without the dials and buttons, which is also cheaper, however, I'm not sure how much cheaper.
I agree that perhaps people aren't going to walk over to their Case, but for £70 the Veris is still a cheaper alternative to replacing your current case with a HTPC case.
It's worth remembering it comes with a remote as well, which is where a normal 7" LCD can't compete.
I agree that perhaps people aren't going to walk over to their Case, but for £70 the Veris is still a cheaper alternative to replacing your current case with a HTPC case.
It's worth remembering it comes with a remote as well, which is where a normal 7" LCD can't compete.
to be honist i may disagree as i just check lillput's prices on a 7" tft touch screen and you can now get one for £60 then throw in a Windows remote £10 to £15 and you are sorted for £75.
again a much better option. the only downfall is that you will need to mod it. But that's the difference this is a pre bought option. I keep forgetting that.
again a much better option. the only downfall is that you will need to mod it. But that's the difference this is a pre bought option. I keep forgetting that.
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Originally Posted by name='mayhem'
to be honist i may disagree as i just check lillput's prices on a 7" tft touch screen and you can now get one for £60 then throw in a Windows remote £10 to £15 and you are sorted for £75.
again a much better option. the only downfall is that you will need to mod it. But that's the difference this is a pre bought option. I keep forgetting that. |
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Originally Posted by name='Luigi'
Yeah, for people like you that certainly sounds like a good option to choose, however, not everyone is a techno wizard like you- shame on them!
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