Antec Veris MicroFusion Remote 350 HTPC Case Review

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

As with nearly every piece of all in one software we have ever used, the installation of the iMON manager is as easy as inserting the included CD into your optical disc drive and letting it load.


As with a lot of software you have the annoying nag screen to navigate through, though in this instance it is nagging you to “RTFM” before installing. If you are like us, we blindly clicked “read it” and promptly ignored the rest of the installation. When it is finished you are the proud new owner of a surprisingly comprehensive piece of software.


In a nut shell the iMON manager allows you to customize and tweak numerous settings all with the simple remote control; heck they even included a fairly decent OSD (On Screen Display) Virtual Keyboard! The obvious goal of the iMON software designers was to allow you the luxury of not needing to use a keyboard and mouse so once set up, you should be able to do almost everything from loading your favorite application (movie or music player for example) to changing the resolution of your screen to even turning the unit off.

This is a laudable goal and from the software end of things iMon did a decent job. The manager is laid out in a very intuitive and user friendly way and while it may not be as slick as the Apple TV interface, it is also a heck of alot more useful. This is where the easy to understand (and also very intuitive) manual comes into play.

As user friendly and easy to navigate and use as this software is, the one area in which iMON falls a little flat is in the remote control. You can have the best, most intuitive interface in the world but if the device which allows the end user to access the UI is less than optimal then so is the overall experience for the end user. In the next section we will go into a bit more detail on why we did not have a great experience with this accessory. For right now lets just say it really was a crying shame iMON (or Antec) didn’t spec out a better IR receiver and a better remote and leave it at that. In the end, it’s not the worst accessory we have ever used and it does come with some pretty good software.