LCD & Remote Control Performance
The LCD panel itself is fairly adequate considering the size of the display. Some people may complain that it is overly harsh or bright but to us it was decent enough for our setup as it displayed lots of information and the only real issue we have with it concerns viewing angles. We found that it has a very narrow viewable angle and unless you are seated near perfectly in front, all you are going to see is a bright blue light. This is very common with LCD displays and as such it is hard to fault this particular model for having a common failing. Personally, I rather have information displayed on my large screen TV and routinely disconnect any and all LCD displays in my HTPCs so your results may vary.
Unfortunately, the same lack uster performance can also be said for the integrated iMON IR receiver portion of the iMON kit. We were not impressed with the receiver's ability to recognize commands from anything more than a couple meters distance, unless you were perfectly inline with the receiver. If your entertainment setup is an open air affair things are not too bad, and we did get fairly good reception from across a medium sized room. However, if you are like us and your main entertainment system is partially enclosed with a glass front door (yet open backed for air flow) you may end up cursing the remote's inability to send a strong enough signal for the receiver to actually recognize it. The only time we were able to get adequate results was when we were directly inline with the front of the case and had a perfect 90° front on shot. If you are positioned on even a moderate amount of angle /deflection your chances of getting an “answer” from the HTPC is remote to say the least. The best thing which can be said about this unit is at least it did not suffer from any interference from our other remotes.
For starting/stopping, pausing, increasing/decreasing volume the remote will suffice but that is about all it is good for. This really is too bad as the iMON software is actually very good (if a bit redundant). We like the idea of being able to press one large “GO” button and select what app we want to launch. We like the idea of a virtual onscreen keyboard, we even like the idea of changing resolutions (all options available in the iMON software) but this iteration is just not good enough to justify the added expense of this Remote version of the Fusion.
This reason for these inherent limitations steams from the fact that this remote is tiny, Antec calls it a “petite remote” and boy they are not kidding. In the above picture we have placed it next to a 92mm fan; and as you can see the fan is about the same size. If you are planning on using this remote on a continuous basis, we recommend tying a long chain to it and bolting it to something BIG (like those pens at banks) or get a beeper for it ‘cause this thing is easy to loose. During testing phase, every time we would put it down for even a moment the darn thing would run off and hide in our seat cushions! This of course is an exaggeration, as we are almost positive it doesn’t house a malevolent intelligence bound on frustrating its “master”… it just acts that way.
All in all, small / micro HTPC cases are notorious for their long list of necessary compromises but we think the remote and LCD components should not be on this list. If you are going to go through the time and effort to include an LCD and remote, please by the Holy Jar of Ragu make it a good one!
With all this negativity surrounding this accessory we must caution in discounting the whole case just because of one minor foible. The Fusion itself is actually a very good case, just one which Antec dropped the ball on with their selection of this particular iMON IR / LCD receiver. It is very frustrating that Antec selected this particular accessory as iMON does make some very good models. In an upcoming mini-review we will actually be taking a look at two Veris branded iMON units to see how they stack up. Hopefully, future revisions of this case will come with a better model and then no one will have to decide whether or not they can live with the issues outlined above.
LCD & Remote Control Performance
The LCD panel itself is fairly adequate considering the size of the display. Some people may complain that it is overly harsh or bright but to us it was decent enough for our setup as it displayed lots of information and the only real issue we have with it concerns viewing angles. We found that it has a very narrow viewable angle and unless you are seated near perfectly in front, all you are going to see is a bright blue light. This is very common with LCD displays and as such it is hard to fault this particular model for having a common failing. Personally, I rather have information displayed on my large screen TV and routinely disconnect any and all LCD displays in my HTPCs so your results may vary.
Unfortunately, the same lack uster performance can also be said for the integrated iMON IR receiver portion of the iMON kit. We were not impressed with the receiver's ability to recognize commands from anything more than a couple meters distance, unless you were perfectly inline with the receiver. If your entertainment setup is an open air affair things are not too bad, and we did get fairly good reception from across a medium sized room. However, if you are like us and your main entertainment system is partially enclosed with a glass front door (yet open backed for air flow) you may end up cursing the remote's inability to send a strong enough signal for the receiver to actually recognize it. The only time we were able to get adequate results was when we were directly inline with the front of the case and had a perfect 90° front on shot. If you are positioned on even a moderate amount of angle /deflection your chances of getting an “answer” from the HTPC is remote to say the least. The best thing which can be said about this unit is at least it did not suffer from any interference from our other remotes.
For starting/stopping, pausing, increasing/decreasing volume the remote will suffice but that is about all it is good for. This really is too bad as the iMON software is actually very good (if a bit redundant). We like the idea of being able to press one large “GO” button and select what app we want to launch. We like the idea of a virtual onscreen keyboard, we even like the idea of changing resolutions (all options available in the iMON software) but this iteration is just not good enough to justify the added expense of this Remote version of the Fusion.
This reason for these inherent limitations steams from the fact that this remote is tiny, Antec calls it a “petite remote” and boy they are not kidding. In the above picture we have placed it next to a 92mm fan; and as you can see the fan is about the same size. If you are planning on using this remote on a continuous basis, we recommend tying a long chain to it and bolting it to something BIG (like those pens at banks) or get a beeper for it ‘cause this thing is easy to loose. During testing phase, every time we would put it down for even a moment the darn thing would run off and hide in our seat cushions! This of course is an exaggeration, as we are almost positive it doesn’t house a malevolent intelligence bound on frustrating its “master”… it just acts that way.
All in all, small / micro HTPC cases are notorious for their long list of necessary compromises but we think the remote and LCD components should not be on this list. If you are going to go through the time and effort to include an LCD and remote, please by the Holy Jar of Ragu make it a good one!
With all this negativity surrounding this accessory we must caution in discounting the whole case just because of one minor foible. The Fusion itself is actually a very good case, just one which Antec dropped the ball on with their selection of this particular iMON IR / LCD receiver. It is very frustrating that Antec selected this particular accessory as iMON does make some very good models. In an upcoming mini-review we will actually be taking a look at two Veris branded iMON units to see how they stack up. Hopefully, future revisions of this case will come with a better model and then no one will have to decide whether or not they can live with the issues outlined above.
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