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View Full Version : Antec Multimedia Station

Devastator
09-19-2008, 01:55 PM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-001-AN

Has anyone got one of these or similar? Thinking of getting one but can't quite decide if it is worth the money or not.

Looks to me as if it would save me buying a whole entertainment system.. just want to find out what you all think to be honest :)
Freakitchen
09-19-2008, 02:48 PM
Interesting stuff, never seen it before now. Maybe I'm missing something obviously but I can't immediately see what you're getting for your £60 outlay - hardware-wise - other than an IR reciever and a remote control. It looks impressive with the LCD and the buttons, but how often are you going to want to prise yourself off the sofa to use those buttons? And the LCD - well, I'd rather look at the TV the machine is attached to!

I guess it's worth depends very much on the media-centre software it's bundled with, but I'd want to look very carefully into that before I dropped the cash for one. Otherwise, a copy of Vista Home Premium and a microsoft remote would give you very similar functionality with 'proven' media centre software.
Devastator
09-19-2008, 04:24 PM
I do have home premium but I don't see how a remote can work when I have nothing hardware based to take it in. I have looked into the iMedian software it comes with and it looks pretty good, I prefer it to media center imo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5RkgFbsqQ

This looks pretty much identical and tells you a bit more about what it does.. it's more just adding a bit of looks and allowing me to be lazier with multimedia related stuff.
Freakitchen
09-19-2008, 05:38 PM
As far as I'm aware the Microsoft remote ships with a USB Infra-Red receiver which works seamlessly with Media Centre. I've never bought one but had one given to me by a friend. I don't use MC (at the moment) but it works fine with the free software front-end I'm currently using (GB-PVR) with no configuration.

Will watch the video shortly. I'm open-minded when it comes to media centre stuff, but that particular product wouldn't work for me - I only have two 5.25" bays in my Antec Media Centre case, and one of those is my DVD drive!