Antec Veris Basic

[mercalia]

I have been using this Antec Veris Basic MM station board that slots into a 5 1/4" pc bay for some time now - Antec has discontinued this as far as I know. It is one of the few boards that hooks into the mb and allow you to use the remote to wake a pc from off or standby.

You can program the small control supplied or use a standard media center remoteto control any program that also has key board short cuts. I have found it and the Imon software generally reliable and must be one of the best ways to make a HTP work the same way as a set top box. ( the Imon software inlcudes its own media center software which I could never fathom, all you really need is the software to control the remote ). I have tried it under Windows 7 and 8.1 and 32 or 64 bit and works fine.

I see there is a dude in the USA still selling these at a good price - shame I am in the UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201560490963? ... EBIDX%3AIT

or for bulk ( 6)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201560490203? ... EBIDX%3AIT

so this is a headup last chance to get this rather useful HTPC item

[mercalia]

By the way the going price with the very high postage would together be about the price you would have had to pay in the UK for it new, when it was available here

[mercalia]

I actually got one of these from the ebay website above. the seller was very fast to post the item and it arrived in the UK within a week. Is a sealed nos item, just like the ones I got when they were available from the UK. porbably the last chance to get one of these valuable HTPC control units, the best of the lot imho.

[mercalia]

One thing I got wrong - it slots into a floppy 3.5" bay but you can still get adapters to fit such in a 5.25" bay and they conly cost few pounds from china or malaysia.

[mercalia]

ordered such a converter box cost me £2 incl postage and arrived here fast!!!

[barmalej]

Just scored one. Can anyone recommend matching 5.25 to 3.5 adapter?

[mercalia]

this is the one I got and the sort of thing you want

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262580770562? ... EBIDX%3AIT

lots available

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... y&_sacat=0

and VERY cheap

if you not in the UK just search for "3.5'' to 5.25'' Drive Bay" as I did. Its important it has the slot in the front for the antec board.

By the way the antec box comes with a small remote but any Media Center remote will also work and far better and they are cheap now and you will have more keys to program?

The nice thing about the Antec box is that with suitable mother board the remote will start up the pc from complete power off ie pull the plug from the pc let all power dissipate then plug in again ( Asus P5QL PRO ). Another mb I have ( Asus P5G41T-MLX) will only start from power off/complete shutdown with the Antec board if you shut the pc down from the wndows menu ( ie if you remove the power plug and re insert it , the antec board wont start the pc up ) - still very nice though as my Media Center only ever goes into Standby sleep so that it wakes up to record and the antec board has no problem with waking it up again with any mb I think

[mercalia]

I should add installing these boards does require some effort re routing the main large mother board cable from inside the pc and plugging leads into internal usb ports, so you need to have you mb manual handy. But I think its worth the effort.

Also I dont normally have a keyboard or mouse attached as these tend to wake up the pc when there is any key press etc ( but I think thats a matter of setting up the mb not to allow them to wake up from sleep?) . Mine is a dedicated Media Center pc and only has the software to run that on it

[mercalia]

By the way the best version of the Imon Manager software to control the antec veris basic is the last one version 8.12.1202. fortunately it seems quite solid. It seems that Soundgraph site now not there to download it but it seems is still available elswere - eg

http://imon.en.lo4d.com/

it doesnt include the Imedian software which is included on the disc u get with the veris basic ( alt to Media Center ), which you DONT want. I think the disc bundles them together so best just get the update above

have to always careful where you get software but this site seems ok? I also have copies of the software which WAS downloaded from Soundgraph 2 years or so ago

[barmalej]

Sweet. I've got the software. Wonder if it is compatible with Windows 10. I bet power off/start up issues are related to USB power. I have an older Asus ROG board, it seems the board only keeps power to the port if something was plugged in when computer was on and OS fully booted.

Can you power off the computer with WMC remote?

[mercalia]

Dont know about Windows 10 but probably will as ok on 8.1

I used to think that 32 bit was more stabile than 64 bit but I think I have changed my mind now.

Yes it will power off the pc also. I have set mine up just to go into standby as my motherboards wont wake up to record from full power off.

in the imon manager you have to go to Settings/Windows Comand/Power management and select there what the RC power buttin does. I have mine to simulate the case power button which you set from Windows it self and in my case that goes to standby. Rather than use the powrer button I tend to go into Media Center and use that to close/restart the pc.

By the way the Go/Wndows button( on a mce remote) that normally starts up Media Center can also be used to start up other programs. if you press down the button for longer time you get the user definable menu of items that can set as default. Doing this has been the only source of flakiness I have ever had but only if you try and set a new default before the icons have "filled up" with their graphics. The software comes with quite a few programs already sett up to be used with the veris basic and you can add more as long as they can be controlled by key combinations.

most of the options in the Imon software are for controlling the more sophisticated boards that came with a front display.

I dont normally have a mouse/keyboard connected to my media pc as that can create conflicts with the remote. So you need to have a mb that will boot up without one

re media center I dont think the zoom/screen fit is there by default in the imon software, as it really stops at XP media Center, I had to work out how to do that

setting up the software esp if you want to add a new program to control is a fuss but worth it ( need to find the key presses etc )

[mercalia]

for any one who is interested to get the aspect/zoom feature of Media Center to work for Windows 7 and above as it differs from XP Media Center.

use the key sequence -

left-Cntrl + left-Shift + Z assign to the button "Aspect" in the Imon list for XPMedia Center

[barmalej]

Finally I had time to install it. Seems to be working fine in Win 10. The only issue is that you have to point the remote directly.

[mercalia]

The small remote you get is ok but things are more flexible if you use a full media center remote. Yes the receptor is directional but I havent found it too bad

[barmalej]

Small remote barely works. Also Volume control implementation is terrible - the other day I was using Bluetooth headphones, so now the software insists on controlling the volume for the headphones even if they are currently off. I end up going to settings and manually change the device back. Is there a way to make the software to control the volume of the active device?

I wish they open source the software. Do you know where can I get remote API zip file - the links on their forums are dead.

[mercalia]

well in the Imon Manager the only option for sound is in Option/System where you can select which "sound card device" you use?

How do you normally switch active device ( out side of Imon ) ? have to do it manually? if so then Windows fault?

The small remote is limited I agree but is ok for near distances - the limited numbeer buttons means basic options

" Do you know where can I get remote API zip file - the links on their forums are dead"

what do you mean? the various key strokes for various programs?

As this system is now obsolete and not supported you have to find these out and set up your self as I did for a program I use

I see in Program Files(86)/Soundgraph/Imon/Preset MCE ( 64 bit ) there are what seems to be the presets for various programs for media center which I think you can import from Settings/Program Command once you have added a new program to take them? I have never tried that. There are a few there I recognise like vlc

It really saddens me that this system is now part of history as it is the sweetest way to control a pc where a key board is not needed.

I find the tight sensor direction useful as I have 2 pcs with these boards in , in the same room that I can control from a single MCE remote ( I just have to space them a bit )

All in All I have had few problems with a conventional set up of external speakers

[mercalia]

by the way I assume you found the Imon menu in the hidden right hand part of the taskbar

[barmalej]

Windows switches active audio device automatically. Honestly, I don't even need IMON to control the volume for the bluetooth headset, but it keeps switching audio devices randomly - very annoying.

Remote API zip was previously available here: http://www.soundgraph.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9829, but links a dead now.

[mercalia]

not sure what you after but a bit of goggleing got this -

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph ... post398630

https://sourceforge.net/projects/imonapi-sharp/

https://github.com/margru/imonapi-sharp



I only use Imon in a basic way - built in mb soundcard and external speakers and works fine in that configuration

Its a matter of sdearching around for the information you want it seems at this late date I think. I am just thankful the basic system works reliably under the latest Windows oses

doesnt selecting the sound card as indicated solve the problem of sound output?

[mercalia]

and this one ( cant enter more than 3 urls it seems )

https://github.com/margru/xbmc-on-imon

maybe this one?

http://www.driverguide.com/driver/detai ... rid=960537

click the green button and do the I am not a robot thing seems to get some thing