Testing

As the SilverStone MFP51 is exactly the same as this product (display module and software both designed by SoundGraph) this is a copy and paste passage.

The on/off feature works straight out of the box with no drivers needed, as it’s a physical connection and nothing to do with software.

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Once the drivers are installed, you get a whole load more options. The main program – called iMedian – is where you’ll spend most of your time. This is the central program where you can watch DVD’s, play CD’s, scan your HDD for media, have a slideshow of photos, watch TV (requires a separate TV tuner) and generally enjoy your media. You can even broadcast media from a networked PC; to do this you’ll need to install iCaster and scan the serving PC for media. This is then sent to the client PC when it’s needed. This was tested with a relatively slow PC (a 1500mhz) and the whole process was fast and flawless. iCaster would then allow you to have a fast client PC with a small amount of storage linking to a slower PC, with lots and lots of storage. This makes a lot of sense as most of the time media PC cases are small and don’t allow much expansion.

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Everything is laid out in a way that is both easy on the eye, and easy to navigate. It really is just a remake of Windows MCE, but designed for the iMon remote.

The worst part about the whole iMedian application is that when you launch the application – using the large TV button on the remote below the joypad – there is an orchestral riff that plays. It’s loud and quite annoying after a while. While I haven’t looked for a solution, I’m sure it’s possible to remove. When you quit the application, you get a similar riff to further add insult to injury.

If you don’t like that program, there is no reason to use it. As you are able to use a virtual keyboard (which is a bit of a pain to use) and the mouse by the joypad on the remote, you can use any program easily, or at least from your sofa. The cursor speed is hard to get used to, but you can modify it to your preferred speed.

The remote also allows you to do certain things, like application switching, or choosing what the front display shows. You can then, say, while watching a film check your emails with the screen and still enjoy the movie.

The display can show pretty much anything that you want, including your PC specs, how much RAM that is being used, song name and title, the progress through that particular song etc. All of this is pretty standard for a display of this kind. While its nice to have the option to see how much free disc space you have, options like this are unlikely to excite the media user, who just wants to know the name of the song playing, or the chapter they are watching on their DVD.

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To change these features, you have to use the iMon settings menu, which is reasonably easy to use, and it contains ‘set and forget’ features which only need to be tweaked once to your preference and then can be left alone.

One feature that does stand out above the rest, is the EQ. This basically shows the audio signal in graphical format. While not technically useful, it does look damn cool which this display is meant to be.

The display on the Ultra Bay requires you to change the contrast to the bottom end of the scale for it to be visible. Thanks to the reflective coat that has been put on the LCD, it is a lot darker than the SilverStone variant. At ten paces it was very difficult to actually make out what was on the screen, not only due to the low brightness but the fact that the display reflects other light sources, much like being on the wrong side of the TV with the curtains open. The viewing angle of this version is also a lot tighter than the MFP51 version which makes it even more difficult to see. Most of the time, I simply walked up to my PC to find out the song name rather than try and find a position where the display was readable.

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You can change the font size making it bigger or smaller, but that doesn’t help distance viewing much. If this was sat under your TV and you had a fairly bright room, then this would be difficult to see. Of course, if you are just using it in your desktop PC and you are a couple of feet away this isn’t a problem.

The extra height of this device gives you the control buttons, but they are flawed. If you are that close to your PC then you could just use your mouse which is a much more convenient option. The only time when these controls would be useful would be if you lost the remote and couldn’t immediately go to DVD watching, or if you forgo the keyboard/mouse setup which is slowly occurring with media PC’s. You can do more using the remote, and it doesn’t seem worth losing a drive bay for the sake of a ‘fall-back’ of a few buttons.

Overall the software has been very well thought out, and is very easy to use. In fact, the software can be used for free from the SoundGraph site and makes for a very very good reason for choosing this over MCE. Cleverly, what SoundGraph have done is release the software, then pointed out that you can get one of these displays from your favoured manufacturer to make it that much better.