VidaBox SLIM Media Center Review

VidaBox SLIM Introduction

Right away I was impressed by the packaging of the VidaBox Slim. It was like the never ending box of goodies. Every nook and cranny was crammed full of accessories, cables, manuals, and more. Just when I thought I’d found it all, I’d spy a cable or wireless adapter tucked between a couple of pieces of foam. I found two things reassuring – first, the box and packing was obviously designed to work with the media center, big boxes of styrofoam peanuts doesn’t scream “set top box” to me. Second, there were a plethora of manuals. There was a quickstart guide, individual software and hardware installation guides, a comprehensive user guide, and an installation guide and song list for the karaoke optional equipment. The quickstart guide is well laid out and easy to follow. As long as you’ve connected all the proper cables before you start the machine – you should be able to turn the machine on and immediately get started with software configuration.

Editor’s Note: Hotswapping Cables

Remember, the VidaBox Slim is like any other computer; if it isn’t USB, you’ll need to restart the unit for the new device to be recognized. Getting all the correct cables connected before you start up the machine for the first time will save you a lot of unneeded frustration.

VidaBox Slim Build Quality

Aesthetically, I was really impressed with the looks of the VidaBox Slim. The front was brushed aluminum and the DVD bay was covered with a matching faceplate. Under the VidaBox branding are four USB ports that seem a bit out of place. The center of the unit is concave and covered with a faux wood grain. From a distance, the wood grain is so dark that the unit simply looks black. There are two blue lights in the center of the unit, one to indicate power and the other that flickers as the hard drive is accessed. Both are extremely bright but I found the flickering light to be extremely irritating. Conversations with VidaBox indicated that the light could be useful for diagnosing problems but it can be disabled if you request it. When playing a DVD, there is also a green flashing light that peeks out from under the faceplate of the DVD drawer.

While the Slim is indeed the size of a flagship DVD player, don’t be fooled, it is packed full of electronics. The unit is heavy and substantial. You won’t need a friend to help you move it but you’ll probably say “Whoa” the first time you pick it up. It also has fans. Fairly loud fans. While you probably won’t notice them during normal operation, you will notice them eventually. Putting the unit in an entertainment center like the Diamond Case Theater-Tech TT-400 Credenza which is pretty much enclosed is a good idea. Out in the open on a rack will leak too much noise in the room for most. While I didn’t really like the USB ports on the front, there is a mic, headphone, and firewire port on the side. I find that to be an elegant solution. Since the unit comes with a USB external card reader, the USB ports on the front are probably needed, I just wish they could have been side mounted like the others.

Because the VidaBox Slim packs so much in such a small box, there are a couple of accessories that are forced to be external. First, and most annoyingly, is the IR receiver. Rather than opting for an internal IR receiver with an optional IR receiver for multiple satellite/cable box control, VidaBox (for this model at least) decided to go with only the external IR receiver. On the upside, the IR receiver is compatible with the IR keyboard. The downside is that, well, now you have an IR receiver sitting on top of your media center. There is also an external multi-card reader which I find much less problematic. I don’t know anyone that uses their card reader on a daily basis and it is USB so it is hotswappable. With all the USB ports on the front of the unit, you can easily plug this in at your convenience.

VidaBox SLIM Operation, Stability, Storage, and Configuration Comparison

I've already covered most of the operation of the MCE interface in my 2partsfusion DMS-701 review so I won't go into the specifics again here. The VidaBox Slim can do all that the other HTPC can do plus they've installed the My Weather function. The weather thing is pretty cool, especially here in Florida during hurricane season. Pretty much the two most common questions in my HT from my better half is "What time is it" and "Have you checked the weather?" Now, with the Universal Remote Control TX-1000 she can check the time on the LCD screen, and with the weather function on the Slim, I've got my bases covered. No more sitting through the national weather on the Weather Channel hoping that the next segment is the local weather.

Tips and Hints for the Proper Care and Feeding of you MCE based HTPC

I've lived with an MCE-based HTPC for a while now and feel like I can offer some advice to new owners:

God forbid you have a problem with your HTPC, but if you do, you'll probably have to go into safe mode or something similar. If you do, you typically can't count on your wireless keyboard to do much. The drivers for your keyboard aren't usually loaded in time for you to get into the any of the menu's you'll need. That means you need to plug in a USB or PS2 keyboard. If you are like me, you don't have an extra one of those just lying around so you'll probably need to use the one connected to your computer. Let's just say that in the last few months (to no fault of the VidaBox) I've learned how to remove and reinstall my keyboard on my main computer in the dark, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back. The drivers for the VidaBox USB keyboard, however, are built-in to the motherboard. It will work in DOS, BIOS, and Windows Safe-mode. You don't need a PS2 keyboard to control their system.

When connecting via component and using a receiver for switching, you may run into a bug. It seems that HTPCs need some sort of signal to recognize that the connection is being used. This is good because you can connect via multiple methods and the HTPC will default to the best one. This is bad because when you connect the HTPC to some receivers (like oh, say, the Denon 3805 - the one I use) the HTPC doesn't seem to recognize the connection. You'll have to connect the component cables directly to your display, start up the HTPC, make sure you have a picture, then switch the cables to the receiver. Understand, I haven't had this problem with all receivers, I recently reviewed a Pioneer VSX-82TXS and the connection worked fine.

When you set up your HTPC, MCE will walk you through a configuration. You'll set your TV signal, guide, location, etc. It'll also ask you to configure your TV type, connection, and capabilities. Choose whatever you want, it won't make a difference. For some reason, the nVidia program and MCE don't play well together. You'll need to exit to Media Center using the keyboard and left click on the nVidia symbol on the lower right. Configuring the display is fairly straightforward from the nVidia menu.

System Stability

What is really at stake here is the stability of the VidaBox system. The whole point of the VidaBox business model is that their units just work . That is why their products come with so few configuration options. Sure, they recommend you restart it every once in a while but you turn off your DVD player after every use. Of course, your DVD player takes seconds instead of minutes to turn back on so every once in a while should be a long while.

Now, I'm not a nice person, so I decided to design my own personal torture test. I set the unit to record each and every instance of MadTV, Spin City , and Still Standing on every channel it occurred. I chose MadTV because it is on all the time. I'm starting to think Comedy Central has nothing else to show (apparently, they ran out of re-runs of Reno 911). I chose Spin City and Still Standing for two reasons 1) they have some times that coincide with MadTV so that both tuners would be recording at the same time and 2) I like them so I won't mind watching some of them. On top of that, I loaded in an album and saved it to the hard drive. I put the album on Repeat and let the unit go... for a week .

I expected the unit to crash after about three days - it didn't. In fact, I noticed only two things that I could directly attribute to my torture test. After about a week of operation, I noticed a yellow box outlining the screen. For the most part, it wasn't visible (except when viewing the guide and the picture screen was shrunk) but it made it impossible to view the screen in the modified stretch mode (where it stretches the sides more than the center). As the modified stretch mode is my least favorite of all the viewing modes, I didn't mind so much. After restarting the unit, the yellow box effect went away. I also found that after a few days of continuous operation, from time to time the VidaBox Slim would pause the video feed for no real apparent reason. The audio would continue normally and after a second or three, the video would quickly rush forward and catch up. At first I thought it was systemic but it disappeared after a restart. After a few days, it popped up again. Both of these problems were only found on the Original configuration of the Slim model and not the newer Standard configuration. The Standard configuration seemed nearly oblivious to my torture test and the only "problem" I encountered was that after a week the screensaver stopped engaging.

A few times, I awoke to find the VidaBox Slim displaying a blue screen with an error message indicating that I needed to restart the unit because of a weak TV signal. Sometimes, I was able to return to normal functioning just by hitting a button on the remote. Otherwise I had to restart the unit. I've never actually seen this message before so I was a little concerned by it. I believe this may be because at night, the cable company somehow reduces the strength of their TV signal and the VidaBox Slim interprets this as an error.

VidaSafe Storage

VidaSafe storage is essentially a RAID 5 array. RAID stands for redundant array of inexpensive disks. In its simpliest form, a RAID is a method of using multiple hard disks to ensure that safety of your data. To the operating system, a RAID appears as a single drive. RAID 5's have a minimum of three hard drives and all your data can be recovered if one of them fails. So, what does this mean for you? You can feel confident knowing that the entire season of Ghost Whisperer won't be lost if one of your hard drives fails. Since VidaBox goes to great lengths to ensure that all your data is stored on the array, even if your operating system gets corrupted, you'll be able to reinstall without losing any of your data. After spending a weekend or two burning all your music to your Media Center, you'll appreciate the piece of mind a RAID array gives you. What is remarkable to me is that RAID arrays are nearly unheard of in anything but a high end product. VidaBox offers them in all Slim media centers as well as their more upscale models! I'm sure if they could figure out a way to shove one in the Roommate, they would as well.

Original / Standard Configuration Comparison

I had the benefit of testing both the Original and Standard Configuration of the VidaBox Slim. The main differences between the Original and the Standard is that the Standard uses a Dual-Core processor and has a DVI and Component out. With the Original configuration, a break out box is needed for component and DVI is completely missing. What this means for you the user is that you should be able to switch between menus faster and see fewer problems when the unit is doing multiple things at once. 

There were a few things I noticed with the upgraded Standard configuration other than the Standard Slim's resistance to my torture test. First and foremost, you can hotswap video cables (Component, DVI, and VGA for sure - VidaBox is still testing Composite and S-Video). This is huge. Now, it isn't quite as easy as it would be on a DVD player. With the unit already powered up and working, you can connect the new cable. You'll then need to exit to Windows and enter the nVidia menu. From there, you'll need to head to the nView Display Settings tab and choose whichever display is not defaulted under the Current Display drop down menu. And just like magic, it should work. While this is still labor intensive and far more complicated than it seems it should be, it is WAY better than having to shut down, install the new cables, and restart hoping it will work.

With the Original configuration, in order to connect via Component, you needed to utilize a Component breakout box connected the TV out port. This is a workable if annoying solution. The breakout box is a little heavy and, with the weight of the Component cables, tends to want to unseat itself from the back of the unit. There is an adhesive on the bottom of breakout box but I have yet to find a place that I feel comfortable permanently connecting the box too. With the newer Standard Slim, the component out is integrated into the box. This is a huge plus in that makes the unit seem more like a set top box and eliminates the need for the breakout box. My only qualm is that on my unit the Component connectors seemed a little recessed and the cables didn't grab on very tightly. I never had a problem with the cable falling off but I would have felt a little better if they were seated a little more securely.

VidaBox SLIM Karaoke, Control, TV and Summary of Test Results

If you opt for the Karaoke package, there are a couple of things you need to know. First, the Karaoke add-on is quite large. Luckily, it is RF capable so you can hide it away. You’ll need to connect the VidaBox Slim to your receiver via analogue cables as well as SPDIF because the Karaoke won’t send the microphone input over a digital connection. This is a limitation of the hardware and not a failing on VidaBox’s part. More than likely, this means you’ll have to disable your digital in on your receiver each time you wish to sing along (or, better yet, simply configure a different “Karaoke” input on your receiver). Since this is a party type of function, I don’t really see a problem with this. If you have a universal remote, you can program a macro to do all that for you. You’ll also need to enable the green mic in (directions are provided by VidaBox). Last, you’ll probably want to go into your audio menu and bump up the mic volume (if you open the audio options and don’t see mic in, open the Properties to enable it). At first, I thought it wasn’t working because you could barely hear the vocals over the music. Apparently, VidaBox assumes that you’ll use the mic in on the side of the unit instead of the back (which I was using). They routinely bump up the mic volume for the side input for you. They’ve told me that they will now increase the volume for both inputs.

One of the things I like about the MCE interface is that you can set the unit to display the closed captioning during muting. I like it so much that I’ve programmed my TX-1000 Medius remote to control the volume on the receiver but use the mute function on the HTPC.

Keyboard Comparison

I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of using both of the two main keyboards for MCE machines. Other products use a keyboard that was specifically designed for MCE while VidaBox went with a more general purpose wireless keyboard. I’ve already reviewed the MCE-specific keyboard in a prior review review so I won’t go into specifics here. The keyboard VidaBox went with is basically your standard keyboard with a number of hotkeys up top for accessing email and such (not that useful when controlling MCE) and a trackball. Personally, I much preferred the trackball over the craptacular joystick on the MCE-specific keyboard. The trackball was much easier to use and was quite responsive. Below, I’ve listed some of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the keyboard options:

>There is really no clear winner here in my book. Personally, I like the all purpose keyboard provided by VidaBox a bit better because of the RF and trackball but that is purely a personal preference. With the MCE keyboard, you can easily control each and every function of MCE, with the all purpose keyboard, if you aren’t navigating Windows, you should stick with the remote. As I generally only use the keyboard when navigating Windows, I find the trackball much more useful over Satan’s joystick.

Remote

As I’ve already reviewed the MCE remote previously, I just wanted to add here that I came across a problem with the remote that needs to be mentioned. It seems that this remote has an issue if the buttons are continually pressed for too long a period of time (read: you sit on the remote). Basically, the remote seizes up and refuses to respond. I’ve read a number of solutions but the easiest is just to remove the batteries for 30 minutes or so. This seems to clear out the capacitors (or whatever the problem is, I’ve read a lot of speculation) and the remote will return to normal functioning. Or, you can get a universal and throw the darn thing away.

TV

The VidaBox Slim comes with a Cable signal splitter. At first I thought this meant that they had two dual tuners. I was wrong. Conversations with Vidabox indicated that they believed that the single tuner cards they use in their box to be of higher quality that the dual tuner cards that split the signal within the card. I can’t stress enough the convenience of the DVI out. While component is fine, DVI is far superior. If for no other reason, you can choose your output resolution pretty precisely. I was able to output 1360x768 (which is the native resolution of the Olevia 542i display I was using during the time of this review).What does this really mean? 1:1 pixel mapping baby! You absolutely can’t get a better picture out of this box. Even standard definition analogue cable looks pretty good. But how good?

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
VidaBox Slim (Standard Configuration) Benchmark Score: 56

Comments of HQV Testing

The VidaBox scored well on just about everything that’s critical except for the noise reduction and film detail tests. My subjective experience is that it takes standard definition analogue cable and manages to make it look good on very large screens. Moiré is a problem (as indicated by the failed Film Detail test) and it would be nice if the unit reduced noise, but overall you’re going to be very pleased with the picture out of the Slim.

VidaBox SLIM Movies, Music, and Conclusion

My son is partial to renting movies and since my Netflix queue is tied up with movies that don’t suck, he rents his from the library. That means he’ll occasionally come home with something a bit ancient. Enter The Three Caballeros, the 1942 Disney classic. Full of inappropriate humor, racial stereotypes, and an extremely lecherous Donald Duck the movie can only be forgiven because of its age. When my son wanted to watch the movie, I popped it in my other HTPC which said it was unplayable. It gave me a number of odd messages all adding up to “I’m not going to play this disc.” I remembered that Sergio at VidaBox bragged that his box was optimized to play any disc. Any? I turned around and inserted it into the VidaBox Slim. Played it no problem. So, I started thinking about all my other “problem” discs. Dual Discs, DTS CDs, Turkish children’s Video CD… One after the other I placed them into the VidaBox Slim. Dishwalla – Live…Greetings From the Flow State (DualDisc), David Gray – Life in Slow Motion (DualDisc), Diana Krall - Love Scenes (DTS), Yavru Hayvanlar Ciftlikte (a Turkish children’s VCD – translates as Baby Animals on the Farm)… One after another they played without fault.

One thing that many people are curious about is the ability of ripping movies to the hard drive. Yes, this is possible. Once again, because of the laws, VidaBox is not allowed to load up the single program you’ll need to utilize that function. Technically, it is illegal to break the encryption on a movie and save it to your hard drive even if you own it. What VidaBox has done is configured each of their Media Center Systems so that with the addition of one program you can rip AnyDVD to your hard drive. They included what looks to be a few discs to your hard drive for you so that you can see if this functionality is something you’d like to pursue. If you hit Play on any of these “burned” titles, the machine will ask you to insert the DVD (which they have provided for you). Understand that DVD’s take up a lot of hard disc space. With a 500 gig hard drive, you’ll only be able to store about 75 movies before running out of space. As a massive movie archive option, storage costs just haven’t come down enough. You will probably only want to store a couple of dozen of movies at the most if you want to leave enough room for your music and TV recording.

Music

VidaBox takes the extra step by bumping up the default music storage option to the highest quality MP3 (320kbps) rather than leaving it at the unit’s default compressed wma (128kbps). I asked why they didn’t go all the way to WMA lossless and they replied that they wanted to make sure that their boxes used the highest quality encoding that would also be compatible with all MP3 players. I guess I can understand that. The four USB ports on the front make quickly hooking up and downloading music to your MP3 player a snap. They also switch the storage options from My Music (which is located within the operating system) to the D partition. This means that in the event that the operating system needs to be reinstalled, you won’t lose any of your music. Other than that, there really isn’t much to say about the VidaBox over any other MCE based server.

Note from VidaBox
Vidabox is one of the manufacturers that has auto sample rate switching. Basically, most Media Centers set the sampling rate to 48kHz so that DD and DTS movies get passed through to the receiver and be decoded there properly. But without autoswitching, music (44kHz) also gets upsampled to 48kHz with a deterioration in quality.  DTS music (encoded at 44kHz) also gets upsampled and is thus unplayable resulting in static. Users would have to go into the sound card driver setup and manual change the sampling rate as needed. This is not needed with a VidaBox system. The sampling rate changes automatically depending on what is being played back. No user interaction.

Customer Service

Customer service can make or break your experience. One may wonder why it is that I was chosen as the one to review media servers. Honestly, I’ve had more problems with bad units, bad shipping, and odd problems that most of the other Audioholics reviewers combined. This makes me the perfect candidate for testing servers of all kinds. If it works for me, it’ll work for most anyone. I don’t know how many emails/conversations I’ve had over the last year that contain the line, “I am surprised that you are having this problem” or “We’ve never heard of anyone having this problem before.” As such, I’m in a unique position to comment on the customer service of most of the manufacturers of the products I review. Now you may argue that as a reviewer I get preferential treatment. Maybe. But I still get to interact with the techies and CSRs. VidaBox customer service is, in my experience, at least as good if not better than any I’ve encountered. Sure, they have a forum and are very responsive to email, but they also have a system for logging onto your server and controlling it remotely.

Ack! Big Brother! Run away… Run away! Now don’t go all Orwellian on me. The only way they can log onto your server is with your permission. The code to access your server is sent with the unit and is NOT kept on file at VidaBox. Even if it was, a pop-up appears on your screen that tells you that someone is logged on to your server and lets you kick them off with a click. What is nice about this system is that they can actually work on your problem from afar. You can watch if you want or make yourself a sandwich. Sometimes talking a problem through on the phone is just not enough. They can fix something is a matter of minutes that might take much longer over the phone. Personally, I really like that they have this ability. Also customers can change the default password if they please to something that they want. They can provide the new password to VidaBox if remote assistance is needed. Alternatively, remote assistance can be disabled by the user if they don't want it at all but then VidaBox won't be able to provide remote support.

Issues

On the Standard Slim I was testing, the DVI out had a bit of a bug. If you connected via DVI on the initial startup, the unit would put out no sound. The workaround is to connect via any other connection (composite, s-video, component, VGA) and then switch to DVI. If you follow the above hotswap instructions, this is a fairly painless process. Once you do, the unit can be powered down, restarted, or whatever and the DVI and audio will still work. VidaBox has said that on units that are shipping now, this problem has been fixed.

Overall, I felt the interface on the VidaBox Slim was a little slower than what I was used to with other Media Centers I’ve used I would never, ever, classify the MCE interface as speedy by any definition of the word on any machine. But I did find myself waiting more than I was used too. Getting into the My Movies section was especially tedious. I found that a restart would temporarily increase the speed of the enus but eventually it would slow back down.

One aspect of the VidaBox Slim that I really took issue with is that it doesn’t have any Last State memory. Here in Florida, we’ve been know to have a power fluctuation or two. If the power cuts out, the VidaBox Slim will not remember that it was on and will simply stay off. I find this to be unacceptable. The reason I’m recording something is that I want to watch it later. If the power hiccups, I’d rather miss five minutes in the middle of the show rather than the entire show. Some of the chipsets that VidaBox uses for their Media Center Systems can be configured to remember the last state of the machine. When you order yours, you may want to request that the unit be configured to remember the last state. If it is possible, they will configure it that way for you.

I’ve mentioned the lack of an IR receiver in the box before, but it bears repeating. If you are going to use the supplied remote, you’ll need to install the IR receiver. Personally, I’m using my Universal Remote Control TX-1000 Medius remote. What I’ve done is connect the IR emitter from the MRF-200 base station to the front of the VidaBox Slim’s IR receiver. This way I can control the unit, take advantage of the RF keyboard, and hide the IR receiver behind the unit in the entertainment center for a cleaner look. If you are actually going to use the IR receiver as intended, you’ll need some sort of line of sight. Consider tucking it along side the unit rather than on top where it will stick out. Regardless, the IR receiver will flash a red light each time you press a button on the remote so you will notice it.

I’m not going to sugarcoat this review for you. We had some problems getting a working unit for review. It seemed that the stars had aligned against VidaBox. That is why I reviewed both the Original and the Standard configurations – when I started the review, the Standard wasn’t released yet! I could take you through the whole process but the short version is that not all the issues were because of shipping or external factors and not all the issues were faults of VidaBox. What is important is that these issues were resolved quickly and atisfactorily. While I don’t expect that anyone else will go through what I went through, I feel confident that VidaBox is committed to their product and brand.

Conclusion

So, how do I feel about the VidaBox Slim overall? Well, I love that its small size blends in so well with the rest of my components. It doesn’t look like a tipped over computer which is a big plus for me. Once I got a working model, it took nearly everything I could throw at it in stride with only minor hiccups. It performed admirably on the HQV tests and the interplay between the different cards and components worked fairly seamlessly. It is still a PC and it still does stuff occasionally to remind you of that. But as media centers go, this one is pretty great. The Karaoke is fun at parties and the RAID 5 storage is fantastic edition. While DIY’ers are going to balk at any media center that is sold for *gasp* profit, for the rest of us, the VidaBox Slim offers a sleek, elegant, and most of all stable solution. Media Centers may not have moved out of the office for many, but the Slim and its low-profile DVD looks, makes great strides towards the home theater.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Standard Definition Video Performance
Analogue Audio Performance
Bass Management
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Deinterlacing & Scaling
Noise Reduction
Calibration Options
Performance
Value