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.