VidaBox adds tablet control for its Media Center PCs, iPad is first in line
By Richard Lawler 
posted June 24th 2010 7:54PM
posted June 24th 2010 7:54PM
VidaBox Debuts Media Center Controls for iPad® at the Asian Pacific CEDIA EXPO
Melbourne, Australia - Asian Pacific CEDIA Expo - June 23rd - VidaBox LLC, an award-winning manufacturer of advanced media servers & control solutions, debuted their new iPad Media Center controls today in Booth 3A at the Asian Pacific CEDIA EXPO. VidaBox may be the very first company to offer such a solution for Windows-based Media Centers.
"We're all absolutely thrilled to be the first in showcasing what dealers have been asking for," claims Steven Cheung, President of VidaBox, LLC. "With the iPad®, users can now browse and launch movies & music by cover art, get rich metadata, and much more - quickly and easily - all from a single, inexpensive device. Beyond controlling media center, dealers and integrators can potentially tie in multiroom audio, or basic room control with lighting and more."
When programmed properly, the same VidaBox interface can be used to turn on a zone to power TVs, receivers, or even lights, while setting up the proper AV connections on the receiver. Cable, satellite, and other TV boxes can also be controlled via IR from the VidaBox iPad® interface. Plans are also in the works for audio integration with online music sources like Rhapsody, Pandora, Napster, Shoutcast, and other popular services.
"Unlike the current vAutomation 1.0 platform, dealers with this new vAutomation 2.0 platform will do minimal or almost no programming - but still get to enjoy these snazzy, user friendly interfaces," continues Cheung. "Everything is set up at the factory in advance, so users can quickly flick through dozens of archived music albums, DVDs, Blu-rays, launch these titles, and control multiple zones - all out of the box. With the iPad's ultra responsive touchscreen, it's never been faster or simpler."
iPad® controls for VidaBox will be available for qualified dealers and integrators in Q3 of this year. For more information on the VidaBox line of digital entertainment and control hardware solutions, please visit the company website at http://www.vidabox.com, call 516-730-7500, or see them in action at the Asian Pacific CEDIA Expo in Booth 3A.
Whoa this looks very promising. I have a custom built media center pc with over 800 movie titles nicely organised by media center.
This looks like what i have waited for.
@Engadget
Care to explain why I'm seeing this article even though I have an /exclude string a mile long including /exclude ipad?
It's awfully shady that you keep trying to circumvent our /exclude tags.
Lovin the Apple news day. Also loving the insecure droid fanboiis clinging to their plastic is fantastic toys as if they were their own penises. Come troll here on the “too much apple news” side, too! Waitingggggggggg
@magadget Why do people turn into three year olds when given a keyboard?
@magadget Damn! That was the funniest comment I've seen all week.
In after Commenter Scum
Damn Rebels deleting BrookLynnsWorst's post to make me look foolish
@Lord Vader
no Vader, you've just blew it®
Glad to see a company adopting a common platform instead of rolling your own
@BrookLynnsWorst dude go away. I think that this is great and % am the farthest thing from an apple fan boy. My laprop proudly runs Windows and Ubuntu, my music player is a Zune, and I'm typing this on a palm pre. It's cool that a company decided to develop software for a hardware platform people have adopted instead of building yet another hit and miss piecw of custom hardware. Sorry for the typos I just got my pre plus
So this is basically a DLNA controller with a nice GUI?
It would be cooler if it could act as a DLNA player or Server -- that way you could play back media from the media server on the iPad or play the iPad's videos on the Media server wirelessly...PlugPlayer is another app that does all this and more (DLNA Controller, Player, Server) -- but it's not really the best coded app yet, and of course a lot of video formats are just not supported. Still it looks promising...
@DoctarPeppar
You can already do that with AirVideo.
Although a better streamer could have some merit. It's still going to have to convert everything for display on the iPad though.
now will these movie titles include a yellow tint like the media viewed on the iPhone 4?
Why is this crap not tagged ipad or apple so my filter works ?
come on engadget, stop slacking !
I don't want to even see news from that nazi company...
@Stormstrike VidaBox is a Nazi company? Maybe you don't know what a "web app" is. Also, it is tagged iPad. It's not tagged Apple, because it has nothing to do with them. If you can't even take news about companies that make webpages that can be viewed on Apple products as well as others, how can you read this page?
@RichardLawler Ok, so then why does /exclude/ipad not filter out this post?
@FitFan Probably because this is an Engadget HD post. If you really can't deal with tablet controlled home theater information, it's unfortunate we can't do more to keep it from clouding your virgin eyes.
Make that type of remote media interface work with WMC, throw in some customization capabilities like coverflow, and I'll pay top dollar for it!
I would even forget all other tablets and buy an iPad for this functionality alone!!
Make that type of remote media interface work with WMC, throw in some customization capabilities like coverflow, and I'll pay top dollar for it!
I would even forget all other tablets and buy an iPad for this functionality alone!!
To caveat my (doublepost) comments above, I meant that they need to make this work with -any- WMC-based HTPC, not just some proprietary nonsense.
The company should seriously consider charging a premium for non-Vidabox owners to run the same client/server software on their own DIY HTPC's... THAT is what I would pay a premium for!
How hard would it be to get their software to work with any old WMC install?
"tablet control"
"iPad is first in line"
Imagine that.
@Engadget
Care to explain why I'm seeing this article even though I have an /exclude string a mile long including /exclude ipad?
It's awfully shady that you keep trying to circumvent our /exclude tags.
@Epyon You don't like web apps, media center pcs or android tablets? What are you reading Engadget for again?
@RichardLawler
Uh, I like all that stuff (sorta).
I only dislike the iPad being mentioned in every freaking article possible. If you're gonna put iPad in the title or your all-too-common hyperlinked name drops, then at least put "Apple" or such in the tags.
...actually, deploying this as strictly a web app should have been perfectly feasable and would have yielded a solution not tied specifically to the iPad.