I've tried a lot of different microphones from the kinect, modified baby monitors, CAD U7, conference mics, wall switch plate mics, headphones, Bluetooth mics, and I always seemed to have issues with them aside from a headset microphone. But the other day I found a couple of these old receiver surround sound configuration microphones.
(http://i.imgur.com/AkhxiVW.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/tNqAqga.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/rXfcDNn.jpg)
So Tiny
(http://i.imgur.com/znNP2hX.jpg)
Integrated it right into the armrest of my couch, its at a great angle for capturing my voice. I can be anywhere in my room speaking at a normal tone and it picks me up with great accuracy.
(http://i.imgur.com/r1CgdD2.jpg)
Almost every surround sound receiver ive ever purchased came with one of these microphones. Not sure if i just got lucky with the quality this thing works at or if they are all similar in quality but if you have one lying around and need a discrete microphone definately give this little guy a shot!
Yes, I'm using a very similar one from my Denon amp, while I'm still experimenting with VC. It doesn't work at a distance though, will only work maximum of around 5" away from mouth. I have mic input on the PC turned up to maximum.
I have a similar mic that came with my Onkyo receiver. I tried it and wasn't too impressed but I did not expect much from it so I didn't really try to tweak it much. These types of mics will give very different results depending on what they are plugged into. A good quality preamp will often make a big difference. Plugging a mic level input directly into your sound card can work but it will depend a lot on your sound card and possibly the computer itself in terms of noise.
Of course the mic that Sony uses could be totally different from the Onkyo one. I dont think they need to be great quality to deliver the correct info to the receiver during setup. I think they are mostly just used to measure distance and relative volume.