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Dell Zino HD - New mini HTPC - Page 2

post #31 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ralphkaz View Post

So, will the base unit ($229) be powerful enough to run Win7 Media Center PVR/LiveTV if I combined this with a HDHomerun Dual QAM tuner (ability to record 2 shows while watching previously recorded)?

Hey Ralph,

I did not have that base unit nor do I have the HD Homerun so I can only offer speculation.

I suspect it would be OK, but I could not say for sure unless I were to test it out myself.
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post #32 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:33am
I'm looking at buying one of these with the 3250e dual core and the standard HD3200 video... looks like it should run 1080p H.264 content fine in that config, though I can always return it if not.

My question:
- Integrated 2.1 sound ... but it has an option to get the Sound Blaster X-Fi software "enabler" and it seems like that should give us 5.1 Dolby Digital over HDMI? Another deal breaker if not. Anyone have knowledge of how this Sound Blaster X-Fi deal works?
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post #33 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:43am
What is the chipset these guys are using in the Zinio? It would seem a natural fit for a 785G instead of using a lame 4330 discrete part.
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post #34 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Java Jack View Post

Hey Ralph,

I did not have that base unit nor do I have the HD Homerun so I can only offer speculation.

I suspect it would be OK, but I could not say for sure unless I were to test it out myself.

The HDhomerun doesn't add any more CPU load than a standard tuner card - you just have to have enough oomph to decode 1080i, which the 4330 should be able to do, though folks here have had issues with ATI cards below the 4650 in doing quality deinterlacing and other video processing.
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post #35 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeSM View Post

What is the chipset these guys are using in the Zinio? It would seem a natural fit for a 785G instead of using a lame 4330 discrete part.

The review said 780.

yeah id be curious how he 4330 handles, i know the 4350 is junk for tv.
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post #36 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by CDLehner View Post

Thanks for the reviews guys. I'm thinking about finally getting into an HTPC; the fact that no one seemed to be able to get all the components right out of the box was always a deterrent. It seemed, to get the box you wanted, you had to BYO, and futz and tweak, etc. It wasn't for me; I've gone the NMT route to this point.

However, like I said, I was finally looking to dive in. I was going to try and "convert" my old Inspiron 531S..then I thought about going with a Studio Hybrid, when I came across this Zino HD. It certainly looked like a leap forward in a small-form HT box...and now that it's gotten good reviews and an AVS stamp of approval, it seems like a no-brainer; especially at $229 (I'll probably bump to the 4330)!

CD


Are you planning on going with XBMC with this?
If so, are you concerned that this doesnt have an nvidia sound card, so no GPU acceleration?
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post #37 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:54am
How is 4350 junk? I have older 3450 and it's great for HD TV.
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post #38 of 5037
11/12/09 at 9:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by akirhol View Post

I'm looking at buying one of these with the 3250e dual core and the standard HD3200 video... looks like it should run 1080p H.264 content fine in that config, though I can always return it if not.

My question:
- Integrated 2.1 sound ... but it has an option to get the Sound Blaster X-Fi software "enabler" and it seems like that should give us 5.1 Dolby Digital over HDMI? Another deal breaker if not. Anyone have knowledge of how this Sound Blaster X-Fi deal works?

780 chipset supports DD/DTS 5.1 over HDMI so there is no reason to suspect that the Dell box can't do it unless they deliberately disabled it on the 780.

No reason to think they did so I suspect you can do DD/DTS 5.1 without the need of a discrete card add in. However, when I get my unit back from marketing, I will test it out with an AVR.
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post #39 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Java Jack View Post

Hello Lee,

The reason you don't find much info on those CPUs on our website is because they are OEM specific skus.

However, here are some specs.

2650e is a 1.6GHz CPU, single core
2850e is a 1.8Ghz CPU, single core
3250e is a 1.5Ghz CPU, dual core
6850e is a 1.8Ghz CPU, dual core
All are 25W parts

These are the same core architecture as our other desktop products. Therefore, they are more robust than the Atom for general purpose computing, etc.

Thanks for the info. Is there anywhere I can see some comparison at AMDs site that tells me how they compare? I see you work for AMD. No offense, but the website could use some tuning up, IMO. It is just too hard to figure out what you are looking for. I don't think it is crazy to think a consumer can copy the name of the processor off a vendor like Dell's site and get some hit at AMd's site as to what that is. In fact, there is lots of varying information available depending on which processor family you are looking at. Some have benchmarks and some do not. SOem have processor numbers and some do not. It really is confusing.

Can I assume that the 3250e is roughly a touch under twice as much computing power as the 2650e? Is the 6850e exactly twice the power of the 2850e? Any way to explain the ranking of the 2650e in what looks like a graveyard of older processors and Celerons? http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...D+Athlon+2650e Is there something wrong with their benchmarks and I should expect better performance?

AMD used to be the ticket for lower cost yet as good or better performance than Intel, but I have not checked on their specs for a few years, so I just want to know what I am potentially buying.
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post #40 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:10am
Wondering if it will do Hulu HD, Youtube HD for the basic version with single core 1.6Ghz Cpu...
I have a spare 1.4ghz 45w BE-2400 that might come in handy, but don't know if the bios will support it or if the socket is AM2 socket..
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post #41 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

How is 4350 junk? I have older 3450 and it's great for HD TV.

it was terrible compared the the intel x4500hd in terms of displaying hdtv content, i shipped the card back to newegg.

For instance a college football game on ABC had a terrible stutter and the score ticker was very jumpy.
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post #42 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mike_311 View Post

The review said 780.

yeah id be curious how he 4330 handles, i know the 4350 is junk for tv.

A 780G? One wonders what the point of the 4330 is then... If the 4350 is junk for TV, the 4330 will be worse. It's just a slower 4350. The 780G should be fine for HD playback.
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post #43 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:26am
I'm curious how a comparably-priced Zino HD would compare to one of the Intel CULV notebooks (e.g. Acer Aspire Timeline AS1410-2285, dual-core Celeron SU2300 1.2GHz, GMA 4500MHD - $400).

On an iPhone right now so I couldn't play with the configs but how much would the upgrade to a 3250e & HD4330 cost?
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post #44 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd View Post

I'm curious how a comparably-priced Zino HD would compare to one of the Intel CULV notebooks (e.g. Acer Aspire Timeline AS1410-2285, dual-core Celeron SU2300 1.2GHz, GMA 4500MHD - $400).

On an iPhone right now so I couldn't play with the configs but how much would the upgrade to a 3250e & HD4330 cost?

Right now it appears you can't buy a Zino without a display, so the laptop will be cheaper.
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post #45 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:31am
780G is junk for 1080p stuff. I have it and had to upgrade to 3450
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post #46 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeSM View Post

Right now it appears you can't buy a Zino without a display, so the laptop will be cheaper.

that's not true. Check the site again. I just ordered one as a matter of fact without display
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post #47 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chanakya View Post

Wondering if it will do Hulu HD, Youtube HD for the basic version with single core 1.6Ghz Cpu...
I have a spare 1.4ghz 45w BE-2400 that might come in handy, but don't know if the bios will support it or if the socket is AM2 socket..

I think you would be OK. The part I was running was a 1.5Ghz dual core. However, I don't believe that Flash is multithreaded, though I could be mistaken here as I have not looked at their code support in some time.
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post #48 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

780G is junk for 1080p stuff. I have it and had to upgrade to 3450

I disagree. I have been running BD's just fine on the MSI 7411 which is a 780 based uATX board.

780 is fine for 1080p content.
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post #49 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Java Jack View Post

I disagree. I have been running BD's just fine on the MSI 7411 which is a 780 based uATX board.

780 is fine for 1080p content.

yes bluray is fine with 780g, but have you tried running media center on your 1080p tv or watching 1080p video files, like mkv? It's not smooth at all
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post #50 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

780G is junk for 1080p stuff. I have it and had to upgrade to 3450

I have a 780G part in a laptop, and it plays back 1080i content just fine. No stutter, etc... It's not as nice as the 785G, but for should play back HD formats fine. But the low end 43XX cards seem to have issues that the IGP's seem to be able to avoid.
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post #51 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

yes bluray is fine with 780g, but have you tried running media center on your 1080p tv or watching 1080p video files, like mkv? It's not smooth at all

What codecs are you using? I have played with 7MC on my 780G based laptop, and it seemed fine, but I run SageTV in production, so I can't say I use 7MC on that platform on a day to day basis.
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post #52 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:40am
i use klite code pack. Anyway, it's been over 1.5 years ago, I've since been using 3450 and it's been great to me.
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post #53 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee L View Post

Thanks for the info. Is there anywhere I can see some comparison at AMDs site that tells me how they compare? I see you work for AMD. No offense, but the website could use some tuning up, IMO. It is just too hard to figure out what you are looking for. I don't think it is crazy to think a consumer can copy the name of the processor off a vendor like Dell's site and get some hit at AMd's site as to what that is. In fact, there is lots of varying information available depending on which processor family you are looking at. Some have benchmarks and some do not. SOem have processor numbers and some do not. It really is confusing.

Can I assume that the 3250e is roughly a touch under twice as much computing power as the 2650e? Is the 6850e exactly twice the power of the 2850e? Any way to explain the ranking of the 2650e in what looks like a graveyard of older processors and Celerons? http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...D+Athlon+2650e Is there something wrong with their benchmarks and I should expect better performance?

AMD used to be the ticket for lower cost yet as good or better performance than Intel, but I have not checked on their specs for a few years, so I just want to know what I am potentially buying.

No offense taken. I have little control/influence over our web layout and I do understand your frustration.

The compare site that we have for DT CPUs:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx

However, it does not reflect OEM specific processors.

As for model number methodology, that goes way back to our Felltop program. Performance/computing power is really relative to the application you are running. Is the program multithreaded or single threaded? Does it use s/w optimizations for extended instructions sets (like SSE, etc.).

Here is a blub on the 3250e from a review site.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...10760&Itemid=1
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post #54 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:47am
Looks like a very exciting platform. Does anyone have it yet? I can't find much in the form of real reviews just rehashing of marketing material. I'm mostly interested in the following information from owners or reviews:

1. How loud is the machine (fan noise, HD, cd/dvd/br drive?)
2. Will the minimum spec'd machine with a BR drive able to play BR's?
3. Is there some kind of infrared port that I can control MCE (or whatever else) with a remote?
4. As someone else asked earlier, is it powerful enough to handle DVR duties with a USB or network based tuner such as HDHomeRun?

Once again, this looks pretty promising and exciting. Unfortunately I don't know anything about the AMD/ATI platforms compared to the Intel/nVidia stuff so I don't really know how powerful this box really is.
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post #55 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

i use klite code pack. Anyway, it's been over 1.5 years ago, I've since been using 3450 and it's been great to me.

That pack doesn't take advantage of the Avivo hardware assist for decoding, just DXVA if I am correct. I have had pretty good luck with the cyberlink MPEG codecs that come with powerdvd, and the arcsoft ones that come with TMT. In particular, configuring the advanced video settings on the PDVD video config menu to use hardware de-interlacing with automatic settings deliver very good 1080i deinterlacing on the 780G.

The ATI hardware with the right codecs and tweaked configs deliver a nicer image than my SageTV HD200's Sigma based hardware decoder (it's an extender). But the extender does a good job out of the box without tweaking, while the ATI hardware needs some work to look good.
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post #56 of 5037
11/12/09 at 10:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ///3oris View Post

Looks like a very exciting platform. Does anyone have it yet? I can't find much in the form of real reviews just rehashing of marketing material. I'm mostly interested in the following information from owners or reviews:

1. How loud is the machine (fan noise, HD, cd/dvd/br drive?)
2. Will the minimum spec'd machine with a BR drive able to play BR's?
3. Is there some kind of infrared port that I can control MCE (or whatever else) with a remote?
4. As someone else asked earlier, is it powerful enough to handle DVR duties with a USB or network based tuner such as HDHomeRun?

Once again, this looks pretty promising and exciting. Unfortunately I don't know anything about the AMD/ATI platforms compared to the Intel/nVidia stuff so I don't really know how powerful this box really is.

I provided some of that in my blog...

http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD

But to your specific questions,

1) It was very quiet. I left it on (not sleeping but fully powered up) overnight in my bedroom and it was only barely notible.

2) I am waiting on a BD enabled machine now, but I think even the unit I had could have done BD. However, it was taken from me for some marketing stuff before I could get to testing BD. I should get it back this week to continue testing.

3) No Ir port. However there are 4 USB ports so you could just pick up a cheap USB Ir+remote solution and get remote functionality that way.

4) I had a single ATSC tuner hooked up and did DVR in HD just fine. Going to get a splitter and hook up 2 tuners when I get it back.
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post #57 of 5037
11/12/09 at 11:09am
I tried to build an alternative mini ITX PC for HTPC solution and couldn't get within the same budget. Not to mention I couldn't find any itx case that I liked.
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post #58 of 5037
11/12/09 at 11:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Java Jack View Post

Hello Lee,

The reason you don't find much info on those CPUs on our website is because they are OEM specific skus.

However, here are some specs.

2650e is a 1.6GHz CPU, single core
2850e is a 1.8Ghz CPU, single core
3250e is a 1.5Ghz CPU, dual core
6850e is a 1.8Ghz CPU, dual core
All are 25W parts

These are the same core architecture as our other desktop products. Therefore, they are more robust than the Atom for general purpose computing, etc.

Are you sure these are 25W parts? No 25W CPU's are listed on the CPU chart you referenced earlier (http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx).

If so, since no other CPU's are listed as available on the Zino HD, should I assume that only 25W parts will work on that motherboard/PSU configuration?
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post #59 of 5037
11/12/09 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by klas View Post

I tried to build an alternative mini ITX PC for HTPC solution and couldn't get within the same budget. Not to mention I couldn't find any itx case that I liked.

At 229, nothing comes close except for a low end celeron laptop (on sale yesterday for $249 or an acer revo (atom/ion) for $179.

It's too bad you have to buy the disk and ram from dell - a lot of us have these parts lying around, esp since it's a 3.5 inch drive, and a $69 WD 1 TB GP drive is a really nice match for this. At least you can ebay the swapped out components.
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post #60 of 5037
11/12/09 at 11:30am
I really want to buy one and I have no need for one.
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