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ASRock Vision 3D HTPC... interesting.

post #1 of 387
5/25/10 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
Just saw this pop up over at engadget and figured I'd share it with the fine folks here.

ASRock Vision 3D HTPC sports Intel Core processor and USB 3, but you'll have to buy your own glasses (video)
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/a...and-usb-3-but/

Highlights:
- Intel HM55 Mobile Chipset.
- Core i5 and i7 (mobile) options, including i7 920M
- Nvidia 400-series mobile GPU
- Bitstreams TrueHD and DTS-MA audio via HDMI
- USB 3.0 x 4 -- 2 front, 2 rear.
- Cardreader
- Bluray Slot-drive
- Nvidia's 3D Vision Kit sold separately.

Tentative Release date: July 2010.

Now my only problem is having to wait for the reviews to pour in -- and the pricing -- before I pull the trigger on the custom built rig of my own that I just spent a week planning out...
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post #2 of 387
5/25/10 at 2:08pm
If they were smart, they price it at $400. $500 might be ok, but I have a feeling it'll be 600+
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post #3 of 387
5/25/10 at 2:10pm
Also I wonder if it can do properly 24p unlike the other h55 systems since this uses an nvidia card for the graphics it seems.
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post #4 of 387
5/25/10 at 2:24pm
I was just going to post a link to this article too, but palehorse beat me. Looks like a great HTPC based on the specs! I want it now!
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post #5 of 387
5/25/10 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ubercool View Post

I was just going to post a link to this article too, but palehorse beat me.

Sorry about that! :P

Quote:


Looks like a great HTPC based on the specs! I want it now!

I have the same problem: I need this to get released before July damnit! They had me at "bitstreamed HD audio"... but, it really comes down to price, so hopefully they release that info soon.

Computex is June 1-5, so maybe we'll get lucky...
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post #6 of 387
5/25/10 at 3:38pm
Anyone want to bet it doesn't get released, at least not in that enclosure. Once Steve Jobs gets a glimpse of it, that will be all she wrote.
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post #7 of 387
5/26/10 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by genro View Post

If they were smart, they price it at $400. $500 might be ok, but I have a feeling it'll be 600+

$400? Come on, let's be realistic. These days you really want Windows 7 64 bit and that means 4 gig of RAM is the way to go, add to that blu-ray drive, plus you want components with some degree of quality, not utterly crappy motherboard and power supply that will die after 3 months. I think $600 will be a reasonable price since this is a relatively niche product and not a cheap laptop from Acer/Dell/whatever where they expect to sell many thousands of them.

I now use a Mac Mini but I could use a second HTPC for the living room, so if the reviews are good may move the mac to the living room and put this into the main HT setup in the basement.
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post #8 of 387
5/26/10 at 6:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by durack View Post

$400? Come on, let's be realistic. These days you really want Windows 7 64 bit and that means 4 gig of RAM is the way to go, add to that blu-ray drive, plus you want components with some degree of quality, not utterly crappy motherboard and power supply that will die after 3 months. I think $600 will be a reasonable price since this is a relatively niche product and not a cheap laptop from Acer/Dell/whatever where they expect to sell many thousands of them.

I now use a Mac Mini but I could use a second HTPC for the living room, so if the reviews are good may move the mac to the living room and put this into the main HT setup in the basement.

For HTPC, there's no need for huge amounts of RAM. My ION 330 HTPC runs 2GB on a 32 bit Windows 7 install and plays 1080p and live TV perfectly.

Just my 2 cents, of course.
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post #9 of 387
5/26/10 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by durack View Post

$400? Come on, let's be realistic. These days you really want Windows 7 64 bit and that means 4 gig of RAM is the way to go, add to that blu-ray drive, plus you want components with some degree of quality, not utterly crappy motherboard and power supply that will die after 3 months. I think $600 will be a reasonable price since this is a relatively niche product and not a cheap laptop from Acer/Dell/whatever where they expect to sell many thousands of them.

I now use a Mac Mini but I could use a second HTPC for the living room, so if the reviews are good may move the mac to the living room and put this into the main HT setup in the basement.

For a HTPC 4GB of ram useless, so is a 64bit OS. You can do HD media playback with the 7MC frontend in the background with just 1.5GB.
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post #10 of 387
5/26/10 at 7:05pm
That depends.

I think this kind of PC, if done right, has potential to last you 4-5 years, as such 64 bit OS is more future-proof since more and more software will be optimized for 64 bit OS.

If you plan to upgrade in 2 years then I agree that 32 bit OS and 2 gigs of RAM are more than enough. To be honest, 2 gigs of RAM should be OK for 64 bit OS as well, I ran Windows 7 64 bit on 2 gigs for a while and only upgraded because of gaming needs, so I take back my remark about 4 gigs.
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post #11 of 387
5/26/10 at 7:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by palehorse View Post

Now my only problem is having to wait for the reviews to pour in -- and the pricing -- before I pull the trigger on the custom built rig of my own that I just spent a week planning out...

I suggest you definitely wait until reviews start popping up - it is very nice to just buy something, plug it in, tweak things a bit and just enjoy your movies.
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post #12 of 387
5/26/10 at 9:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by durack View Post

I suggest you definitely wait until reviews start popping up - it is very nice to just buy something, plug it in, tweak things a bit and just enjoy your movies.

My only problem is that I just completed my new WHS server last week and REALLY want to get a new main-room HTPC up and running ASAP to take advantage of the 1080p goodness I have sitting on the server. Right now, my laptop is sitting in as the temp HTPC, and it's been great to test everything with it. But, I want the real deal, and I'm NOT very good at this whole "patience" thing. LOL!

hmmm... decisions decisions...
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post #13 of 387
5/26/10 at 9:50pm
Everybody played the same waiting game with the Dell Zino, but at the end of the day, it didn't support bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. I assume the Zino supports 24p properly, but I've lost track of it.

The Engadget article says that the Asrock will have an Intel Core mobile processor and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU. Intel Core mobile does not necessarily mean Core i3, so bistreaming is not a given. According to this, the current NVIDIA GeForce GPUs don't bitstream. I'll put my money on the Asrock not bitstreaming.

Now, if you don't care about bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, I'm sure you'll be able to do eight channel LPCM on the Asrock. Of course, you can do that on the Dell Zino today... So,

Dell Zino - available now - no bitstreaming - no Blu-Ray
Asrock Vision 3D - available sometime - probably won't bitstream - should have Blu-Ray
Build Your Own - available now - bitstreams - has Blu-Ray

YMMV.
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post #14 of 387
5/26/10 at 10:04pm
I do realize that most of the articles on the Internet say "bitstreaming support for DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD via its included slot loading Blu-ray ROM optical drive". The emphasis is mine. That wording really screams to me that someone in the press is making assumptions. As we know, simply having a Blu-ray drive does not enable bitstreaming. At the moment, it requires an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or an ATI 5xxx. I'd feel much more optimistic if the articles said that the Asrock supports bistreaming because it has an Intel Core i3 processor, for example. Heck, I'd feel more comfortable if the articles referred to the processor as an Intel Core i3 mobile, instead of just an Intel Core mobile.
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post #15 of 387
5/26/10 at 10:19pm
I think the ASrock guy in the video says i3 and i7. I am pretty sure he did, but if you want to be sure, you probably would want to watch the video yourself.

To me (IMHO, YMMV) Zino was suspicious from the get go due to underpowered CPUs and subsequent reviews only confirmed my suspicions.
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post #16 of 387
5/27/10 at 4:03am
Quote:


I think the ASrock guy in the video says i3 and i7. I am pretty sure he did, but if you want to be sure, you probably would want to watch the video yourself.

Yep, you are right, that's what I heard as well. Actually, I think he said something like i7 for the enthusiast and i5 for the mainstream but I was having a hard time understanding him.
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post #17 of 387
5/27/10 at 4:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenEyez View Post

For a HTPC 4GB of ram useless, so is a 64bit OS. You can do HD media playback with the 7MC frontend in the background with just 1.5GB.

i don't understand why people complain about a system having too much ram (really is it that much more ram than you need?) or a 64bit OS.
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post #18 of 387
5/29/10 at 9:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAB View Post

Now, if you don't care about bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, I'm sure you'll be able to do eight channel LPCM on the Asrock. Of course, you can do that on the Dell Zino today... So,

Dell Zino - available now - no bitstreaming - no Blu-Ray
Asrock Vision 3D - available sometime - probably won't bitstream - should have Blu-Ray
Build Your Own - available now - bitstreams - has Blu-Ray

YMMV.

The guy in this video claims the Asrock has bitstream support:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Hwq...layer_embedded
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post #19 of 387
5/29/10 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAB View Post

Everybody played the same waiting game with the Dell Zino, but at the end of the day, it didn't support bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. I assume the Zino supports 24p properly, but I've lost track of it.

The Engadget article says that the Asrock will have an Intel Core mobile processor and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU. Intel Core mobile does not necessarily mean Core i3, so bistreaming is not a given. According to this, the current NVIDIA GeForce GPUs don't bitstream. I'll put my money on the Asrock not bitstreaming.

Now, if you don't care about bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, I'm sure you'll be able to do eight channel LPCM on the Asrock. Of course, you can do that on the Dell Zino today... So,

Dell Zino - available now - no bitstreaming - no Blu-Ray
Asrock Vision 3D - available sometime - probably won't bitstream - should have Blu-Ray
Build Your Own - available now - bitstreams - has Blu-Ray

YMMV.

hmm.. the guy in the video does say that it will support up to, and including, the i7 920M cpu. He also goes on to point out that it specifically supports HD audio bitsreaming.

That said, he could be wrong and/or something got lost in translation. However, if this thing does support the HD audio -- which IS very important to me -- then we might finally have a full-scope OTS solution with a mainstream pricetag.

maybe... possibly... we'll see?
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post #20 of 387
5/29/10 at 10:26pm
Yep. Would be excellent, if true, especially if it also gets 24p right.
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post #21 of 387
5/30/10 at 2:05am
Any one see size and weight or pics with the drives in place?

If it is affordable I will sell my Zino, which is nice and adequate for my needs.

Windows 7 64 bit 4 gigs and 3440 video card (512) and 6850E (Dual Core).
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post #22 of 387
5/31/10 at 7:57pm
Well, Computex has started, hopefully we'll know more details very soon.
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post #23 of 387
6/3/10 at 3:31am
There are pictures and a very limited review from Computex up on Engadget now. It looks like this will come in black (sweet) as well as silver. Along with the review of the Vision 3D is a review of a new iPhone App that turns your iPhone into a Wii control. So now we have a perfect way to take out both your iPhone and TV at the same time with one swipe of the hand - perfect.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/03/a...c-motion-cont/
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post #24 of 387
6/3/10 at 7:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenEyez View Post

For a HTPC 4GB of ram useless, so is a 64bit OS. You can do HD media playback with the 7MC frontend in the background with just 1.5GB.

Sure, but oddly enough my HTPC runs much, much smoother with 4gig and Win7 64 bit. I moved from W7 32bit and 2gig without any other hardware changes and I now say I would never build another 2gig computer.

Do you absolutely need it? No. Will it make the thing run better? Yes, 100%.

This is dirt simple to check. In the Resource Monitor, if you look at the memory hard faults per second that really represents the memory page swaps that are occuring. For me, a change from 2gig to 4gig make a huge difference in the hard faults, which means the computer isn't using the disk swap file nearly as much.

Peter
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post #25 of 387
6/3/10 at 7:24am
So how can it bitstream if it uses an nvidia gpu? I understand it says it has a new core cpu, but wont using the nivida gpu disable the onboard graphics?

You would need to have the hdmi hooked up to the mobo, thus disabling the nvidia gpu. Or am I missing something?
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post #26 of 387
6/3/10 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 View Post

So how can it bitstream if it uses an nvidia gpu? I understand it says it has a new core cpu, but wont using the nivida gpu disable the onboard graphics?

You would need to have the hdmi hooked up to the mobo, thus disabling the nvidia gpu. Or am I missing something?

That's the same question I have. The new article fails to mention bitstreaming and just says "7.1 audio" and "THX."

Unless there are two outputs, and it allows for some sort of hybrid dual-output solution, I don't see how this can handle the bitstreaming with the intel/nvidia combo.

Endadget folks should have asked, but they didn't.

My suspicion is that the first video was somehow mis-translated, and that it only handles 7.1 LPCM, but I hope I'm wrong...
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post #27 of 387
6/3/10 at 8:50pm
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/15417/..._on_in_taipei/

The rep at the show claims DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD through HDMI.
You can fast forward to 3:50 to hear it.
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post #28 of 387
6/3/10 at 9:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by durack View Post

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/15417/..._on_in_taipei/

The rep at the show claims DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD through HDMI.
You can fast forward to 3:50 to hear it.

But it doesn't make any sense unless they have some new set up no one has seen, right?
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post #29 of 387
6/3/10 at 9:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by durack View Post

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/15417/..._on_in_taipei/

The rep at the show claims DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD through HDMI.
You can fast forward to 3:50 to hear it.

I know what he says, but...

How exactly would that work with just a single HDMI port, nvidia gfx, and an intel cpu?
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post #30 of 387
6/3/10 at 10:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by palehorse View Post

I know what he says, but...

How exactly would that work with just a single HDMI port, nvidia gfx, and an intel cpu?

I agree, does not make sense unless they did some kind of hardware hack (which I doubt).

Either that or maybe some kind of direct pass-through when you play Blu-Ray disk.

I guess we'll have to wait for a HTPC enthusiast to review a finished product. I am not in a hurry but probably annoying for those who are wondering whether to start building their own custom rig.
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