Official Dell Zino 410 HTPC - Page 5

Got my Zino yesterday and hooked it up to my TV right away. Same as with the Zino 400, you have to overscan to fill the screen, but it was easy to do through CCC. The system certainly feels snappy, I tried playing a video through WMC and went back to the menu while the video played, worked with zero lag.

I only got to play with it for a few minutes yesterday. Going to do more testing with it today once I run an Ethernet cable to my living room. Btw, the wireless trackball keyboard is the perfect HTPC keyboard. It's absolutely tiny but still fully usable for a person with big hands.

Only issue I've come across is that my Media Center remote doesn't seem to work with the built in IR port out of the box. Gonna look around to see how to get that working, unless somebody here already has a solution.

can you post pictures of the keyboard with trackball?

I've attached some comparison shots with an iPhone 4 and an iPad to give you a better idea of its size. As you can tell, it's incredibly small but as I said before, it's perfectly usable by a man with large hands.

I still haven't figured out a solution for getting an MCE remote working with the built in IR port. Anybody have any ideas? I really want to avoid having to connect my MCE receiver to this.

It seems odd Dell don't offer a remote as an option given the unit appears to have a IR port.

Thank you for pictures! Love the keyboard, does it feel solid?

The remote option is listed under the Electronics and Accessories tab (near top on customize order menu).

I am trying to confirm if the IR sensor is by default included or if that is an upgrade option. I suspect it is an upgrade option.

Yea, pretty solid for a small, thin keyboard. It has a rubber bumper on the bottom, so it doesn't just slide around all over the place, which is definitely nice.


The user guide states that it's optional and I see no mention of an IR port in Device Manager. I'm beginning to suspect that all I have have is an empty IR window on the front of my Zino.

If the IR is optional then it would appear that the only way yo get is to order the optional Media Remote for $25.00. I can't find a way to just add the IR.

My test unit has the remote + IR.

Thanks. That works for Dell.com but not for Dell UK / Europe....sigh. I spoke to them and person I spoke too didn't even know what IR was.

Unfortunately, there is no uniform process as each region chooses what options are available to their local customers.

Perhaps if enough customers ask for it, they will make it available.

The thought has crossed my mind but I'm not sure whether I want to tinker.

I'm using HDMI for sound.

I posted my specs on the previous page.

So the only way to configure this with a Blu Ray drive is to have a processor I don't want and more memory than I need? Why do they need to be so restrictive in configuring this thing? Let us do it up how we want it!

I am waiting for final approval on the blog post now. Once I get that, I should be able to get it posted. I do open up the box and have a couple of pictures of the inside so people can see some of the differences, including where the IR sensor mounts.

The $ difference between the "More Power" model and the "Premium" model is +$250. An option would be to get the "More Power" model and then swap out the included DVD drive with a BD drive. Should be able to to pick up a internal BD drive for around $100.00. The question is what form factor do you need the BD drive to do the swap out. Maybe JavaJack could give some insight in what would berequired. Another possibility would be to use an external BD palyer and plug it in to one of the USB connectors.

this is exactly what i am going to do.

i have both a slot load and a tray load laptop BD rom drive and will be swapping one of them (hopefully) into the "more power" unit.
As soon as my unit comes in I will be doing a quick internal inspection to see what it does come with and posting pictures.

I also have an external cased Desktop BD drive i could use, but would prefer not too.

I'll be hooking mine up to a Sony STR-DN1000 receiver via HDMI and from there onto a Sony 46" LCD via HDMI out from the receiver.

My goal will be to play back BD Iso's via TMT3 Platinum from within the WMC interface in conjunction with MyMovies.
I'm only running 5.1 speakers but should be able to test for proper bitstreaming of DTSHD and DolbyHD to the receiver.


So if anyone wants specific questions answered about that config, let me know and I will try to accommodate them.

The physical dimensions and base design is very much the same as the original Zino. Therefore, the ODD is a slim line, tray load drive like you would find on any laptop. You could replace it with a slim line slot load drive and it would probably work.

I have the BD drive from the original Zino that I will be trying in there at some point, I just have not had time. I also need to remember to bring a disc in so I can test out playback. I keep forgetting my movies at home and don't have any here at the office.

I just got my zino hd a few days ago. No go on the IR with several remotes. If the IR is missing? Where can I buy one and where does it connect to?

most likely the only way is to buy the part from dell and it should connect to an internal USB header of some sort.

you might be able to remove the actual IR receiver from an existing external and make it fit, but that is very YMMV.

Why is it so hard for Dell to list some details about accessories? They provide zero information. You click on the media remote and you get a picture and a price, that's it! Same with the "Dell Wireless Trackball Keyboard." Picture, price, that's it. Why do I have to turn to AV forums for something as simple as finding out how big the damn keyboard is?? Thanks for the pics btw KashEsq!

I used the Dell chat feature to ask a rep if they had plans to give more HD options for all versions (I want 1TB for the "More Power" version) and to ask for more details about the Remote, Keyboard, and whether there is an IR sensor, RF sensor, or bluetooth sensor built in. He suggested emailing the engineering team at us_con_sl_apos_chat@dell.com.

EDIT: I reread the chat and the above email does not go directly to the engineers, it goes to reps who can pass the email on to engineers. Anyway, I hope more people will try to contact Dell to request more HD options. Or maybe post your complaint/question here: http://en.community.dell.com/dell-bl...ore-power.aspx

If you check the comments, you'll see that Dell already made some good changes to the options based on what people wrote there.

That's odd, an image of the keyboard was showing up on the website the last time I checked (though it wasn't when I bought my Zino).

However, I got a look at what both the keyboard and remote look like before I purchased my Zino in this Engadget article: http://i.engadget.com/2010/09/23/del...e-and-zino-hd/

I got this set up (below) at the beginning of the month for about $438 with tax and shipping. Since, I've seen the prices go up and all over the place with the configuration options. I did not order the remote because I have two with usb IR receivers. After opening and setting up the Zino, I noticed that it had an IR window, but unfortunately it does not work with my remotes (or is missing the ir setup).

The only thing I bought as an upgrade from the original set up was the 4gb memory and wireless adapter. I was not big on anything else because Im using the Zino to watch recorded tv (streaming from another computer), hulu, and netflix on my flat screen tv. Im also using an ipod touch for my keyboard and mouse with "airmouse" app over wifi.


Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 P340 Dual Core Processor, 2.2GHz, 1MB
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz- 2 DIMMs
Hard Drive: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Integrated Graphics
Wireless - WNA1100 Wireless-N 150 USB Adapter

Why did you buy a wireless adapter? Doesn't it come with integrated 802.11n?

Finally had a chance to play with my new Zino. I got the AMD Phenom II P940 Quad, 8 gigs of memory(overkill, I know), the ATI Radon 5450, 1 trig of storage, and the Bluray.

Processor 6.4
Ram 7.1
Graphics 5.0
Gaming Graphics 6.2
Hard Disk 5.9

I have it connected to my Panasonic Plasma via the HDMI, and had to connect the sound to the from the tv to my very old sony receiver via the composite cables. Next investment will be a new receiver with HDMI and Optical, but for now I cannot give a good assessment of the sound.

Didn’t get the remote so I know nothing about the IR.

I was concerned when the test came back with only 5.0 for graphics, not exactly what I was hoping for on an entertainment system, but I have nothing complain about with the results. So far I have only had a chance to watch Iron Man 2 on Bluray and streamed this weeks Chuck from NBC.com. The picture on both was perfect and I experienced no stuttering or freezing even though I am only using g-wireless network.

Easy setup, no excessive heat or noise, except maybe the spinning of the bluray is a bit louder than my folks’ conventional player. Still you can only hear it briefly when loading or right after selecting a menu option.

I will let you know if I run across anything, but as a complete newbie with my first HTPC, I probably have more questions than answers. Any advice on set up or software to ad is appreciated. I would be happy to run any test or programs that anyone wants me to try out.

Attached is a picture of the inside that I snapped. You can see the IR sensor (lower right corner of picture) mounted to the front of the chassis and cabled down to the board.

Near the back, upper left of the picture, you can see the mini PCIe slot where the wireless adapter sits.

Additional pictures are of bottom of board and closer look at IR sensor mount.

The integrated wifi card was not available for my configuration. It works great with the adapter, the only downside is that it takes up a usb port. I wanted to buy the pci card separately from dell, but I was not sure if it came with the antenna extender cables that lay below the top cover.

Gray and black cables below.