Official Dell Zino 410 HTPC - Page 6

Not sure if price talk is allowed, but they dropped the price of the top end config by $100 today. It's labeled Dell Zino HD, and appears to have the same specs as the Ultimate Entertainment bundle (or whatever option 4 is).

And yet I still cant get a dual-core Zino with a blu-ray built in, instead I'd have to pay for the excessive RAM and Quad core I don't need or want, that is just silly.

Very strange that they would offer the same thing for a different price... I wonder if they're working on other options.

I had a $350 dell credit from american express so I just picked up the high end config with the trackball/keyboard combo and media remote for under $400. I can't see them dropping the price much more than $650 for a fully loaded solution anytime soon.

it's dell, they do this all the time and there is no logic behind it.
basically all they did was create a new item with a $100 larger "instant rebate".

I hope and pray this is to clear out some inventory of prebuilt items to allow for more customization in the near future, but i'm not holding my breath.

as usual with dell, it's best to buy the minimum and build it up to what you want yourself rather than overbuy based on their craptastic configs.

personally i'm not even going to swap out yo the br drive in mine anymore as i'll just mount images from my network and run em that way instead.
less noise, less heat, less hassle, less money.

My Zino's fan started making a whirring noise. It was dead silent for about a week and when I came home today it was making this annoying whirring noise. I restarted and that didn't help. I really don't want to send it back to Dell to get it repaired as I just got the thing and don't want to wait weeks to get it back. Has anybody else experienced something similar with either the current or even former Zino, and if so, do you have a solution short of sending it back?

Edit: Nevermind, I just flicked the back of it and the problem went away. Good ol' human ingenuity

Hi. I'm interested in the Dell Zino 410. Basically, all I need it to do is to play 1080p and 720p MKV files and output it to my projector. Can someone answer if the basic $299 version is capable of smooth 1080p mkv playback?

If the mkv's are encoded to support hardware acceleration (dxva) then it may do it, otherwise that's only a single core processor. I'm not even sure you'll be able to handle high bitrate 720p rips in software although I haven't had a single core processor or run a non multithreaded decoder for some time.

Thanks for the reply! Well, most of the MKV's I play are dxva encoded. So I guess the question does the ATI 4250 support dxva? WOuld you recommend upgrading to the X2 P340 Dual Core processor then?

OK, got my Zino in today (yay fedex saturday delivery of regular shopped items!).

Couple of quick notes on teardown.

7 screws to get everything out, all simple #2 phillips. so no drama there.

i got the $499.00 more power version, and BOOOOO! no installed IR receiver, so you must have to order it with the dell remote to get it internally installed, unless Java Jack wants to tell us the DP/N on it so we can try to order it separately.
(look here: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1186672 and if you wouldn't mind telling us the DP/N it should be able to be ordered as a replacement part, the tag should be wrapped around the cable. Thank you in advance if you can do this)

standard tray load laptop optical drive, once you remove the top cover and top inner cover, it slides out the front for replacement.

standard 3.5" hard drive, Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 rpm in my case. Hard mounted to the inner cage which is hard mounted to the case inner walls, so if your drive makes noise, it will radiate. something to consider if replacing with a bigger drive.

an interesting note, the wireless antennae wires are actually routed up to the top of the case so that when everything is installed, only the black plastic top cover is between them and the "world".

fan is multi-speed system controlled 4 wire fan. so you "could" hack that for better control or use software controllers if you like.

there are two standard sata ports on the board, but only 1 four wire power (adapter to the HDD) and one 2 wire power (adapter to the optical drive).

there appears to be enough space to replace the OPT drive with another 2.5" drive pretty easily, even if it was one of the taller 2.5" drives, but power would need to be split off from the 4 wire power for the HDD somehow.

I'll be playing with this and setting it up for Blu ray playback this weekend, and then probably can post specific pictures or test specific items for people.

I just tried out a 1080p MKV of The Dark Knight (11.1GB file) and it worked flawlessly on my Zino. Of course, I have the dual core, but still have the integrated graphics.

The base one might work for HD, but I would highly suggest getting at least the dual core. It's only a little bit more and will save you a ton of grief in the long run.

R1Budha, thanks for the tear down! If JJ gets back to us with the info on the IR sensor and you find it online, could you post a link here for those of us interested in getting it too? Thanks!

I posted this in the older Zino thread, but I'll post it here for your benefit too. Microsoft's store has a 35% off coupon (Coupon Code: 70EEBF44AA694760AA6) on the fully-loaded Zino 400 HD with the AMD 6850e dual-core processor, discrete ATI 4330 512 MB graphics card, Blu-ray, and 1 TB HD for $454 AC + tax and 4.99 shipping. The deal expires today I think. I went ahead and pulled the trigger since I can't find anything else in that price range with those specs and the mini form factor for my HT.

Seems to be a much better deal than forking over $750+ for the highest-end zino 410. It's annoying that dell has only allowed the top model to have a blu-ray option available.

Ok, got everything installed and setup and here are my conclusions so far.

First my setup.
1. Dell ZinoHD 410
Windows 7 x64 Home Premium (will be doing an anytime upgrade to Professional in the next day or so so i can remote into it as necessary)
AMD Athlon™ II X2 P340
4GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333Mhz
500GB SATA hard drive
ATI HD5450 Mobility Radeon
Tray load CD/DVD burner

Hardware I added
Microsoft Media Center Remote and IR Receiver
Logitech MX 3200 Wireless Mouse and Keyboard

Software Installed
AnyDVDHD
Virtual Clone Drive
ArcSoft Total Media Theater 3 Platinum
Shark007 Codec Package with x64 Components
MyMovies 3.18 PR3
Microsoft Security Essentials

Software Removed
Dell Datasafe Local and Online
McAfee Security 30 day trial
Roxio Burn
Windows Live Essentials

Software Updated
Windows 7 with all current updates Critical and Optional updates as of 10/16/2010
Adobe Flash 10.1 to current version 10.1.85.3
Microsoft Silverlight to current version via Windows Updates

The computer is connected to my network via Ethernet. The network is a gigabit network running via Netgear 16 port Switch and Netgear WNR3500 Router then to 20/2 cable connection.

All Blu Ray and DVD ISO's are stored on network connected storage via 4x2TB striped RAID windows software arrays. Encoded video stored on 4x1.5TB windows software striped RAID array. Total video storage on network = 38TB


2. Sony STR-DN1000 AV Receiver
Dell ZinoHD 410 connected via HDMI cable.

3. Sony 42" 1080p24 60Hz Bravia LCD (2007 Model, i'm to lazy to turn it around and look, however it was the high-en model at the time)
Sony A/V Receiver hooked to TV via HDMI cable.

4. 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
Cerwin Vega tower speakers circa 2000
Cerwin Vega Dual speaker center channel speaker circa 2000
JBL surround sound speakers circa 2000
JBL Subwoofer circa 2000

Ok, now that all of that is out of the way, here's the nuts and bolts of it.

My purpose with this system is to playback Blu Ray and DVD movies with any and all Audio sources available including DTSHD and Dolby TrueHD from network storage on multiple tv's throughout the house.
I also playback encoded video, mostly TV episodes downloaded via "other means", Netflix instant watch movies and TV series, and some limited other media uses including some audio file playback (mostly MP3 and WMA files from my ZunePass account and ripped CD collection). In short, it is a media consumption device, not a recording device.

Currently I am using Dell Studio Hybrids for this purpose, however the Intel X3100 GPU's are not satisfactory for 1080p playback and they would do 5.1 digital sound (but not HD sources) but only pre-decoded then sent to the receiver.
Basically the SH's were not fit for 1080p playback other than some low bitrate mkv and similar sources. And even those were a stretch.

I use MyMovies 3 (3.18PR3 currently, and no, I don't want to hear what you use, nor do i care) for my back end collection management and front end 10' WMC interface.
ArcSoft TMT3 Platinum was selected as the Blu Ray playback software of choice as it allows full HD audio and has no limitations on the source of the files (it will play ISO files without any problems) as well as for it's better integration with Windows Media Center and MyMovies.

Virtual CloneDrive is used as the virtual drive software for mounting of DVD and Blu Ray ISO images due to my preference over other software and it's ease of integration with MyMovies.

AnyDVDHD is used for decryption purposes and to offset any potential problems with HDCP.

system setup
Removal of all non-desired software was accomplished first, then the system was rebooted.

Installation of all new software was accomplished and then the system rebooted.

Updates were run, including MSSE updates, Flash Updates, Silverlight Updates, and all Windows Updates and then the system was rebooted.

Overscan was set to 0% inside the ATI CCC software which created a fullscreen picture with no overscan (default was 15% which left approx 3" ll around desktop display)

HDMI Audio playback speaker configuration was set and tested inside Windows.

Windows Media Center was started and setup was run for Internet Connection, Display device(1080p resolution), and speaker configuration.

MyMovies was started and playback of DVD mounted image was determined to be working. Audio was labeled Dolby Digital on receiver display.

Playback of Blu Ray mounted image (Zombieland with audio set to English 5.1 DTSHD Master Audio) from inside MyMovies was initiated and TMT3 was started and playback began within 20 seconds. During actual movie playback, audio was labeled Linear PCM on receiver display.


My conclusions
So far, I would have to label the unit a success.
It accomplishes all of the goals i had for it, and allows me to playback all of the video as I desired.
Playback appears smooth and stutter free, audio appears to be working as I desire (unless I'm missing something in my terminology), and menu transitions are crisp with no signs of delay or stuttering as sometimes happned to the SH's.

As a side note, I may change out the optical drive for a blu ray drive as i have one hear, however, since i mainly use this as a consumption device and have other BR drives on other computers which are more user friendly for ISO creation, I most likely won't.

I will be loading my Steam account onto the computer just to do some testing of game play, and see how it does. However my "gaming" is usually of older games so don't expect me to be taxing it all that much. My "newest" games are probably either Left 4 Dead or Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.

If you have any specific questions, or want any specific test videos played (as long as they are legal) or similar, feel free to ask. I'm not going to be ripping the unit apart again at this time (unless i can come up with the P/N for the IR add in board), so don't ask.

I'll be watchign the unit for signs of overheating and similar problems based on the previous Zino's history as well as ensuring all operations continue as described.
I'll report any additional issues / problems as they appear.

Wireless N cards are backward compatible with b/g access points. You will however be limited to the speed of your acces point (g is 54mbps).

Dell seems to have learnt its lesson

I am yet to open up the case, but 30 minutes into running Prime95 + Furmark, and the CPU temperature hasn't gone past 75 C, while GPU is at 68 C! Fan is at 3444 rpm, and the unit seems to be pretty stable even in these stressful conditions.

Would have liked idle power to be a little lower, but that is AMD's issue, I guess.. when compared with the Intel Arrandale based HTPCs..

Anything in particular you guys would like us to cover in the review? Our review config is the 4 core Blu-Ray equipped 5450 model.

Hi jakmal, thank you so much for taking the time out of post your very detailed review/test of the new ZINO HD 410, it's been very helpful!!

Is there any way you can find out if the eSata port on the new 410's are port multiplier compatible? I need this feature to support external eSata storage towers with multiple drives.

Thanks!

Preferably some multi-tasking. Like recording a HD show via the tvguide while at the same time watching a blu-ray.

What are the average temps for this (including ambient temps) when using Windows Media Center? How noisy is it? Also is there a high pitched whining?

I posted a picture of the IR unit on the previous page. The PN is listed on the PCB for the IR.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post19334743

It's a little blurry, but I am pretty sure it is 02CXVG.

Quick question and a little confusion. When I click on the media remote the description instead talks about the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 TV tuner, is the tuner built in already to this system? I don't see it listed anywhere.

For north america, it is under the Electronics and Accessories tab.

The tv tuner doesn't appear to be in that section either... I think it might be a bug on the website because it's describing the remote with the info for the tv tuner.

Good, I thought I might be going blind So is there a way to add the tuner, is it already included? I'm ready to pull the trigger and would have already done so if these had more options and documentation.

You cannot add an internal TV tuner to it, however, you could use an external USB TV Tuner with the Zino. I don't know if Dell plans on adding a USB TV Tuner option or not.

However, whether they add it or not, you could use your preference of USB tuners on the market.

I did some testing with the ATI TV Wonder 750 (internal reference design) and it worked great. However, Avermedia, Hauppauge, and others all have USB tuners that should work as well.

Sorry, meant the media remote is under the Electronics and Accessories section. For TV Tuners, not sure if Dell will be offering that as an option or not.

There is no way to add an internal TV tuner to the Dell Zino unless you were to find a mini PCIe option and even then you would still have an issue of hacking the box to mount the coax connector. Therefore, USB TV Tuner is the best option.

I have 2 Gyration Air Music remotes and 1 regular Gyration remote.

In all, I like them all quite a bit. I do find that I really don't use the Air Music for it's intended purpose (being able to launch music playback without powering up the TV screen), but it does work well if you wanted it for that functionality.

The only problem I have run into with the Air music remote is that on one of the remotes, the battery cover was a little loose (batteries stayed in fine). I just found it a little annoying when you pick up the remote and you can feel the cover loose with your fingers.

The only complaint I have about the Gyration remotes is that they did not keep the button layout the same from the regular air remote to the air music remote. For example, the back button was moved as were the guide button and movies button. I wish they would have kept the layout on the air music the same as the air remote. Now I have to remember which remote I have in my hand so that I am pressing a button, I get the expected action. If that makes sense.

I'd be interested to see if the zino's with the P340 and P940 processors could easily handle 1080p flash video without gpu acceleration. That would tell me everything I need to know about the processors and whether it's worth buying another zino (I have the top config from the previous generation, 6850/4330, and it's not as powerful as I would like).

I would appreciate if anyone who has the 4250 version can post if they can run full screen hulu(480P) and Netflix(HD) at 1080P with zero stuttering(assuming your network is fast enough) or if I would need to have the dedicated card for that.

Thanks

Jakmal.

Is the quad core over kill or under kill? From a HTPC point of view I think the AMD Athlon™ II X2 P340 would be a better fit than the AMD Phenom™ II X4 P940. Certainly from a cost point of view. 6 GB of ram is also overkill for a HTPC.

Did yours come with the Media remote? And therefore included the optional IR unit?

One problem that a lot of people had with the old system was video stuttering in Media Center when MC was overlaying.