Zotac AD10 - in case anyone is interested (2 Viewers)

[foxbenw]

Hmmmm, yes, quite a few things I don't know about there.
But, so far 3 frames dropped out of 5000. How long should I leave it for? Bearing in mind it's bridget jones.

Edit:
12 dropped from 20000. I assume that's alright? What's a low number?
Btw it says video 1440 x 1080, with display 1920 x 1080, same as bbc hd.
I'm crystal palace, pre switchover. Don't know if that is why.
Ben

 

[porky996t]

That seems a decently low dropped frame rate for HD. Certainly lower than the dropped frame rate I get from my Zotac ID41's.

Was Bridget Jones ( you secretly recorded it didn't you ) on BBC or ITV? BBC broadcast their HD on 1440 x 1080, whilst ITV HD is 1920 x 1080, or it is in my area (Granada, from Winter Hill).

What were the coloured graph lines like? Flat or spikey? (Flat is good, spikey is not so good)




M.

 

[foxbenw]

I just looked and itv London is 1440, Granada is 1920.
The lines were more like a sin wave than flat. So much so that I thought it was supposed to be like that. It was very regular.
All this is still on homeplug. I'll check wifi later hopefully.
Ben

Edit: just checked and the TiVo box didn't record Bridget jones. I think I'm ok...

 

[porky996t]

I run my Zotac clients off AV200 Homeplugs and they run fine. I did a bandwidth check of the network when streamingfull HD and it used about 36Mbps. I can stream SD stuff OK-ish wirelessly to my laptop if it is near the router, but it is no good for HD; too much interference and other networks nearby.


Phew... you were lucky with that Bridget Jones

 

[revs]

Hows the performance of the MediaPortal UI? (i.e. going in and out of TV Series/Films, scrolling through thumbnails in films or moving pictures)

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi foxbenw,

Can you please do a screen capture of when you have the render stats on the screen (while watching ITV Granada HD) - you cn simply press f11 to do a screen capture (places the image in the my pictures\mediaportal folder). I'm curious to see this "sinewave" of yours

As for the UI - I have found the biggest improvement is the use of a SSD instead of HDD - that really made my client alot more snappy.

J.

 

[foxbenw]

Revs
I'm not happy with my movie data so haven't loaded all DVDs etc into any of the three main movies plugins.
But, will run the scan for videos overnight and check the cover flow view.

However, I do have about 700 shows in tv series over c 15 different series and it's very smooth, inc cover flow. Moving between menus etc has all been perfect.

Since this is the first time I'm setting up a 'proper' client which is not supposed to do anything else i'm coming across various issues which have stopped me trying out other skins as yet. Eg can't get more than a few buttons on the remote to work, can't play bluray mkv rip without stuttering (a local file), can't find a good media database that imports uk cover art and also recognises my folder structure blurays properly, Can't play sound at all on bbc one hd. However none of these are related to the zotac, which seems to be powerful enough. (don't think the mkv bluray issue is a processor issue)


So far I have to say I think it is fantastic. The fan is not noisy but I don't want to sleep with it on. Video playback with well supported files on my current setup has been great, and watching live tv has shown no problems whatsoever.

I think my biggest problems are the bluray mkv playback and the remote. But I think I'll get another remote anyway as the plastic mce ones always look a bit rubbish I think. So I'll be concentrating on the mkv issue and praying it's not apu power that is causing it.
Ben

 

[foxbenw]

Jay
Screenshot attached. OK, so not quite sine wave but it tends to be pretty regular, and is what it looked like the other night. I've no idea what it means though! There are significantly more dropped frames tonight. That is an issue with my network connection. The AV 500 seems to be getting some interference somewhere. Need to sort that out as well. Think i might just go and buy a vhs from somewhere and forget about these new fangled computer-ma-bobs.
This is ITV london hd though not granada, i don't have granada. when i said 'i looked' at the resolution i meant i googled.
i think if i had granada it'd be 1920 like you.

Ben

Edit: changed codecs to Microsoft for video, lav for audio and it's the same as before with dropped frames. But I know my av 500 is still too slow. I got a 20meg speed using a file transfer test. Not sure that'll do bluray files properly from what I've read. Also, already on a ssd. I assumed that's be a big deal so no idea what the zotac would be like with a hd.

 

[revs]

Ah that's an easy one to fix!

You are running the PC at 60fps, and UK video is 25fps or 50fps. So you need to look into using the Dynamic Refresh Rate in the MediaPortal client prefs.

Set 25fps and 50fps video to show at 50fps.

see: Dynamic Refresh Rate * - MediaPortal Wiki

The default values are probably perfect - the only one to worry about is 24/23.976. If your TV doesnt support 24hz, then you will need to set the refresh rate for this to 50

 

[revs]

UPDATE: Just come across the Foxconn A3500 which seems very similar, but is cheaper and seems to be in stock in most places (whereas I cant find the AD10). So I may go with that. It needs a USB IR receiver though - but that is only £10 or less.

Tried looking for a newer machine based on the AMD E-450 (AD10 and Foxconn are AMD E-350) but cant find any