Zotac releases ZBOX nano
#61
phoenix2000 Wrote:I got my Zotac AD10 a few days ago. Added an OCZ Vertex 3 60gb and a 4GB Corsair. Loaded Windows 7 Professional 32 bit. Loaded updated drivers from the Zotac site and XBMC 10.1. Boot up time is insane with the Sata3 SSD.

Playing 1080p was fine, but could not get DD True HD or DTS-HD MA. Then I loaded XBMC_HD_Audio (Eden). Now, my receiver lights light up for both, and I confirmed 7.1 via Dolby and DTS speaker test MKVs. Ohhh the joy!!!!

Now the bad news. Playback is not perfect. For example in panning scenes, you see a jump every now and then. Also the sound will drop for a fraction of a second every now and then. I have tried all different XBMX video setting combinations, no dice.

As soon as I get my hands on a wired keyboard I am going to see if I can contol the shared video memory in the BIOS. Perhaps this will help.

Also as I was mucking with this and that trying to get the HDMI HD, I am probably going to load OS, Drivers and XBMC scratch just to make sure that is not it.

So for all of you asking, yes the Zotac AD10 does indeed do native DD True HD and DTS-HD MA not an LPCM conversion. You get the pretty lights everyone seems to want to see!!!

I don't have experience with this particular setup, but have you checked to see if there is a setting in the bios that lets you allocate more memory to the graphics? I had a similar situation to what you're describing with my Acer AR1600 and increasing the graphics memory in the bios fixed it completely.
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#62
Oh yes, desperately looked in the BIOS for video memory and even searched the web for how shared memory is allocated to the 6310 and if it could be altered outside the BIOS. No Dice...

Actually while searching for the shared memory solution, I stumbled across refresh rate and my head is about to explode. Just finally got my receiver DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA lights to come on and now this...

For years I watched SD movies on a modded classic XBOX with XBMC and didn't have to think...which suited me just fine. Then I supplimented the XBox with a WD HD Live for HD content...still not much thinking involved....still a happy camper.

About 12 months ago I realized I was missing out on DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. Replaced my Sony700 with a Denon AVR1911. Replaced my speakers with Kilpsch 7.1. Then discovered the WD HD would not do DTS-HD MA. Was looking at another Zotac box, but then stumbled across the AD10. My holy grail media player was always a little box that can support XBMC and play up to 1080p with DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. I am almost at the finish line...

I just dumped the AD10 and reinstalled everything. Still jumps and/or sound drops from time to time only on 1080p. Everything else thus far plays great. AD10 boots into XBMC via my Logitech Harmony in 15-20 secs. Replaced explorer.exe with xbmc.exe via mmc, so all I see is the 4 color Windows 7 logo, then XBMC logo and then the home screen. Pressing another button on the Harmony completely shuts down the AD10 via the internal IR. The Harmony also controls subtitles, context , OSD, CPU Usage and Mark as Watched.

Here is my question. My video is set to 1920x1080p 60hz, if I switch to 24hz (1080P native rate) will my video card not be doing less work and perhaps resolve my very minor skipping issue. The AD10 is not being used for anything else, explorer.exe is not even loaded. I have confirmed my LCD supports 60HZ and 24HZ. I would try it right now, but it is 4:28am and my wife is sleeping in the room where my TV and the AD10 are.

Thanks for any input on this issue and if anybody wants help with some of what I described above I would be more than happy to help...
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#63
anyone else gotte a hold of this and would like to write up a review.

Wondering if anyone else has any problems playing back mkvs etc.

thinking of changing my boxee box with this
TV: UE55F8005
XBMC: Mac mini 2012 with windows 8.1
SOUND: Sonos playbar + Sonos Sub + 2x Rear Play: 3
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#64
henrikyo Wrote:anyone else gotte a hold of this and would like to write up a review.

Wondering if anyone else has any problems playing back mkvs etc.

thinking of changing my boxee box with this

I tried the ad10 but wasnt fully satisfied with it.

Running Openelec higher bitrate 1080p mkv's had stuttering and artifcats.

In Windows no problems with playback but frame drops every now and again, probably not too noticeable but not really ideal.

Aeon Nox etc ran a little slower than I liked as well.

If you are looking for a windows build and not very fusy about every minor detail then its a great box for the price and power consumption
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#65
Well, I bought the AD10 barebone, not for me but for my parents.

Since this is the first time I set up a HTPC, I cannot tell how well it fares compared to rival products.

Overall I am satisfied with the AD10. And my parents, too. It looks nice and it does what it's supposed to do.

General performance:

I've installed a 5400rpm Samsung HDD, which was maybe not the wisest choise. You don't want to install AV software with this kind of HDD. Rolleyes But I'm not gonna buy a faster HDD this year.

Some of the more fancy skins are definitly pushing the APU, i.e. the default skin runs noticeably smoother than Aeon.

As OS I use Win7-32. 2.7GB RAM out of 4GB is used by the OS, CCC claims the remaining 1.3GB is being used for graphics.

Since my parents are not gamers, I didn't bother to check gaming performance. Well, and gaming performance is the reason why I am not gonna buy a second AD10 for my own living room.


About video playback:

We're using this TV with the AD10.

Only at the first second of a 1080p mkv there is a minor framedrop (12 frames was the maximum so far). Since this occurs only at the first second, and it's not noticeable anyway, it's a none-issue for me. Beside that minor issue, video image quality is perfect.

XBMC set to real full screen, Vsync on, DXVA enabled and that's it. Works like a charme.

All settings in CCC are at default.


About sound:

Sorry, not much I can tell about. No fancy 5.1 system in the living room. The Sony TV generates the sound, meaning HDMI 2.0.

One small thing regarding the sound effects that some skins produce while navigating in the menues. Sometimes the first "beep/wush" that should be heared is swallowed, if you know what I mean. I don't know if it's hardware or XBMC related.


About Bluetooth:

The integrated Bluetooth device doesn't work after soft reboots (yellow exclamation mark). Since I do not need Bluetooth, I didn't investigate this matter any further and deactivated BT in the device manager. My guess is a driver update might help.


About IR/remote: (copy/paste from a previous post)

The AD10 comes with an external IR USB-dongle(this one) and a built-in IR-receiver on the front.

In order get the build-in receiver to function you need to activate the device in the BIOS first, and then install the ITECIR driver that is included on the driver disc.

In the device manager you'll now find the Microsoft eHome receiver driver. CreateTestConfig.reg helps a lot with tweaking the {745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da}-Key in the registry.

But due to weak reach and small angle reception this built-in IR-receiver is not adequate for a middle sized+ living room.

The external IR USB-dongle has far better reception, so that's the way to go if you are sitting 4+ meters away from the AD10.

If both IR receivers are simultaneously up and running, it's like as if you have two remotes attached to your system, meaning one button push registers as two button pushs, so you definitly want to disable or cover the build-in IR.

But the external IR dongle is only a "generic" HID and not eHome driver compatible as it seems. Meaning I was unable to customize the buttons via registry. Meaning it's useless for me in conjunction with XBMC.

I've ordered a new receiver/remote and I am currently waiting for the shipment to arrive.
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#66
I have a Logitech Harmony 880, for most equipment I can point at the opposite wall and still control the device. I can be 5 feet from the AD10 internal IR and still have misfires, usually because the remote is not pointing directly at the AD10, but the external USB remote with the Harmony, perfect. With home theaters, most of us naturally point the remote at the TV, because that contains the visual feedback interface.

Good news!!! I finally got a fluid display on the AD10 playing 1080p with DTS-HD MA. I switched my video from 1080p 60hz to 24hz. Sure the XBMC/TV kinda does this, but wastefully. XBMC had to take the 24fps video and convert it to 60fps, but the video is still only 24 frames. My TV is capable of 60Hz and 24Hz, so now XBMC does not have as much work to do if the movie is 23.97 lets say and you turn on match refresh rate.

Of course I blew things shortly there after when I turned some of the video cards video enhancements back on. I also screwed up something else this time cause there is no audio for non DTS/DD, during my first install there was. I suspect it may be because I did not load the audio drivers once I realized I had HD sound after loading the video drivers.

Something else weird, I noticed just before the video or audio skips, my hard drive light comes on, so I am guessing some service is accessing the hard drive as most of the time the hard drive is off.

At least now I know it is possible to get fluid 1080p video with DTS-HD MA or DD TrueHD on the AD10, so armed with some new knowledge, I will probably start from scratch again and see if I can get all my ducks in a row.
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#67
IlhanK Wrote:But the external IR dongle is only a "generic" HID and not eHome driver compatible as it seems. Meaning I was unable to customize the buttons via registry. Meaning it's useless for me in conjunction with XBMC.

Since most of us do not use the 0-9 keys during regular XBMC usage, you can repurpose these, or any other remote key, for missing remote functionality. This is especially elegant if you have a remote like the Logitech Harmony because you can then create a screen button with the actual command name that sends the number press. Locate the keyboard.xml file, if I recall correctly it is in XBMC\settings\keymaps. Open it with Wordpad so it formats properly and in the first section <generic> change the commands for 0,1,2,3 4, to preferred commands missing on your remote. This is mine...

<zero>ShowSubtitles</zero>
<one>ToggleWatched</one>
<two>OSD</two>
<three>ActivateWindow(shutdownmenu)</three>
<four>ContextMenu</four>
<five>XBMC.ShutDown()</five>
<six>VolumeDown</six>
<seven>VolumeUp</seven>
<eight>CodecInfo</eight>

Then if you have a Harmony, set up a custom screen button "Show Subtitles" to send 0, "Toggle Watched" to send 1.
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#68
After a little more mucking around, it seems setting video to 25Hz is not the solution. It may make MKVs work a bit better, but AVIs then stutter. Perhaps it is just my frustration at wasting numerous hours on the AD10 and no further ahead speaking at the moment but I am at the point of abandoning this box. It is as if Zotac put the lowest possible spec equipment into the AD10 just to say it could do 1080p. In my opinion, if they had of gone with a little higher spec on the CPU and video, this would have been the perfect XBMC box. I had a lot of hope for this box.

To anybody wanting a decent media player, if you appreciate the fact that time is money, do yourself a favor, build a media player from scratch with good parts. Yes the AD10 and similar boxes are relatively cheap, but the monetary value of the time required to optimize them to get smooth video is far more than what good parts cost. A good custom built system will be far more forgiving if your settings are not perfect.
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#69
phoenix2000 Wrote:After a little more mucking around, it seems setting video to 25Hz is not the solution. It may make MKVs work a bit better, but AVIs then stutter. Perhaps it is just my frustration at wasting numerous hours on the AD10 and no further ahead speaking at the moment but I am at the point of abandoning this box. It is as if Zotac put the lowest possible spec equipment into the AD10 just to say it could do 1080p. In my opinion, if they had of gone with a little higher spec on the CPU and video, this would have been the perfect XBMC box. I had a lot of hope for this box.

To anybody wanting a decent media player, if you appreciate the fact that time is money, do yourself a favor, build a media player from scratch with good parts. Yes the AD10 and similar boxes are relatively cheap, but the monetary value of the time required to optimize them to get smooth video is far more than what good parts cost. A good custom built system will be far more forgiving if your settings are not perfect.

The issues you're describing seem like issues that happen with ATI cards + unaltered digital audio + matching refresh rate.

I have the same problems with the onboard ATI 3200 (somewhat ancient) so I don't think it is specific to the AD01.

Therefore I don't do match refresh rate, and play everything at 60Hz and let xbmc handle the conversion of 23.97 or 24 or 25Hz to 60Hz and have no problems with sync or stutter.

But when I tried to do match refresh rate, the audio and video would go in and out of sync and one would stutter to sync up eventually. But it only happens when I try to do dolby or dts 5.1 through optical to receiver (Analog audio works fine). I think the problem is, somehow the video gets (or plays) slightly out of sync, but xbmc is unable to change the rate of audio to match it as it is completely handled by the receiver, so one has to stutter to sync again.

I do not get bothered by the 3:2 judder at all, so 60Hz is perfect for me.

If you search the forums, you'll see a lot of people having problems with matching refresh rate and correct sync.


EDIT: To be honest, I never bothered to try and figure out who was to blame for this problem. The cause might be the slight difference between 24Hz and 23.976Hz, where the tv and xbmc output might be set to 24Hz, so xbmc might be playing 23.976Hz content at 24Hz by speeding up video very slightly (0.1%), but being unable to speed up audio by that same amount might be causing the sync issue. Or it might be the ATI card, I don't know.
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#70
phoenix2000 Wrote:About 12 months ago I realized I was missing out on DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. Replaced my Sony700 with a Denon AVR1911. Replaced my speakers with Kilpsch 7.1. Then discovered the WD HD would not do DTS-HD MA. Was looking at another Zotac box, but then stumbled across the AD10. My holy grail media player was always a little box that can support XBMC and play up to 1080p with DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. I am almost at the finish line...
you're not alone. i have been on a quest to fully playback bd in 1080p with dtshd and truehd fluently since it is available to me. i tossed out nearly 10 media players, and none of them can bitstream dts-hd and truehd fluently. i can playback bd with dts-hd and truehd fluently with my full size htpc for a long time, but i need a smaller form factor htpc to fit in my tight entertainment cabinet. i settled on a mini-htpc with asrock e350m1 mobo and lower profile gt430 gpu. i couldn't be happier. it can playback bd in 1080p with dts-hd and truehd using pre-eden and 7mce fluently so far.

if you are interesting in how i set xbmc to natively playback bd in 1080p with dts-hd and truehd, you can follow this thread- blu-ray in 1080p with dts-hd and truehd .

you might find the guides above usefull for your n10.
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#71
bluray, thanks to your instructions, that was where I found out about XBMC_HD_Audio. What surprises me is that the Audio Setup screen in that build has not made it into the nightly XBMC Eden builds, more specifically the XBMC Live version. I don't relish the thought of having to deal with Linux and drivers, etc... but XBMC under Linux is far more fluid and what I would like to load on the Zotac AD10.
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#72
P.S. I love the Zotac AD10 even though I have yet to get flawless 1080p out of it, bear in mind I am anal when it comes to video quality, I still love this little box and intend to keep it. When better software comes out, it will work better. With that said, I have come to the same conclusion you did, I am going to build a full blown HTPC.
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#73
Ow... the little box has no optical out ?
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#74
No the AD10 relies on Audio via HDMI - probably due to the very small form factor
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#75
phoenix2000 Wrote:bluray, thanks to your instructions, that was where I found out about XBMC_HD_Audio. What surprises me is that the Audio Setup screen in that build has not made it into the nightly XBMC Eden builds, more specifically the XBMC Live version. I don't relish the thought of having to deal with Linux and drivers, etc... but XBMC under Linux is far more fluid and what I would like to load on the Zotac AD10.
I'm not sure how fluid you want w7+xbmc to run. It's fluent to me, and it is comparable to my PS3. I use the stuff in my xbmc_hd_audio folder with four w7 machines, and it work great so far.
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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Zotac releases ZBOX nano0