[Kermee]

I finally had a chance to load Ubuntu 12.10 x64 onto the device. I promptly installed AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta3 Drivers and loaded up the patched version of XBMC 12 Frodo that has XVBA support. I am getting XBMC navigation sounds and media audio out of the HDMI but they are being fed into a spare Samsung monitor and output to stereo speakers out the back so I haven't had a chance to verify it can do HD Audio bitstreaming.

You can click on the thumbnail below to get the larger picture to see what's all going on:



So far I'm pretty impressed...

Cheers,
Kermee

P.S. I forgot how much I hate Unity...

[GreenOnyx]

To my knowledge there are HD bitstream issues with AMD and Linux, not sure about the AD12's card 100% though so definitely post back.

I just hit an odd issue that I did not have on my actual desktop's AMD card. With XBMC set to 7.1 in the audio setup LPCM blu-ray's would not stream properly. If I set the output to Optical/Digital they would still play the audio over HDMI (I have no optical or spdif setup), but that obviously disables the bitstreaming of TrueHD/DTSHD without swapping the setting back.

Setting things to 5.1 resolved the issue. I only run a 5.1 system but my receiver is 7.1 capable so I had just set it as high as I knew the receiver would allow. There's something different about the AD12's card compared to my desktop's Radeon HD 6800 series card, it runs fine set to 7.1

Thought I'd mention it in case anyone else sets 7.1 like I did.

[psysfaction]

To my knowledge there are HD bitstream issues with AMD and Linux, not sure about the AD12's card 100% though so definitely post back.

I just hit an odd issue that I did not have on my actual desktop's AMD card. With XBMC set to 7.1 in the audio setup LPCM blu-ray's would not stream properly. If I set the output to Optical/Digital they would still play the audio over HDMI (I have no optical or spdif setup), but that obviously disables the bitstreaming of TrueHD/DTSHD without swapping the setting back.

Setting things to 5.1 resolved the issue. I only run a 5.1 system but my receiver is 7.1 capable so I had just set it as high as I knew the receiver would allow. There's something different about the AD12's card compared to my desktop's Radeon HD 6800 series card, it runs fine set to 7.1

Thought I'd mention it in case anyone else sets 7.1 like I did.

On what OS are you running your system?
I can confirm that under Linux, openelec (that's what i use) that Bitstreaming and HD-Audio won't work. It's a issue with the AMD drivers. But under window it should work fine. can't confirme it though since I'm happily using Openelec :-)

[GreenOnyx]

I run Windows 7, and yes, bitstreaming works great.

That's what I thought that I had read about Linux and AMD. It's really unfortunate, although I must say, setup and everything is cake on Windows.

[psysfaction]

here is a quite from the XBMC Wiki explaning the problem with Linux AMD combo and the new Audio enging

6.1.1 HD audio limitation of AMD fglrx in Linux
AMD on Linux can only do 2 real channels. This is enough for DTS (5.1) and AC3 (5.1) that decode 6 channels virtual over two real ones. But nothing more. This is not a hardware, but a software (fglrx) limitation.
Setting it up within XBMC:
Only enable AC3 and DTS in the Audio Settings. Keep LPCM, TrueHD, DTS-HD, AAC disabled. And don't check play stereo on all speakers, as it also won't work.

[Freefallmerc]

do i need to download the AMD Catalyst drivers with windows 7 after I install everything on zotac's site?? Also, will ubuntu run better than win 7 for web browsing/chat/im?

[Kermee]

do i need to download the AMD Catalyst drivers with windows 7 after I install everything on zotac's site?? Also, will ubuntu run better than win 7 for web browsing/chat/im?

I ignored the System and Graphics drivers off Zotac's site and downloaded the System drivers and Graphics drivers directly off of AMD/ATI's website. As of this post, Catalyst 13.1 is the latest stable.

AMD Chipset Drivers 32 & 64-bit (AHCI, USB 3.0 drivers, etc.): http://www2.ati.com/drivers/13-1_vista_w...-64_sb.exe
AMD Catalyst 13.1 GPU Drivers (x64): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/wi...sta64.aspx

After installing Windows 7, I just installed the Realtek Ethernet drivers first (downloaded v7.065 from Realtek's website and onto a USB stick) to give me access to the Internet over a wired connection. Then proceeded to download the other drivers. The only drivers I grabbed off of Zotac were:

* The appropriate AzureWave Combo WiFi/BT Driver [NB-037 - zotac.com] [NB-087 - zotac.com]
* Card Reader Drivers [zotac.com]
* IR Driver (for Remote) [zotac.com]

Cheers,
Kermee

[Freefallmerc]

"* The appropriate AzureWave Combo WiFi/BT Driver [NB-037 - zotac.com] [NB-087 - zotac.com]"

I only installed the NB-087, are we supposed to install both?


I got everything set up with XBMC installed on Windows 7, I connected the AD12 to my Onkyo 605 receiver through hdmi and then hdmi to the tv from the receiver. The receiver displayed Stereo and when I adjusted the volume, the litttle "ding" sounds came out my speakers. However, if I played a mkv video file with DTS or DD in XBMC I got no audio at all (the video played just fine). I configured XBMC for 5.1 sound, told it the receiver supports Dolby and to put the sound out HDMI but it never worked. Since I have a toslink/S/PDIF cable I decided to plug in the mini adapter to the front of the zotac and ran the toslink to the receiver. When I attempted to play the same mkv file now the receiver display changed to DTS and the audio was definitely DTS.

Is there something in Windows I have to change to get something other than Stereo out of the HDMI? I can post this somewhere else if I need to, I'm using the latest XBMC on a fresh install of Windows 7, no upgrading or importing or anything.

[GreenOnyx]

If you go to Windows -> Control Panel -> Sounds, is there an "AMD HDMI Output"? If you go to the "AMD HDMI Output" item's properties, does the supported formats tab have DTSHD, TrueHD, etc listed?


In XBMC -> Settings -> System -> Audio output you should have
Audio output: HDMI
(the different types that your receiver supports marked as having a capable receiver)
Audio output device: "WASAPI: HDMI - AMD HDMI Output (AMD High Definition Audio Device)"
Passthrough output device: "WASAPI: HDMI - AMD HDMI Output (AMD High Definition Audio Device)"

If that's not it can you get us a screenshot of your XBMC system audio, video playback, etc. setup screens?

The following thread might help also, and has some good screenshots: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=146911

[Kermee]

"* The appropriate AzureWave Combo WiFi/BT Driver [NB-037 - zotac.com] [NB-087 - zotac.com]"

I only installed the NB-087, are we supposed to install both?

Only one of them. I think all the recent units are shipping with the NB-087 so if that one worked, then you're good to go. At one point, it seems like they were using the NB-037.

Cheers,
Kermee

[Kermee]

Hi All!

I'm not the OP but a couple things, notes, thoughts, etc.:

* I love this unit. As much as I love my ASRock ION 330, running XBMC, and a plethora of aging Popcorn Hour A-100's and A-110's, I've decided to swap all my media players to the Zotac AD12 so it's time to order another 5 units.

* I've found that the included AzureWave AW-NB087H is based on the Ralink RT3290 chipset and the WiFi portion of the card has performance issues with my Atheros-based Netgear WNDR3800 running OpenWRT. So on two units that don't have GbE wired up, I'll be swapping out the cards to an Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235. (I've never liked Ralink-based products).

* I've decided to stick to Windows 7 for the base OS install of XBMC instead of a Linux-based OS (e.g. Ubuntu). Box is very well supported Zotac, AMD, etc.

* I finally did a 'fan-noise' check in the bedroom. It's about the same level of noise as my DirecTV HD24 receiver so during normal use, I don't expect noise to be an issue or noticeable.

* The remote which comes with the AD12 is virtually the same remote as the AD10, as far as I can tell, so any existing threads here on getting it properly setup applies to the remote which comes with the AD12. I made a custom registry keymap for it so if anyone is interested, please let me know and I'll post it up.

* I remember reading about the internal IR receiver on the AD10 had a limited field of view. Subjectively speaking, I have been using the included Zotac AD12 remote with the internal IR receiver from 15 feet away and at varying angles with no issue; I have not yet had a need to hook up the included USB IR dongle.

That's it for now!

Cheers,
Kermee

[Brimstone]

The AD-12 is FANTASTIC. I am running OPENELEC 2

The external IR works well, no playback issues whatsoever. One thing to note, you MUST set XBMC to shutdown instead of Standby otherwise the refresh rate resets each time to 60Hz. This is not a big issue for me becuase OPENELEC boots in under 10 seconds.
Frame buffer size in System BIOS,if running OPENELEC, must be set to 1GB otherwise video will stutter.

[Kermee]

The AD-12 is FANTASTIC. I am running OPENELEC 2

The external IR works well, no playback issues whatsoever. One thing to note, you MUST set XBMC to shutdown instead of Standby otherwise the refresh rate resets each time to 60Hz. This is not a big issue for me becuase OPENELEC boots in under 10 seconds.
Frame buffer size in System BIOS,if running OPENELEC, must be set to 1GB otherwise video will stutter.

This is great news. I'm extremely happy this unit is working well for you under OpenELEC!

As for the 'Shutdown vs. Standby' issue, have you gone into the BIOS and flipped the setting to 'Repost Video after S3'? It's disabled by default. Wonder if it will solve your refresh rate reset to 60Hz after coming out of S3 Standby?

Cheers,
Kermee

[Brimstone]

yup - tried that and still Standby does not work

[karate kid]

Can AD12 handle Cable tuner with HD channels or should I be looking for ID83 or is that even good enough? I'm planning to run XBMC (front end for Live TV), browser and foobar at the same time.