ASRock ION 3D - For use with XBMC?

Has anyone here got one of these new asrock boxes running XBMC. Seems like a great little machine and ticks all the boxes for me. Supprised that i couldnt find any mention of them on this site.

Intel® Atom™ D525 Dual Core Processor
NVIDIA® GT218-ION Graphics, NVIDIA® 3DTV Play Capable
DVD Super Multi or Bluray drive
2 x USB 3.0
6 x USB 2.0
Gigabit LAN
7.1 CH HD Audio with DTS
802.11b/g/n
MCE Remote Control

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.as...D%20Series

Listed at $419 on Newegg (seems to be with 2GB DDR2 and 320GB hdd)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856158016

Yep, I got one. It runs XBMC solidly on top of Windows 7, I haven't tried the LIVE version yet.
With the latest Dharma releases you can enable Hardware Acceleration on Win7 so all 1080p videos run smoothly!

Haven't had any regrets yet!

How is the noise on this unit? I'm very sensitive to noise in my livingroom

Considering the shuttle xs35gt or this unit, mainly this one looks interesting since I have a 3D tv.

Although not sure if there is such a thing as backing up blu-ray 3d?

Ramshackles Wrote:Although not sure if there is such a thing as backing up blu-ray 3d?

Time for me to chime in:

Yes, you can find 3D Blu Ray ISOs on the net. But the only way to play them properly (as in a way that works with the TV) is by using closed source software such as PowerDVD. I tried this for like a week, but it is really hard to make it remote driven.

My solution?

Now I just go after Half SBS files. These are basically 720p 3D files in a mkv container. Not only do they play perfectly in XBMC (you just have to set your TV to 3D mode manually), but they playback on ION1 level hardware. Bonus is this method also works with a HDMI 1.3 receiver...

When viewing the Half SBS MKVs do you still use your active shutter glasses on the 3DTV. I assume you do, otherwise it would not look 3D. I just do not understand the full technical details of SBS video and attempted to research online a couple times in the past month and was unsuccessful.

bmcclure937 Wrote:When viewing the Half SBS MKVs do you still use your active shutter glasses on the 3DTV.

Yes.

All basically half SBS is is 720p 3D. Instead of 1080p per eye its 720p per eye (or 1080p total). That last fact is why half SBS works on so much hardware well.

Hi all!

Has anyone tested the ASRock ION 3D for 1080p playback with more demanding videos? It would be nice to know since it's about two thirds (DVD-player, "slow" CPU) to half (BD-player, "fast" CPU) the price of the ASRock Vision 3D (in Sweden) which should play anything thrown at it without breaking a sweat. Or are there any other good alternatives? The small form factor is a plus and the remote support is a must =)

(Yes, I know of several small and nice boxes like ASUS EEE and Zotac [random alpha numeric combo]. But it seems to me very few have an IR remote receiver.)

The Asrock ION 3D isn't anywhere close to the ASrock Vision 3D. The Vision has almost three times as much power on both the CPU and the GPU. The Vision 3D is fully capable of demanding 3D playback, the ION 3D is a scam to get people who don't know better to buy an underpowered, almost vanilla, ION system with the false promise that it has real 3D support.

For 1080p files, any ION works including the ION 3D. For 3D playback though, the Vision 3D is the only system available that I will personally say is able to REALLY do 3D.

I agree with poofy here, but the only problem is that it is hard to find ASRock's older ion system. Of course, one could go shuttle route, but I found my ion 330 pro from asrock a good buy.

I mean, if you know what you are getting (a regular ION system) I guess it is ok but I hate how they are selling it as a 3D solution.

Personally though, I would rather ION systems from Shuttle, Jetway, or Zotac first.