Despite earlier
claims to the contrary, it looks like the new ASUS Eee Box, the B206, isn't quite the high-def powerhouse it was intended to be. According to
Register Hardware's review, the poor little thing had a real hard time playing even 720p video, only managing to render every frame when video was played back in DirectX Video Acceleration-capable players. That rules out many popular choices like QuickTime and VLC, and you can forget about 1080p entirely. Benchmark scores were low, as you'd expect given the standard 1.6GHz Atom N270 internals and 1GB of memory, leaving it best suited for casual web surfing and SD video playback -- and making it seem like not much of an upgrade over its
predecessor.
posted May 7th 2009 8:46AM
Damnit man! I was betting on one of these Eebox's being my next PC to out under my living room HDTV. I really don't want to put a big ass HP Slimline or Dell 540 Slim, but it is looking like those are my only choices right now (at a decent price).
The solution is simple: nVidia ION-based nettop, see Acer Aspire Revo
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/acer-apire-revo-the-ion-infused-unboxing/
--neg
Wait for the B208 model....
Neg,
That will not work. I want my HTPC to be able to stream flash video off sites like Hulu, or through Boxee too. As of now, these Atom powered systems can not handle HD flash videos since flash does not support the GPU's =(
For sites like Hulu, flash video is totally processor driven. So the ION chip set does not help at all.
@ Neg stop posting ur bs, ion is just a 9400m and it's no more powerful than the radeon 3450 in the 206.
@AlexNC - just build an matx system with a dfi or zotac board and a core 2 duo, will beat any and all atom systems.
this is all very dissappointing...
FAIL! When are they going to bring out a nettop that is small, efficient, cheap and can handle HD!? How difficult can it be?
Have you not realized by now that all netbooks and nettops have the same intel chipset with the same atom processor? The problem is that these chips were made for netbooks, laptops that were designed for low battery usage and to surf the NETTTT!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/acer-apire-revo-the-ion-infused-unboxing/
NVIDIA ION PEOPLE!
As true as that is, when a manufacturer comes out with a statement along the lines of "WE'RE UPGRADING SOME OF THE HARDWARE TO ALLOW HD PLAYBACK AND EVEN PUTTING A HDMI ON THE BACK", you will have to excuse me for thinking that it would be able to play HD, silly me.
But seriously, thanks for the info on net books and net tops, I can now sleep easy.
I'm a little sick of hearing this cool hardware get bashed cause it won't play Hulu. Uhh why not blame Hulu. They could support hardware accelerated video by using progressive MP4 files.
Yeah I was hoping for better performance from this thing too.
Bummer.
Wait, so you were going to buy this $425 computer?
I know you guys hate Apple but I can get a Mac Mini for $550 and that is much better than this. I would rather spend the $125 for the Mac.
Or like everyone else says, build one.
umm.. did they overclock the gma950? even without overclocking my b202 does a decent job at 720p... and it'll do 1080p with droped frames in windows 7... wtf am i doing that they cant???
not GMA950, GMA X400.
NVIDIA ION IS THE FUTUREZ
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/acer-apire-revo-the-ion-infused-unboxing/
Neg, I think we got it. You love the ION. No need to post it in response to each comment.
How can ASUS which such a great marketing machine behind the company design such an awful logo for the Eee-line.
Yes the logo is terrible. Like a long folded sausage...
"popular choices like quicktime'??
lol. i dont know anyone who uses that annoying pos. even on my mac i use vlc....
Quicktime is not so good anyway for any fullscreen playback. Use bsplayer or windows media player classic with the right codec pack. VLC is fine but sometime less capable and the gui is poor.
Ho, and Quicktime have Directx acceleration on pc. You obviously write this on a mac.
theres no such thing as windows media player classic
media player classic on the other hand...
im not convinced this wouldnt do 720p. my msi wind (1st gen) has the 1.6 atom processor and can easily handle 720p (with 2gb of ram), 1080, no chance.
Not all 720p is the same. Playing 720p content downloaded from the web is not as processor-intensive as playing it from a disc (MUCH higher bitrate)
I wouldn't throw these to the curb!
Figures, I just bought one. That's what I get for not waiting till the reviews came back.
pwned
Dual core B208 is coming out in a month.
try it, with the right software im sure 720p will work like a charm.
@sean: Do you have any proof of that? I'm holding out for that one
i wonder if you can return it for false advertising? Hasn't it been advertised everywhere as being 1080p capable?
it has HDMI but can't handle HD..... so why put it in in the first place?
It can do HD; the apps just need to hit the graphics chip directly. The B206 is the same machine as the B202, except for the new graphics. So, if you continue to rely on the CPU, why would you expect any different performance. The engadget blurb is misleading; the review says that decoding codecs using the DXVA on the graphics chips results in no missed frames. Engadget even admits that the machine "only manag(es) to render every frame when video (is) played back in DirectX Video Acceleration-capable players." Way to keep the coal plants firing, engadget, by encouraging everyone to keep their 400w monster HTPC's, rather than this 25w capable machine.
Right on Fulla,
But to go one further, the review was basically a hatchet job too. If I want to use this to feed my projector and I'm slipping Blu-ray into an external, this will apparently have no problem with 1080P.
It's like asking for a motorcycle with reverse, if you want something that does everything, just get a car (and pay the premium).
Yeah it was a major hatchet job. EG do news and scoops better than most but the reviews and commentary are a bit \lame. I wish I could depend on these guys to share whether the discrete AMD 3000 series card in this nettop is better or worse than the Ion or AMD Puma chipset for H.264 decode. Yeah Hulu is average on Atom cause Hulu don't deliver hardware accelerated video. I mean we already knew that.
So, the question is. Is this a hardware problem or a software problem. I'm going to wait and see if a fresh OS changes anything. Otherwise there's not really a point in this.
Reading the article I don't think they did it justice, a good codec pack like klite or cccp and it should do better.
VLC is good, but its own codecs are not the best, you should set it to use system codecs if available, also, VLC does use hardware acceleration on the video output, so that combined with better codecs should make this capable of running 720 at least.
Also, frankly, who in there right mind plays quicktime files anyway? quicktime is as bad as a virus imo, I only have quicktime alternative installed for the sites that just have to use it.
Klite: http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
cccp: http://cccp-project.net/
I use cccp with great success... no mkv files can resist me!
Pretty clean stuff.
The solution is simple: nVidia Mac Mini!
I would like but its 698$ here in japan... why the hell its 100$ more when the yen worth more than the dollar... not funny at all. Apple is greedy.
Of course it can handle HD:
1. It has an ATI chipset , not intel GMA
2. You must use software such as (a) combination of Coreavc codec + media player classic or any player that has not the codecs hardcoded inside the player OR any DXVA capable player like Vista or Windows 7 media plyer/Media center
Any solution outside the "2": it uses the Atom processor for decoding and handles the machine exactly like a B202 (the previous model). A DXVA capable software instead diverts the decoding to the graphics card.
B208 has a dual core ATOM + an even better ATI chipset which is a better overall solution than the nVidia ION platform due to better processor and an equivalent chipset.
Well said, I'm willing to bet that most boxes out there aren't taking advantage of CoreAVC. Even my x2 5050e in my media center struggled with some 1080p content, add coreavc to offload that to the gpu, and there's processor to spare. But you have to pick the right player. Again, well said. Maybe someone who knows what they are doing should review the new Eee.
I hope asus would finally adopt VIA nano, it's a wonderful chip.
Give them a chance.
A big duh? Of course you'd need DXVA compatible players/codecs for HD playback. If you use the under-powered Atom CPU for decoding HD (Flash, in particular, is problematic), then really, how can you expect buttery smooth video playback? The same thing applies to Nvidia's Ion platform so those toting the Aspire Revo as the perfect alternative are a bit too optimistic. The only advantage of the Ion is CUDA but until it's implemented in applications, that really doesn't mean much. Anything that's DXVA compatible would work great but those that are CPU-bound would be problematic.
Obviously, Intel doesn't want to make the Atom more powerful. It's meant to be an entry-level platform. If they made the Atom faster, it would cannibalize sales of its Core 2 line-up.
Habey has one that looks good. http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/21/habeys-second-1080p-boasting-n270-powered-mini-htpc-brings-alo/
Yep, that's why all of this ION excitement is pretty overhyped. What companies really need to do is try and recreate the current gen Mac Mini (2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo + Geforce 9400M chipset). That would definitely be a great starting point for a HTPC since BOTH the CPU and GPU would be up to the challenge.
Last I checked though, nVidia isn't bring the Geforce 9400M chipset solution to other OEMs until the end of this year (perhaps exclusivity with Apple?)
Ummm Zotac has a mini-itx 9300M motherboard which is exactly the same core as the 9400M with a slightly lower clock. You can build ur own.
TOTALLY WRONG REVIEW!
I have an EEEBox B202, and with the help of MPC and CoreAVC, I can play 720p fine, and 1080p fine if I disable B-Frame Deblocking in CoreAVC settings.
All my B202 specs are the standard XP Home version of the machine, minus 1.5GB RAM instead of 1GB RAM.
Agree , me too in about 90% of my 720p MKV files
Get the Mac Mini, it has OSX and a Core 2 duo chip for a little more, and of course the legendary graphics by nVidia.
I have the new Mac Mini running PLEX and it rocks!
thirded.. fantastic machine.. take any media you throw at it!
Or you can save a few hundred dollars and build a small mini-ITX computer yourself.
I don't know about BluRay bitrate playback. But my last generation Mini with 1gb of RAM, 1.66ghz Core Duo (as in, not Core 2) and a GMA 950 can playback your average 12gb 1080p MKV no problem, through Plex or VLC.
Just mentioning this to people who aren't considering the new Mini because its expensive. In almost all of its Intel editions its a powerful and ultracompact HTPC, so I would go with a used last generation Mini before an EEE box unless they ditch the atom.
If anyone can show me an equally quiet (most important) and same form factor regular Windows PC I am more than happy to recommend it. I looked, and while there are similar products available, people either can't keep them quiet, or they are underpowered.
Quicktime is not a popular choice on Windows so step out of the reality distortion field Tim.
VLC has no GPU acceleration but there is a player everyone but the clueless seem to know about called Media Player Classic Home Cinema or you know Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player all of which have DXVA support.
Or just use as others have stated CoreAVC who needs GPU support when you have a well written decoder.
people should just build with a cheap cpu like the amd 4850. more powerful than the poor atom. yes, with the 4850, you can't get the same small form factor. but if you're building a htpc, you need some decent power. and you can buy some darn small htpc's with a microatx form.
I already built a HTPC and while I like it, I would like to cut down its size and energy use, I can do that with THIS! I can use the 3.0Ghz Dual Core for more heavy duty, its overkill for HTPC, but that's because I also play games with it...
Just buy a Device that can handle HD files like the WD TV HD or Popcorn A110. Hook them on on your home network and you got HD 1080 movies flying around with no shutters for less than $100. Thank the dedicated media proccessor from Sigma Designs.