Dell Zino?

[visiontim]

What do you think guys, will this have the horsepower to record and simultaneously play HD video? I love the form factor and am getting tired of the big box's fan noise.

http://www.dell.com/content/products...en&s=dhs&cs=19

[SHS]

I would add the option ATI Radeon HD 4300 over older 3200 it should have better decode performance and if your planing for Wireless I would also add the option for 1520 802.11 b/g/n.

[werneral]

I'm considering a system based on one of these as well. The PC will be used for Sage 99% of the time, the other 1% for light web surfing and the like, perhaps some Netflix streaming. We'll be doing OTA HD through a couple of Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q USB tuners.

Anybody have experience with one of these or another system similarly configured? I'd like to make sure it's capable of watching while recording on both tuners as I can't imagine I'd do anything that would stress it more.

I'd go for the ATI Radeon HD 4300, plenty of memory, large HD etc. Go for the fastest proc? 64-bit or 32-bit Windows 7?

Any and all input will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Al

[paulbeers]

I was looking at small form factor pc's the other day trying to find something that could match the Mac Mini in size, but be cheaper and I found that the Lenovo Q700 had much better specs than the Dell Zino if I remember correctly. Unfortunately it looks like I can't get in to see the Q700 to verify that. I know that the Q700 does come with a Intel E5200 standard which would crush the dual core athlon in the Zino. From a looks standpoint though, the Zino has the Q700 beat. My preference is still the Mac Mini from a purely aesthetic point of view.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I was looking at small form factor pc's the other day trying to find something that could match the Mac Mini in size, but be cheaper and I found that the Lenovo Q700 had much better specs than the Dell Zino if I remember correctly. Unfortunately it looks like I can't get in to see the Q700 to verify that. I know that the Q700 does come with a Intel E5200 standard which would crush the dual core athlon in the Zino. From a looks standpoint though, the Zino has the Q700 beat. My preference is still the Mac Mini from a purely aesthetic point of view.

The Q700 is $150 more and comes with crappy Intel graphics. The Dell is a much better deal. The difference in cpu would be minor and not even noticeable as an HTPC.

[dcardellini]

Very hopeful about the Dell.

However, based on my (limited) experience, it will not likely cut it for 1080i stuff from OTA-HD and STB Firewire sources (a big % of my material)

Why?

Under XP, 780G motherboards seem to have serious issues with hardware acceleration (DXVA), and my best success is with DXVA TURNED OFF. This means you need to decode with CPU, and not sure if X2 @1.8ghz will cut it. This seems to be regardless of SageTV or other apps with VMR9 (Overlay looks terrible to me on a big screen). Same problem with ATI 4670 versus onboard IGP 3200 and 4200.

Under Vista/Win7, Brainbone has found that SageTV doesn't play nice with the Microsoft MPEG2 decoder (it is broken, and SageTV is looking into it). Again, not limited to IGP, but ALL ATI video).

Maybe others have had better success, and I urge them to submit their config to the "Tips and Tweaks for 780G" thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...8&postcount=42

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

The Q700 is $150 more and comes with crappy Intel graphics. The Dell is a much better deal. The difference in cpu would be minor and not even noticeable as an HTPC.

As someone who owns two desktops with the 780G chipset, trust me, it isn't the holy grail that it was supposed to be. Neither of them are going to be great for say Blu-Ray playback. However, the X4500 does allow 8 channel LPCM output whereas the the 780G will not. Whether you believe it or not, in this case neither is the winner. I would rather have the processing power of the Q700 than the underpowered Zino.

Also, by the time you up the Zino to dual core 1.8ghz and increase the ram to 4GB (like the Q700 has standard), the difference is only $30 and I will take the Intel E5200 @ 2.5ghz over the AMD Athlon Neo X2 1.8ghz any day.

[werneral]

Originally Posted by dcardellini

Very hopeful about the Dell.

However, based on my (limited) experience, it will not likely cut it for 1080i stuff from OTA-HD and STB Firewire sources (a big % of my material)

Why?

Under XP, 780G motherboards seem to have serious issues with hardware acceleration (DXVA), and my best success is with DXVA TURNED OFF. This means you need to decode with CPU, and not sure if X2 @1.8ghz will cut it. This seems to be regardless of SageTV or other apps with VMR9 (Overlay looks terrible to me on a big screen). Same problem with ATI 4670 versus onboard IGP 3200 and 4200.

Under Vista/Win7, Brainbone has found that SageTV doesn't play nice with the Microsoft MPEG2 decoder (it is broken, and SageTV is looking into it). Again, not limited to IGP, but ALL ATI video).

Maybe others have had better success, and I urge them to submit their config to the "Tips and Tweaks for 780G" thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...8&postcount=42

So if I'm following this right and considering another thread I found, would using an HD Theater eliminate this as a problem consideration? If I follow what the HD Theater does it takes care of the graphics processing (and audio?) and serves as the interface to Sage on the PC. Though it adds another component it'd probably be cheaper than a higher end PC on it's own. Energy use wise I'd guess the the HD Theater doesn't draw much compared to a PC with a bunch of moving parts.

Am I off the mark here?

[dcardellini]

The real power of SageTV is serving up to MORE than one location. I have the SageTV backend PC server in a closet, and have "Clients" at multiple TV's. These Clients can be either "PC Clients" or dedicated Hardware Clients (HD Theater-HD200 or the older HD100).

You just cannot beat the HD Theater for small size, low-power, great video quality, low cost, and a painless experience.

But you will need a pre/pro or receiver to take the spdif output (5.1 channels) from the HD200 and get surround sound.

And you will need a dedicated DVD/Blu-Ray player to play DVD's, Blu-Ray's, and CD's as part of your home theater.

...and you will not be doing PC-related things like web-surfing, email, or going to web sites that support video streaming (that may still be unsupported by SageTV).

This thread is really about people like me that want the small size/low-power that the HD200 brings, but really want a "PC Client" to do all those "other" things.

I think we will eventually get there. Products like the Acer Revo and the Dell are starting to change this game.

****************

Now it seems from your question that you are only interested in a single location. Yes, a single PC that both operate as the SageTV backend (has the tuners in it) and a Client (plays back your videos/audio etc) seems like the simplest least component approach.

However, consider this: The PC SageTV backend Server is EASY, and almost guaranteed to be painless if you pick well-known tuners.

However, the Playback part can be killer on a PC. Graphics hardware, operating system, graphics drivers, filter/codecs will likely drive you crazy.

So even for a single location, the most painfree experience would still be the PC SageTV server with an HD Theater sitting right next to it.

Suspect I will get flamed on this one...... (I am really hoping for someone to step forward with a PC Client "painless combination" of Hardware/OS/Drivers/Filters/Codecs that does 1080i/720p/480p mpeg2, and blu-ray AVC / VC-1 mkv rips).

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by dcardellini

And you will need a dedicated DVD/Blu-Ray player to play DVD's, Blu-Ray's, and CD's as part of your home theater.

This is actually false. While you can't drop a DVD/Blu-Ray into the HD200, putting them in your Sage server and running AnyDVD on your Sage Server will allow you to play it thru the HD200 with no problems (or you can rip them)

[dcardellini]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

This is actually false. While you can't drop a DVD/Blu-Ray into the HD200, putting them in your Sage server and running AnyDVD on your Sage Server will allow you to play it thru the HD200 with no problems (or you can rip them)

Good point. However, my SageTV server is thru master bedroom and bathroom and a ladder up, (and on a different floor). Bit difficult for the kids and their friends who stopped by Blockbuster and picked up some movies on the way back to house in wee hours. Although I do buy then rip immediately, the impromptu rental thing still goes on more often than I like (and I won't even think of ripping the rental, as I do not trust myself to hit "delete" upon return of rental.).

[werneral]

Originally Posted by werneral

So if I'm following this right and considering another thread I found, would using an HD Theater eliminate this as a problem consideration? If I follow what the HD Theater does it takes care of the graphics processing (and audio?) and serves as the interface to Sage on the PC. Though it adds another component it'd probably be cheaper than a higher end PC on it's own. Energy use wise I'd guess the the HD Theater doesn't draw much compared to a PC with a bunch of moving parts.

Am I off the mark here?

Just a quick follow-up... I picked up an HD200 and have been using it for about a month on my "old" server. Have to say this is a great device and I now wish I had added it to the mix long ago. I order a Zino almost a month ago but it has yet to arrive but it's supposed to arrive the end of this week. When it does I'll see how it all works together, though I don't really have any concerns with the HD200 in the mix.

Thanks to all who chimed in on this!

[werneral]

Another follow-up to close out this discussion. It ended up taking almost exactly two months for Dell to get the Zino HD to me. To make a long story short it works great, both through the HD200 and using SageTV directly with the TV. Though I have the Zino in the basement it is so quiet you could park it in your living room and probably never notice it.

[tchapin]

My brother in law bought a Zino for use with MS Media Center w/ HD. He's a die-hard MS guy. But, he's really happy with the computer. Next time I visit him, I will check it out.

[btrcp2000]

Any update on the Zino? I am considering one for the kitchen, but it would need to run hdpvr files. Can the hd3200 handle those?

[ChaOConnor]

I just saw the Zino line is due for a tech refresh here pretty soon, no firm dates, but they listed new specs... see here: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/31/d...ore-potential/

So, couple of things. You can wait for this and see the current Zino price drop, or wait for this and know it's going to be a bit beefier for your media needs.

Not sure about the 3200, someone else will have to answer that... good luck!

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Any update on the Zino? I am considering one for the kitchen, but it would need to run hdpvr files. Can the hd3200 handle those?

It does OK with < 720p but really struggles with 1080i.

[btrcp2000]

Well, we'll know soon enough. I just bought one the other day, will report back next week when it gets here.