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Zbox ID11?

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Madbones
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16 May 2012, 11:48 am

Hey!
My parents dont want Virgin Media TV any more (It sucks to hell. Cant say I blame them).
We dont really use cable all that often so whats the point in having it? So my parents are going to buy a HTPC.
So anyway I found a Zotac ID11 on eBay.
So, Im planning to get the ID11 with the following specs:
1GB DDR2 ram (I will upgrade this to 2 or 3)
Nvidia ION 2 (GT 218... OR 219 I forgot)
Dual Core Atom @ 1.66

But the thing is, under Windows 7 (or any other OS for that matter) it lags on Youtube if its in 1080P (The whole family dont care about HD. Neither do I. Reason being is because our connection is utter rubbish and 50 % of the time it wont be fast enough).
Will it be smooth if I upgrade the ram?
Thanks!
Heres what it will be doing:
Recording TV programmes via a linux compatible TV stick (
Technotrend Connect USB T-1900 which I heard works great under Ubuntu. By the way would there be a plugin for XBMC that would allow me to watch TV record it and time shift?)
Thanks!


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Kumorigoe
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16 May 2012, 12:45 pm

Quite a few questions in there, but I'll see what I can do...

As far as playback of 1080P video goes, RAM might help, but not a whole heck of a lot. Video decoding is largely a CPU task, and the Atom at 1.6 isn't a heavyweight when it comes to that. Something running Tegra would be a better choice. Also, keep in mind that it doesn't matter what hardware you have if your ISP connection keeps dropping or slowing down.

As far as recording television, it depends on the number of tuners you have. One tuner can record and watch a single channel at the same time, but not record one channel while watching another.

XBMC questions are better answered by the folks over at www.xbmc.org

Hope this helps!



MyFutureSelfnMe
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16 May 2012, 12:57 pm

The previous poster is incorrect, the ION 2 should be able to decode common video streams, not as well as the newer AMD GPUs which are pretty much superstars at it but it should be able to handle 1080p. It should not be a CPU task. Assuming you're running the latest drivers and you didn't reuse a hard drive where you installed Windows on a different machine first (the old machine's chipset drivers may linger and cause issues), the issue is most likely your RAM. Put 4GB in.

You're like the 5th person I've seen on here mentioning they have 1GB, and I don't think any of them realize how much it hurts.



Madbones
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16 May 2012, 1:25 pm

Kumorigoe wrote:

Also, keep in mind that it doesn't matter what hardware you have if your ISP connection keeps dropping or slowing down.

Hey!
Sorry, I ment our broadband is so crap half the time that we dont get to watch HD content :lol: .
But yeah, a ram upgrade might be the solution.
Thanks guys!


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Kumorigoe
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16 May 2012, 3:31 pm

MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
The previous poster is incorrect, the ION 2 should be able to decode common video streams, not as well as the newer AMD GPUs which are pretty much superstars at it but it should be able to handle 1080p. It should not be a CPU task. Assuming you're running the latest drivers and you didn't reuse a hard drive where you installed Windows on a different machine first (the old machine's chipset drivers may linger and cause issues), the issue is most likely your RAM. Put 4GB in.

You're like the 5th person I've seen on here mentioning they have 1GB, and I don't think any of them realize how much it hurts.


It depends what software he is using to playback the content. Some programs support GPU decoding of the video stream. XBMC does, for example. Windows Media Player, to the best of my knowledge, does not. If the program doesn't have GPU support built in, the CPU will be used to decode the video.



Madbones
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16 May 2012, 3:36 pm

Kumorigoe wrote:
MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
The previous poster is incorrect, the ION 2 should be able to decode common video streams, not as well as the newer AMD GPUs which are pretty much superstars at it but it should be able to handle 1080p. It should not be a CPU task. Assuming you're running the latest drivers and you didn't reuse a hard drive where you installed Windows on a different machine first (the old machine's chipset drivers may linger and cause issues), the issue is most likely your RAM. Put 4GB in.

You're like the 5th person I've seen on here mentioning they have 1GB, and I don't think any of them realize how much it hurts.


It depends what software he is using to playback the content. Some programs support GPU decoding of the video stream. XBMC does, for example. Windows Media Player, to the best of my knowledge, does not. If the program doesn't have GPU support built in, the CPU will be used to decode the video.

It was a 1080 P Youtube video. Im not sure how videos on the HDD run though.
Il have to have a look.


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Kumorigoe
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16 May 2012, 3:39 pm

If it was a Youtube video, and you have unreliable broadband, I'd chalk that up to your ISP.



Madbones
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16 May 2012, 3:53 pm

Kumorigoe wrote:
If it was a Youtube video, and you have unreliable broadband, I'd chalk that up to your ISP.

Its not that bad, but sometimes it just takes a very long time to load a full 1080p video.
It was lagging on the connections peak which is pretty good.


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MyFutureSelfnMe
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16 May 2012, 3:54 pm

Kumorigoe wrote:
MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
The previous poster is incorrect, the ION 2 should be able to decode common video streams, not as well as the newer AMD GPUs which are pretty much superstars at it but it should be able to handle 1080p. It should not be a CPU task. Assuming you're running the latest drivers and you didn't reuse a hard drive where you installed Windows on a different machine first (the old machine's chipset drivers may linger and cause issues), the issue is most likely your RAM. Put 4GB in.

You're like the 5th person I've seen on here mentioning they have 1GB, and I don't think any of them realize how much it hurts.


It depends what software he is using to playback the content. Some programs support GPU decoding of the video stream. XBMC does, for example. Windows Media Player, to the best of my knowledge, does not. If the program doesn't have GPU support built in, the CPU will be used to decode the video.


Virtually every modern software supports GPU decoding. Windows Media Player certainly does, as does Flash, which YouTube currently relies on.

The programs do not need GPU support built in. They just need to use e.g. DirectShow on Windows.