i've pretty much decided on the budget Dell Zino HD (not ideal wish list) with

AMD Athlon II P340 & ATI Radeon HD 4250

i just need someone to help me confirm if this Net top/HTPC can in fact bitstream HD Audio (DTS-MA & Dolby THD) to my AVR. on dell's website, it says "Integrated 2.1 Hi-def analog audio and options up to THX 7.1 digital audio" i hv no idea what this means, especially 'options'

Zino for me the cheapest option for a HTPC cum PC for net surfing & movie downloading + its got option for 12-months Zero-Interest plan

i'm currently using AC Ryan POHD but its unable to bitstream HD Audio (old 1073DD chipset) and very problematic when wan to play BDMV folder. most of my good movie titles are BD-Ripped. every time need to go in the stream folder and manually select largest file to play.

i'm considering a new HDX-BD1 but currently out of budget and my priority now is a new PC for downloading files...but if the Zino HD can do what i need then might KIV the BD1 till further notice

with the Zino HD, what video software is used to watch BDMV titles? is it a no brainer process? like as simple as connecting the Zino HD to an AVR and it'll be able to play HD titles with HD Audio? or does it require me to go for PhD first?

i think the unit comes with preinstalled Power DVD softwares (trials & OEM)

thanks for reading up! appreciate any feedback!

my main priority is to buy a new PC...plus the rtd 1055 can't do BD-menu (i think)

its a real value for money player but....


thanks for advise...i did consider asrock, and although the quoted price was lower (330HT at RM870) it is a bare bone unit, meaning without HDD, RAM & OS. add those in, its become more expensive than Zino..

[ADDED] btw, i check cpu benchmark for both Atom 330 2 Core & Athlon II P340 and it seem the AMD wins over Atom in terms of CPU Passmark (not that i know what that means really) so is the AMD better than Atom??

if i have a wee bit more budget, i wanna get the asrock core 100...solve all problem.

will go back to the budget book see if i can stretch it little bit more...

This post has been edited by daryl.k: Jan 13 2011, 05:58 PM

I've not got an official quote but price of the core 100ht is in lowyat and i just found out the price doesnt even include the processor!!which mean its even more expensive!!

Prices for HDD, RAM, processor can check at lowyat pricelist..so can roughly hv an idea how much de total cost gonna be..

After much considerations, i think i'll go wit the Zino..

and get the HDX-BD1 later..

after more than half a day tweaking and reading and setting up...finally got my new HTPC to bitstream HD audio onto my AVR. but with a solution, come a new problem...

first, i only get HD audio with MPC-HC and not on XBMC for some reason. both Dolby TrueHD & DTS-MA works on MPC but on XBMC, all i get is PCM. whatever i try to do.

second problem, (i only have 1 TrueHD source) when i try playing the title with TrueHD using MPC-HC, the video playback is jerky...kinda like choppy...don't know what's the best word to describe it...but i play anything else, no problem, although there's another file with DTS-HD MA tat's giving problem, kinda like watching badly scratched DVD disk, or those Uncle Ho's DVD...

but the same title (with TrueHD) played using XBMC, no problem but i can't get TrueHD or HD-MA...

i guess i'll have to live with it for the time being...perhaps anyone kind enough to let me know what's the problem?

i also read one net that Cyberlink PowerDVD comes with HD Audio decoder...i have a copy of the PowerDVD 8 that came with the BD-Rom i bought...i haven't tried it yet...maybe will update here later...

btw, i've tried MPC-HC, XBMC and MCE. MCE sucks real bad...i hated it the minute i started with it.

XBMC is probably the best, but somehow, not able to bitstream HD-MA & TrueHD.

MPC-HC, User Interface not the best, able to output both HD audio format, but a couple titles' video playback with its individual problem.

what other media center software is available out there? preferably freewares

installed TMT5 but haven't really gone in details with it...will give it a try tonight...

tried MPC-HC with few more titles..and confirm, it's not able to smoothly play the titles although its able to bitstream HD audio. tried an MKV file with DTS-HD MA last night...and there's lip sync problem. play the same title with XBMC, no problem (but unable to bitstream)

also, when i fast forward (drag the time slider) the whole thing freezes...

stumbled into this article Media Smart Server which apparently can use MPC in XBMC doesn't look too complicated so i'll give it a try tonight and see what the result is.

edited:

k, so i've tried using MPC-HC with XBMC...i get HD audio, cos it basically means using XBMC's UI and launch a movie with MPC...effectively it doesn't change anything...attached screen shot of a m2ts title with DTS HD MA



its like watching Uncle Ho's DVD...as said earlier, same title with XBMC no problem.

what seem to be the problem?


This post has been edited by daryl.k: Feb 21 2011, 11:56 PM