I'm a long time Media Center advocate. I have decided I want to build a very light client to sit in the bedroom, it will contain literally the basics for a PCs life just enough to allow VMC to function.

 

ideally i want to put it in a tiny shell, out of sight, out of mind. to facilitate this the easiest spec i have come up with involves shoving an atom into the box.

does anyone here have any experience of running vista on an atom, will it even cope? i'm assuming i would probably require some form of graphics card to cope with video decode?

 

Thanks!

you might want to hold off for some reviews to pop up of the new version of the eee-box. Its got HDMI out and I understand there is an adapter plate that allows you to attach it to the vesa bracket on an LCD TV

Hi

According to the tranquilpc website, they say that these processors can handle VMC - not sure that it would be the most responsive or able to handle HD tv.  Check them out at http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk/

Tony

Vengence_Irl:

you might want to hold off for some reviews to pop up of the new version of the eee-box. Its got HDMI out and I understand there is an adapter plate that allows you to attach it to the vesa bracket on an LCD TV

Isn't that what we all want anyway? A HTPC that sits out of the way, and is nice and small. Then let base your storage somewhere else. At least that's the plan which is formulating in my head at this very second.

God I love media networking...

 

So far as the tranquil site goes I'm am dubious as it looks like they have a lot of spin on that site. Green this, Environment that... Anyone got a Vista PC rating of the Atom CPU?

Vista MC will run on an Atom chip but not really that responsive. Windows 7 should be the better option for running the Windows OS on these types of devices as it has a smaller disk and memory foot print. With the massive success of the net books MS know they need to be able to run their OS on this now quite large segment of the market.

now way you can do HD on an Atom -- be it live digital HD or HD MKV files. Already many Core 2s can't cope with skipping and fast forwarding in HD...

the new eee boxes are thought to have ATI HD3200 graphics which are fine for hd

Not sure about Live HD TV, but the GPU alone won't help with the difficulty in decoding large HD MKV's for example.

For those, you need both a fast GPU and a VERY fast processor.

Especially if you want to play 1080p files (blue-ray rips).

MKV is the problem. If the encoding follows the blu-ray spec then they can be decoded by the HD3400 series GPU cards (I rip my Blu-Ray to 1080p MKV and manage to play them fine on an AMD x2 4200 and only use 10% cpu doing so with an ATi 3450 graphics card).

If the x264 / h264 is setup incorrectly (i.e. more than 3 b frames or other weird options that are outside of the original BR specification, which are usually used to reduce bitrate in most mkv's) then decoding is not done on the GPU but passed to the CPU which kills all but the most powerful ones.

I have no trouble playing 1080p MKV files on a C2D E6300 (1.8ghz) - Is the Atom really that much slower?

I'm more thinking of putting an Atom in my file server... it currently has  P4 2.53ghz. The only thing that I do on there which is intensive is PAR recover / Un-RARing downloaded files....

Hello,

if you really have no problem playing -- AND fast forwarding, rewinding, and skipping forward and back -- with 1080p MKV files in Windows Media Center, then please urgently give me some details about your software configuration, as I'm trying to further complete my "Vista MCE codec bible" with a recommendation on the best options to minimze CPU usage and stuttering.

- haali or gabest splitter in use ?

- which version of ffdshow ? Which options in "Output" (colourspaces etc. ?)

- ffdshow video converter: what's enabled in "codecs" ? H.264 decoded by ffdshow or disabled ? "raw" enabled or not ? Using Cyberlink PowerDVD H.264 decoder or not ? something else maybe ?

- subtitles handled by what: ffdshow ? directvobsub ? others ?

P.S.: I don't have any problems playing the files either (although yes, I do when MCE is doing a recording at the same time) but it's when skipping or forwarding that the problems and stuttering start. E.g. i skip a few minutes forward, then the picture freezes or goes slowly / out of sync for about 5 seconds before everything works correctly again. I have a Core Duo E4600.

you don't really need anything too beefy, just the right selection of modern components.
I'm using an AMD 4850e / GA-MA78GPM-DS2H combo, no bother playing back HD mkv's, bluray etc even if its recording tv (HD or otherwise)...oh and the system drive is a slow 2.5"-er.
haali/ffdshow tryouts/reclock/powerdvd 7 oem...can't check specifics at the moment, but if you want 'em I can post 'em...

I use CoreAVC codec for x264

By FF do you mean skip and replay? I don't think I've ever tried actual FF or RW in VMC....

I do have problems with OTA HDTV recordings sometimes when I'm skipping or replaying, get a few seconds of lost frames then it goes back to normal.

=> plutoz: I mean fast forward and rewind. With MediaControl & FFDShow.

Actually I've found the problem re. MKV 1080p rendering: it's a bug that affects playing MKVs from a LAN connection when using the Gabest Matroska splitter.

Fix: use Haali media splitter again (I've found workarounds for its problems with subs and multiple audio streams).

I have quite a few (downloaded) MKVs and I assure you that NONE of those plays with anything less than 30% cpu usage on average, though (on a C2D E4600).

 

going back to my original post...

i have now found this absolutely great looking device.

£199 for single core atom (which is going to be poo for vmc and even w7mc if my netbook is anything to go by!!)
£259 for the dual core atom version with wifi. it looks exactly like what i've (and others) been looking for!!

http://www.aleutia.com/products/h1-hotel-pc

comments please gentlemens....