Zotac ZBOX Blu-Ray HD-ID34 Review
by Alan Lueke on October 19, 2010 2:15 AM EST- Posted in
- HTPC
- ION
- Atom
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
The Zotac ZBOX HD-ID34 is an elegant HTPC capable of playing back DVDs and Blu-Ray discs straight from the optical media. It can be wall mounted next to your display and connected with a single HDMI cable. Most users, however, will want to run a RJ-45 cable to a wall outlet for HD streaming as the Wireless-N connections, in general, do not deliver enough bandwidth (heavily dependent on the home setup). Numerous connectivity options allow this system to also host your media connection with eSATA and USB 3.0 connections. Since the unit ships devoid of an OS you can even install Windows Home Server if you so choose.
The low power usage, heat, and elegant styling make this a perfect media playback device in any room where full HD audio isn’t a requirement. In the main home theater setting, the limitations of the hardware as far as HD codecs are concerned as well as the four channel imitation of the software may be reasons to look elsewhere.
As I mentioned before, there are two separate versions of this box, the HD-ID33 and the HD-ID34. The only difference being that the HD-ID34 comes preloaded with 2 GB of memory and a traditional 250 GB HDD. The HD-ID33 will set you back $399, while the loaded unit costs $499. Those looking to bring their own HDD or an SSD to the party to speed up the system may want to save the $100 and go with the HD-ID33. For those who just want to load an OS and start streaming, the HD-ID34 will perform admirably.
Honestly, I think this is a real win for Zotac from the industrial design viewpoint, and it is possibly the best looking Atom/ION2 Blu-Ray system that can be bought currently. I have been looking for a stylish system to hang in the bedroom next to a wall mounted LCD, and this system really looks amazing. The blue circular LED power light is somewhat annoying, but it can be disabled in the systems BIOS. Couple that with low noise, decent power consumption, a styling that the significant other doesn’t hate hanging in the open, and you have a winner in your hands!
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ProDigit - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
1- you get 2.0 channels just like most stereo's. The audio plays back just like your laptop or home pc.2- It's easy to install an OS. Worst case you get Ubuntu or another Linux on it, which costs you nothing next to a 30 minutes install!
Besides there are EeePc versions of WinXP available on the black market for free.
3- you can get a bluetooth remote, or get a USB-IR receiver and install that; though there's little use for IR when you are planning on mounting this behind the TV.
Bluetooth works even in a couple of rooms next to the TV room, and is much better!
4- pics say enough, it's a laptop mobo with a desktop cpu and an nvidia graphics card crammed into a DVD-player sized box.
I wished they did some gaming on this system though!
Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
erm... who even has a receiver with an hdmi input? Not many would be my guess. I have toslink and that is better than hdmi anyway. (No ground loops.)So the question is, how does this thing work if you are not getting your audio from hdmi?
ajlueke - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
The optical out port works just fine. I really had to dig in my basment to find a Toslink cable and give it a whirl. If that is your preference I don't think you'll have any issues other than hiding another cable. ;)numberoneoppa - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
holy smokes, that thing is ugly.garrun - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
Does anyone know how this works streaming HD from Netflix and Hulu? If it was in the review, I didn't see it, but I remember other Ion devices had a problem with that in the past.ajlueke - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
I'll give it a try and post back here. For everyday web browsing the unit does fine. I noticed that Windows Media Center, as well as the PowerDVD plugin for blu-rays loaded a bit slower than on my main HTPC. My main system has a sizeable hardware advantage however, so that was to be expected.ajlueke - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Both appear to work fine, I had no lag or choppiness in the hulu videos I tried or using Netflix with Microsoft silverlight.angelor - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
Is the Netflix HD still working for you on the zotac system? I have the barebone model and installed 500gig and 4gigs of memory on it. It is running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. All drives updated and installed shark codec. I do have display at 1080P and have both video and audio passing through it.ProDigit - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
Nice design, nice project, I had just hoped the integrated audio card would be able to channel 2 channels to the stereo system.4 USB ports is not much, seeing that a keyboard and mouse take up 2 already.
A USB3 port is pretty ridiculous for such a machine, most USB2 ports are fast enough to copy files upto ~50MB/s perfectly fine!
Besides USB 3 bandwidth will probably take so much of the already taxed machine, that it would stutter or interrupt any movie playing.
But the price is just too much!
You're basically trading mousepad, keyboard,preinstalled OS and LCD screen for a bluray drive and a second memory slot; other than that it is nearly identical to a netbook.
mindbomb - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
I'm still a little wary of atom based htpc's. I know it can totally offload video processing, but is the atom powerful enough to render pgs subtitles and decode lossless audio comfortably?i would feel much better if it had a low voltage core 2 cpu or something of that sort.