ASRock's High-End Vision 3D 252B HTPC Review
by Ganesh T S on May 7, 2012 6:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Sandy Bridge
- HTPC
- GT 540M
- NVIDIA
In the CoreHT 252B review, we devoted a section to XBMC and how to configure it to play nice with that particular system. XBMC's DXVA2 decoder works better on the ASRock Vision 3D 252B compared to the CoreHT 252B, thanks to NVIDIA's well supported DXVA infrastructure. However, HD audio bitstreaming is not yet officially available on XBMC (though I have tried a few alternative builds, none of them have worked in a reliable manner). Also, users wishing to use madVR as the renderer within XBMC are yet to see their wishes fulfilled. That said, there are some resources online to get your XBMC setup up and running if you are on a Linux machine.
For Windows users, MPC-HC is the software I would recommend for the best experience. Some customization is needed if the user wants madVR as the renderer. In general, the LAV filters pack is the best supported splitter / decoder combo. Again, some customization is needed in MPC-HC in order to utilize these filters. For those wanting things to work out of the box, JRiver Media Center 17 is highly recommended. I usually only recommend free open source software for HTPC users (except for Blu-ray playback, where there is no alternative but to pony up for one of the software Blu-ray players). However, a majority of HTPC owners don't have time to play around with different codecs and their merits and other settings. Codec packs were designed to solve this problem, but they have a tendency to mess up the system even more. JRiver Media Center 17 is a $50 player with self-contained filters (which can be further configured, if necessary). It also has a mode in which it can use system filters, but that is not of interest to us in this section. JRiver's Red October initiative enables users to enjoy LAV Filters and the madVR renderer out of the box.
We took JRiver MC 17 for a test drive with the Vision 3D 252B, and came away quite satisfied. In the default configuration (Red October - Standard), the software uses LAV Video Filters with avcodec as the video decoder and EVR as the renderer. JRiver has their own subtitle filter which supports multiple varieties of subtitles and can be active with both EVR and madVR. As we saw in an earlier section, using software decode with EVR doesn't choke the system even with 1080p60 content. However, it is not very power efficient. For users wanting to tinker further, there is also a setting to enable hardware acceleration (under Options > Video > General Video Settings). This shifts LAV Video Decoder to one of the hardware decoding modes (probably DXVA2 Native).
Our next step was to check out Red October - HQ, which uses madVR as the renderer. With software decode, we did drop frames for high frame rate content (as noted in the previous section). Enabling hardware acceleration did help a little bit, but we still had too many dropped frames for our liking. Since we knew that the system was more than capable of handling madVR for all the content we tested, we decided to go the Custom route for the Video mode. The gallery below shows the settings we used in order to get playback without dropped frames in JRiver MC 17. Below that, we have the usage graph captured during the playback of our benchmark rendering clips.
The usage graph shows that the GPU's core loading is north of 90%, but we found that the presentation and render queues in madVR didn't underrun even once after a couple of seconds into the clip.
JRiver Media Center 17 has a large number of other features which we haven't touched upon (maybe in a dedicated review down the line). It is possible to integrate Netflix and Hulu Plus into the MC 17 experience, and while they don't play back with madVR as the renderer, YouTube clips do. In fact, you can even force the Video settings to play back YouTube clips at the highest possible bitrate.
I can definitely say that XBMC is the winner when it comes to eye candy, but JRiver MC 17's 10-foot UI as well as automatic scraping capabilities are no slouch. The gallery below presents some 10-foot UI shots.
We are still playing around with the JRiver Media Center 17, but if you have any MC 17-specific questions, feel free to post them in the comments below. Our intent in using MC 17 in this review was to present it as an alternative to MPC-HC for users who want to obtain a simple and working out-of-the-box experience. That said, if you need to get the best out of madVR with the MC 17 on the Vision 3D 252B, you will still need to play around a little bit in the Custom mode.
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BPB - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Hook this up with an HDHomeRun Prime and you have one heck of a DVR. It will do lots more than any of the other items you mentioned.But, the point about the Mac Mini is a good one, you can just buy one of those, load Windows for $100, and you're good to go (sans blu-ray).
Southernsharky - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...HP Pavilion dv6-6c50us Notebook Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 750GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo Intel HD Graphics 3000
In stock.
Was: $799.99
Now: $759.99
Ok yes it only has 6gb of memory, but it also has a quad core processor... and of course a screen and that sort of thing.... And oh yeah... its 759.99.
Its even got the 750gb HD.......
ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
That would compare with the Core HT 252B we reviewed earlier (There is no dGPU in that model).Add the dGPU, and the laptop cost would turn out to be similar to that of the system here. The only difference is the screen (we have analyzed this in the first generation Vision 3D review), and the reason the laptop turns out cheaper is because of the economies of scale (more laptops are bound to be sold compared to the number of such HTPCs).
Wurmer - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I agree with many posters here, 1190.00 $ for an HTCP is way too much money. I've built a few by mostly salvaging parts from older computers. Some may argue that I don't get the best power efficiency by doing is so but I certainly save a bundle of cash in parts. Anyways, you don't need a super powerful rig to play Blue ray and store media. A good mid end rig of three years ago is plenty good for HTCP usage. I got some parts on the cheap so my next HTPC will include an AMD x3 455, 8 gig of rams and cheap MSI board, GT 430. The only thing I'll be spending cash on this time around is a dedicated HTPC case from Lian Li (200.00$) which should last me many years. The only real thing that is expensive with that kind of built is the storage since the last year or so HHD prices have gone through the roof and if you use you HTPC quite a bit then you need some serious storage space.philipma1957 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Yeah I agree I even set about building a htpc/gamer with new parts.an intel 2500t 210 or a 2500k for 210 I have both.
a crucial ssd 199
a wd 2tb hdd 99
a passive gpu card hd7750 140 or a hd6870 with a fan for 150 I have both,
a mobo 130
samsung ram 80
a cheap rosewill case 25
a seasonic psu 110
a samsung bluray 65
total 1058
add soft ware and a tuner and you are at 1.2k all new parts. functionally it is just better.
It will game that gpu gets 7.4 on wei and if you sub a hd6870 you can game at almost all games. I know I have a hd6870 and it runs hotter uses more power but gamers better and gets a 7.8 for wei.
now if you are in an apartment and are really tight for space this unit makes sense over my build.
If you have rack space this unit does not make sense at least to me it doesn't. my wei scores are 7.3 for the cpu and 7.4 for the gpu. and 7.8 for all other. if you swap the 2500k and the hd6870 you get 7.8 for all score . same price but more watts used. this all fits in a 14 by 14 by 7 inch case.
I can't see using the asrock unless space is really really really tight.
Scannall - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
A Mac Mini with an i7 and a real video card is $4.00 less. And a better machine.Wurmer - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I've considered the mac mini but the IGP Intel 3000 is a bit weak and the one with the optional AMD GPU is not much more powerful. When the Mac mini gets Ivy bridge and Intel 4000 IGP things will be more interesting I think.justniz - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
This unit comes with an IR receiver.Why are most manufacturers still producing/supporting IR remotes instead of wireless remotes?
Wireless remotes have many advantages and no disadvantages, such as better range, including through walls, they still work in bright sunlight, and theres no need to point the remote at the receiver.
The ergonomics of remotes is limited by the need to point them. Without that limitation their whole design could be improved.
JSt0rm01 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
for $99 you can get a apple tv that while it has way less raw "features" Has the ability to stream content from your main system and stream from the internet all in 1080p with 5.1 digital audio output. I dont see how these feature sets are worth $900 more then the feature set of a apple tv or roku.---------------------------------
Also, after being a member of the anandtech forums for 10 years I was permanently banned by the moderators there because they wanted to censor a website (ffdt.info) that had conversation that was critical of their moderation. I find that the free flow of all information on the internet is critical. For a tech website such as this to limit the flow of information is offensive the core of these beliefs and its all because certain people in positions of illusory power deem that information detrimental to their positions.
axellslade - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I just built a brand new HTPC but I can't seem to be able to find the VESA mounting holes on the side of my HAF X. And it's weighting like a ton. I think I did something wrong.