Media Streamer Platforms Roundup
by Ganesh T S on June 13, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
The Apple TV was the first media streamer to be based on a HTPC. With a Pentium M processor and the Nvidia GeForce Go 7300, it wasn't long before it was hacked to run custom firmware. When introduced, it could support upto 720p resolution for video playback. Sadly, lack of updates to the core hardware have kept this capability stagnant. The Apple TV deserves mention as a pioneer of sorts, but byeond that, there is nothing much to write home about.
AppleTV - A Pioneer of Sorts
The introduction of the Intel Atom processor in 2008 led to the appearance of net-tops. This processor, despite being woefully underpowered, had the advantage of being based on the x86 architecture, and brought along with it a huge software base. The only missing piece in the puzzle was the fact that it lacked the horsepower to decode and process HD video. Nvidia and Broadcom pitched in with add-ons to offload video processing from the CPU.
Broadcom Crystal HD
Based on BCM70012 for the 2009 Atom processors and the BCM70015 for 2010, the CrystalHD mini-PCI-E card provides acceleration for all mainstream HD media. A multitude of OEMs have started to use this solution in their netbooks as a means of providing HD playback capability. However, from a media streamer point of view, it is difficult to imagine this as a competitor for the Nvidia Ion. Any media streamer worth its salt interfaces with the rest of the AV components using HDMI. With the plain vanilla Atom chipset (using the Intel IGP) providing no HDMI output, and the Broadcom offering being an add-on card, it would be hard to justify tacking this on to a serious media streamer net-top. If the HTPC already has a HDMI output, it probably already has a graphics core capable of accelerating HD video. All said, these Broadcom offerings are probably aimed at the non-techie netbook crowd (who want to enjoy 1080p YouTube videos on a 720p screen!) and not the media streaming enthusiast.
The BCM970012
What is the use of 1080p without HDMI?
[ Picture Courtesy : LogicSupply ]
Nvidia Ion
The GeForce 9400M chipset forms the core of the media streaming capabilities of any Nvidia Ion based HTPC. With VDPAU acceleration under Linux, and excellent driver support on Windows, it is unlikely that you will encounter any mainstream HD media which doesn't get hardware accelerated playback. A XBMC or Boxee install pretty much guarantees an out-of-the-box experience. The chipset also provides for a HDMI output, making it easy to integrate with the rest of the home theater setup. One of the most interesting off-the-shelf HTPC based media streamer is the Myka Ion. With 2 GB of DRAM and a plethora of connectivity options, this is one Ion net-top which would probably never disappoint you as a HTPC option.
Myka Ion
An out-of-the-box Media Streamer with all the HTPC Advantages
Nvidia Ion HTPCs can be built for around US$300. As far as power consumption goes, a typical Nvidia Ion HTPC setup consumes around 30W at full load. Assuming that we have a HTPC with XBMC or Boxee installed, let us analyze how it performs with respect to various media streamer metrics. Connectivity is almost never an issue with these setups. HDMI outputs are usually present for transmitting both audio and video. Media can be obtained from a local hard disk, card reader, USB port or even eSATA in some cases. Ethernet ports are a default too. Some setups may even have wireless capabilities. VOD streaming such as Hulu and Netflix work without much hassle. DRM content, such as those on Blu-Ray disks, can be handled using appropriate playback software. The proper selection of a video card also ensures that most codecs can be hardware accelerated. An important point to note is that there is no GPU capable of accelerating RMVB playback, but the good thing is that there is probably a decent x86 processor (not necessarily Atom) to fall back upon, and HD media (which requires hardware acceleration mainly) is not encoded in RMVB usually.
HTPCs such as the Zino HD which use the AMD Atom equivalent along with a Radeon HD3200 chipset can also act as capable media streamers with XBMC / Boxee. The performance and constraints are similar to that of an Ion net-top. However, the HD3200 is not as powerful as the GPU used in Ion with respect to video decode acceleration. So, we will restrict ourselves to the popular Ion platform while considering HTPC based media streamers for now.
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Stokestack - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
An oft-ignored product category is that which streams content FROM your cable or satellite box TO your computer. I don't really care about watching crap-quality compressed video on my big TV, but I would like to watch shows from my cable box on a laptop in my kitchen or home office.Please include products that perform this task too. Thanks!
ganeshts - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Stokestack, yes, we are working on covering these devices too, but in a separate series of articles in this very section. Do you have any particular devices in this category that you would like us to review?Stokestack - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
Thanks for the response.The first product that comes to mind is Slingbox, and that might even be overkill for just viewing stuff around the house. I don't really care about transmitting stuff over the Internet to watch remotely.
Another appears to be the HAVA Platinum HD TV Device.
And, uh... those were the only ones I could find. I guess this could be a very series.
Stokestack - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
SHORT series, that is.Hubble70 - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
Hauppauge HD-PVR over component up to 1080i / digital audioBlackmagic over component and HDMI up to 1080p
Avermedia over component up to 1080i / analog audio
nexox - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
I've got a Popcorn Hour A-110, and I'm nearly entirely impressed with it. All it really needs is a much better menu system. I'm hoping that the Popbox fixes that, if it ever comes out.I'd like to point out one of my main concerns with these sorts of devices, which the PCH series handles, and which many others don't: NFS.
I understand that lots of people use Windows with the built in CIFS file sharing, or even UPNP/DNLA, but honestly those protocols are pretty weak when compared with NFS (especially over UDP on wired ethernet.) Since I don't use Windows, NFS is the natrual choice, but I've found little information on whether most of the current generation of media renderers support NFS well or at all.
And lots more people than just Linux users would potentially benefit from NFS - many of those little NAS boxes people like so much can do much higher performance with NFS than CIFS or UPNP, which means higher bitrate video, less skipping, and better wifi performance.
ganeshts - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Yes, NFS is one of the best network sharing protocols. The WDTV Live also supports it in the custom firmware. We will add this to our testing methodology for reviews:(1) Network / Local file system and communication protocol support.
daskino - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link
however it is only the original WDTV that supports NFS the the Live and the live plus and the next gen wdtv oes not support true NFS olny by CIFF interceptorModeverything - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
This looked like a really nice streamer for only $88.http://www.brite-view.com/cinematube.php
DieterBSD - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
ganeshts writes,> DVI and DisplayPort are not aimed at the multimedia market. DVI is unable
> to carry audio signals, while DisplayPort connectors are not present on
> TVs / AV receivers which are common parts of a home theater system. Like
> it or not, home theater enthusiasts seem to be stuck with the HDMI
> standard rather than the royalty free DisplayPort
My point is that many people already have a TV/monitor/display/projector
that does not have HDMI, so they might not care if a streamer has HDMI
or not. I've read plenty of complaints about HDMI, apparently the
connector likes to fall off. What counts is if the streamer has the
outputs the user wants/needs. Unfortunately there are quite a few
these days: RF, composite, s-video, component, DVI, HDMI, displayport.
A computer monitor might require the so-called VGA, and there are
at least three varieties: separate H & V sync, composite sync, and
sync-on-green. Streamers aren't just useful for the main TV, people
might want to use one with an older TV in another room.
Then there is DiiVA:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/4/22/eth...
http://admin.virtualpressoffice.com/SupportingDocC...
Unfortunately I haven't heard of any products with DiiVA. :-(
Stokestack writes,
> An oft-ignored product category is that which streams content FROM your
> cable or satellite box TO your computer. I don't really care about watching
> crap-quality compressed video on my big TV, but I would like to watch shows
> from my cable box on a laptop in my kitchen or home office. Please include
> products that perform this task too. Thanks!
An excellent idea, although I would suggest making these a separate article.
nexox writes,
> I understand that lots of people use Windows with the built in CIFS file
> sharing, or even UPNP/DNLA, but honestly those protocols are pretty weak
> when compared with NFS (especially over UDP on wired ethernet.)
And do the boxes support NFS over TCP? (Older implementations of NFS
were UDP only.) Personally I'd like to see something better than NFS.
Too bad that popularity seems to be inversely related to quality.