ASRock's High-End Vision 3D HTPC Reviewed
by Ganesh T S on October 3, 2010 10:20 AM EST
The networking capabilities of the Vision 3D are quite similar to that of the Core 100. It really doesn't matter if the unit is within reach of a wired network or not. We carried out all our tests with a 300 Mbps 802.11n network (currently provided in my lab location by a RT-N16 802.11n gigabit router from Asus). We were easily able to stream HD clips of more than 50 Mbps. HD YouTube videos and HD Netflix streaming had no issues.
While on the topic of network streaming, let us take a brief look at how the system performs while accessing online video services. The first set of screenshots below show the CPU usage while playing back a 1080p YouTube video with and without hardware acceleration enabled. This is the same clip as the one used in the Core 100 review. As can be seen, the GPU indeed supports Flash acceleration. While the Core 100 had a CPU utilization factor of around 23% with the YouTube clip, the Vision 3D seems to be much more efficient at only 10%. It should also be noted that the software only decode process is also more efficient on the Vision 3D. We expect similar results for videos on Hulu.
YouTube 1080p Playback without HW Acceleration (Click to enlarge)
YouTube 1080p Playback with HW Acceleration (Click to enlarge)
Netflix streaming, on the other hand, uses Microsoft's Silverlight technology. Unlike Flash, hardware acceleration for the video decode process is not controlled by the user. It is upto the server side code to attempt GPU acceleration. Thankfully, Netflix does try to take advantage of the GPU's capabilities. This is evident from the A/V stats recorded while streaming a Netflix HD video at the maximum possible bitrate of 3.8 Mbps. While the video is definitely not 1080p, we observe that the CPU utilization of around 20% is higher than the CPU usage for a 1080p YouTube video.
Click to enlarge
We suspect that the handling of the DRM in the case of Netflix streaming is done by the CPU, resulting in the higher usage.
Users of media streamers streaming online videos often have to put up with messages of the sort 'This content is not available on TV connected devices' or need to queue up the videos on a PC before accessing them through their media streamer box. HTPC users don't need to worry about any such limitations. For online media consumption, the Vision 3D is better than the Core 100, which itself was a big winner from the network streaming standpoint.
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strolfey - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
Thanks a bunch! Based on this, there's no major hangups so I'll be looking to get one as soon as it's available from newegg.cjs150 - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Bit like the Apple TV article, we are moving closer to the ideal living room HTPC but not there yet.A decent SSD rather than a HD would be better, less noise, reliability not an issue, less heat.
Noise is the issue for me. This is improving (and would be less noisy than my current cable box) but still not perfect (total silence would be perfect but impractical).
I do wonder whether an optical drive is really necessary. Seems to me that there may be 2 HTPC markets. One for a streaming device that can play games and another where the device is also the sole Blue-ray/DVD player on an AV system.
I would be happy to ditch the optical drive for a TV tuner. Even more so if it could replace the cable box
blacksun1234 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
Dear Ganesh,Is its BD playback video quality better than consumer BD 3D player?
ganeshts - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I didn't do a side by side comparison, but I would believe that you have lot more tweaks available at your disposal on the HTPC to do some post processing if you desire (compared to the options in a consumer BD 3D player).The only advantage of a consumer BD player I can foresee is the ease of use factor. HTPCs are inherently not designed to cater to the lowest common denominator yet. (Yes, we have Win7MC + PDVD / ArcSoft integration, but you still need to do some configuration like AutoStart / Start Maximized / configuration of 3D display etc. etc. to make sure it acts like a consumer BD 3D player).
SirMeili - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
With my current HTPC, I can have distinct On and off Codes. so my question is this:You said you can wake the HTPC via the remote, but can you
1) put it to sleep with the remote, and
2) Turn the computer on with the remote (from an off state)
3) program additional codes for the IR Receiver (for instance, I have a button on my universal for alt-f4)
Neither are ultimately important, but I like my setup as it is now (especially since I can train specific on and off codes for my IR Receiver for the HP)
ganeshts - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
1 and 2 are definitely possible ( 2, when AC power cord is still connected, but you already knew that :) )As for 3, I will ask ASRock. I haven't personally tried out.
The Jedi - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
If this were an Asus brand product I might find it more attractive, but I think ASRock has issues with its reputation. I mean they make some innovative and low cost mobo's, but from reading around they seem to have quality control issues. Last time I visited their website they had imperfect English so I think I'll just stay away.mutarasector - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Can't wait to see a Llano powered version of this thing. I believe one might see a mini based on it by the 'Fruity computer Co.' in the not too distant future.borekb - Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - link
On these screen-less HTPC devices, how do you display things like MP3 or volume information while you're playing musing and the TV is turned off? I'm thinking about attaching a digital picture frame but would that be possible to output the signal to both HDMI (-> A/V Receiver -> TV) and to the frame? (I don't own any digital picture frame at the moment so I'm not sure what would be required on that front.)mpogr - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Got one of these. They sell them here in Australia without memory and HDD, purchased both from the same store, the total price was ~940AUD (should be ~970-980 USD now)..Assembly was quite easy and all was working fine at first. Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits, SageTV client and PowerDVD 11 (planned primary use: TV and, occasionally, 3D Blu Ray playback). Because of TV being used by the children, the computer was always on (but not always playing back media). The unit died after ~5 days. I wasn't at home when this happened, but it just powered itself off. After that, upon disconnecting and reconnecting power, it came on and then off straight away. Resetting CMOS and pulling the BIOS battery out helped a bit, so now it doesn't power itself off after reconnecting the mains. The blower spins and the power led is lit, but no video output and no HDD activity. Disconnecing HDD and ODD didn't help.
So it's just dead. It can be the unit itself or the memory, as I don't have any spare SODIMMs to test. About to send the unit back to the retailer for investigation.