Zotac ZBOX: Brazos Goes HTPC
by Andrew Van Til on June 9, 2011 5:00 PM ESTVideo Decoding Quality
| HQV-HD Quality Tests | ||||||
| Class 1 - Video Conversion | ||||||
| Core i5-2500K | NVIDIA GT430 | AMD 3200 | AMD 6310 | AMD 5550 | Best | |
| Video Resolution | 20 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 20 |
| Dial | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Dial w/ Static Pattern | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Gray Bars | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Violin | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Film Resolution | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Stadium 2:2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Stadium 3:2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Overlay on Film | 8 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Horizontal Text Scroll | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Vertical Text Scroll | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Response Time | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| 3:2 Lock | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 2:2 Lock | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Multi-Cadence | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 2:2:2:4 24FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2:3:3:2 24FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 3:2:3:2:2 24FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 5:5 12FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 6:4 12FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 8:7 8FPS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Color Upsampling Errors | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Interlace Chroma Problem | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Chroma Upsampling Error | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Class 1 Total | 46 | 50 | 17 | 27 | 50 | 90 |
| Class 2 - Noise and Artifact Reduction | ||||||
| Core i5-2500K | NVIDIA GT430 | AMD 3200 | AMD 6310 | AMD 5550 | Best | |
| Random Noise | 14 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 20 |
| Sailboat | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Flower | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Sunrise | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Harbor Night | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Compression Artifacts | 12 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 20 |
| Scrolling Text | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Roller Coaster | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Ferris Wheel | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Bridge Traffic | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Upscaled Compression Artifacts | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 20 |
| Text Pattern | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Roller Coaster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Ferris Wheel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Bridge | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Class 2 Total | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 27 | 60 |
| Class 3 - Image Scaling and Enhancements | ||||||
| Core i5-2500K | NVIDIA GT430 | AMD 3200 | AMD 6310 | AMD 5550 | Best | |
| Scaling and Filtering | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Luminance Frequency Bands | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Chrominance Frequency Bands | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Vanishing Text | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Resolution Enhancement | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Brook, Mountain, Time Elapsed Flower, Red Hair, Wood Grain | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Class 3 Total | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Class 4 - Adaptive Processing | ||||||
| Core i5-2500K | NVIDIA GT430 | AMD 3200 | AMD 6310 | AMD 5550 | Best | |
| Contrast Enhancement | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Theme Park | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Driftwood | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Beach at Dusk | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| White and Black Cats | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Skin Tone Correction | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Skin tones | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Class 4 Total | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 30 |
| Benchmark Total | 128 | 131 | 96 | 106 | 134 | 210 |
When evaluating HQV-HD scores it is important to remember that while numbers are produced, the outcome is still somewhat subjective and results should only be evaluated within the context that created them. In this case, testing was conducted with the above connected to a Panasonic TC-P58VT25. Given the results I’ve seen from AMD with its 5550, I was somewhat surprised to see the 6310’s performance, especially in the cadence detection section of the test—a place where AMD was the first GPU vendor to pass all of the formats. It does display an obvious advantage versus the older AMD 3200 found in the Zino HD, so hopefully we will see further improvements as the drivers mature.
HQV is a useful tool for measuring video performance, but only in a limited context. So to get a better feel for the GPU’s capabilities screen shots from three (480i/720p/1080i) “real world” samples were captured at their native resolution. Here we can see clear differences in performance between the AMD 6310 and the other GPUs (AMD 5550, Intel HD 2000 and NVIDIA GT430) in deinterlacing, noise reduction, brightness, and color. That said, the most interesting story told by the images is found when comparing the differences within the AMD family. Looking at the 480i sample in detail, we can see that the 5550 has a clear advantage in deinterlacing quality (most likely due to the 6310’s lack of vector adaptive DI support), especially along the goal line. There is also a marked difference between the states where the video processing setting were set to their defaults and when they were disabled—an indication that the GPU does not support advanced video processing (VP) features when “Enforce Smooth Video Playback” (ESVP) is enabled. Now we can debate if anything is truly missing in this regard in the comments, but it is worth noting that the VP features are not available.
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cjs150 - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Every time a new HTPC comes out we get closer and closer to an ideal main room solution. Sure it is not a gaming rig, but for watching media, maybe doing some web browsing and emails it looks good. However there are 3 or 4 areas which need work:1. Built in IR remote, absolutely essential and needs to have ability to shut off/sleep and bring back the machine to live
2. Noise. We are never going to get total silence (probably) with this size of case but I am worried about Andrew's comment in the article. Cannot help but conclude that a slightly larger case and a slow running fan might be a better combination.
3. Noise (2). I have a high end AV rack but the thing that bugs me is the Blu-ray player (Onkyo). In the quiet sections of movies I can hear the player. Crucial therefore is the noise of the slim line player in the ZBOX. Is it properly isolated/dampened from rest of case
4. TV cards. I know you can get USB TV tuners but quality never seems to be as good as internal cards. Again given the size of the ZBOX I can forgive this not being included (and the cable set top box can do this for me) but would be on my wish list as the perfect HTPC.
5. Finally picture quality. Always subjective but what worried me is the "drifting" Andrew reported. Intel cannot play 24 fps movies at the absolute correct frame rate (which is not exactly 24 fps), AMD can... or at least I thought that was the case until reading this article. "Drifting" worries me, but maybe improved drivers will help.
Now can I have one in pure black to match the rest of the AV rack please!
burntham77 - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
All great ideas.Using Brazos inside a larger case that would allow the use of the one PCIe slot would allow for a PCIe CableCard tuner, or if you just wanted local channels an HDHomerun works too. A larger case (like my Antec Fusion Remote Black) allows for better airflow and a quieter system (I never hear mine even when it's spinning a blu-ray disc).
My only real concern with moving to a Brazos setup from my Athlon X2 is your fifth item, about image quality. Although my only real concern is with Netflix. Until Silverlight adds GPU acceleration, I guess I can switch over the Xbox 360 if I need Netflix.
Despite the concerns, this is another article has brought me that much closer to this setup.
jaydee - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Nice review overall!An Atom-based HTPC should have been included for comparison. Something like this guy, that AT has already reviewed: http://www.anandtech.com/print/4081
I think it's important in reviews to consider what is underneath your test article, as well as what is higher performing, for balance purposes. Not to mention that Brazos is sort of the natural upgrade path from Aom/ION in the low-power HTPC segment.
babgvant - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
I agree that an ION system would have made a great additional data point. Unfortunately I don't have one on hand, but I did have a first gen ZinoHD so it was included as a reference (with some very interesting results).bhigh - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Most people I know use Linux and XBMC for their HTPC.It would be nice to know how the E350 supports this.
Penti - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
While technically possible XBMC's stable release do not support it and it's not trouble free to get it to work with hardware acceleration on the distro side with the development version of XBMC since you need it to go through libva/vaapi with xvba backend so it wouldn't workout of the box. It would also be quiet pointless with a blu-ray system and running Linux where you won't get it to work (cleanly) and even most of (your normal) illegal ripping tools do not work. Neither does XBMC support blu-ray on Windows without launching something like PowerDVD.djkebhri - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Anand,I have an issue with this quote at the bottom of page 3:
"Historically, AMD has provided the best level of refresh rate precision by default, but unfortunately that is not the case with the E-350’s 6310. As you can see from the pictures and video tracking accuracy for 24p content, it certainly can hit the target, but it has issues maintaining the correct frequency over time."
This is incorrect. I assure you, there is nothing wrong with the E-350 and/or the 6310 playing 23.976 or 24 fps content when Catalyst is properly set to that mode.
I have an ASUS E35M1-M Pro connected to my Samsung LN40C630 and it has no issues. Any issues you have are not due to AMD. They might be from an issue in the test setup, equipment, or the Zotac itself.
ganeshts - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
The experience with AMD cards for 23.976 Hz refresh rate varies across different systems and setups. Unless AMD provides a way for the end user to tweak the refresh rate according to the setup, I wouldn't consider it as reliable 23.976 at all.Slaimus - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
How come a complete E-350 laptop like the dm1z or X120e can be bought for under $400 but a box like this is over $500? The LCD/battery/keyboard/touchpad should outweigh the price of a BD reader upgrade.jaydee - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Volume maybe? Laptop makers buy everything in much higher volumes than Zotac buys HTPC components. I don't know if this alone makes the difference or not. Maybe Zotac is pulling a lot higher profit margin?But your logic is valid. Can one just connect a E350 laptop to an HTPC setup and do everything that this unit can do? Minus the blu-ray, which can be added on later?