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
The ASRock Vision 3D 252B is covered quite nicely with respect to networking hardware. With support for both Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n, it really doesn't matter if you keep the unit beyond cable reach from the router. All our network streaming tests were carried out 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. We used Flash 11.2 in Firefox with NVIDIA's v301.24 drivers for testing. The first set of screenshots below show the CPU usage while playing back a 1080p YouTube video with hardware acceleration enabled. This is the same clip used in all the other SFF HTPC reviews.
1080p YouTube HD Streaming with Hardware Acceleration (Flash in Firefox)
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 18% is lower than the CPU usage for a 1080p YouTube video.
Netflix HD Streaming with Hardware Acceleration
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. On a side note, it is disappointing to see Netflix restrict its 1080p / DD+ 5.1 offerings to the PS3 and Roku 2. It is the PC platform which launched the streaming business for Netflix. It would be good if they do not relegate HTPC users to being second string consumers as their popularity grows.
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ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I agree that the necessary information is spread out over multiple sites / reviews. We will work towards maintaining a database for easy access to all the information from a central point.ggathagan - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
There's already an extensive guide:http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/
http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva-c...
An alternative to MPC-HC is a Korean product called Pot player:
http://imouto.my/configuring-potplayer-for-gpu-acc...
I've used both players with a GTS 450, an AMD 6950 and an AMD 5670 without issue after following the guides.
aliasfox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
First off, I skimmed the article, so forgive me if this is really obvious. Second, I have an admitted Mac bias, so that's where this is coming from. So here goes:With the exception of the Blu-Ray drive and USB3, is there really much that makes this worth so much more than a Mac Mini? I'm thinking the $799, i7, Radeon 6670m equipped model.
$100 to load Windows onto it (if that's your flavor), and $200 should get you a blu-ray player - that leaves that set up $100 cheaper than the ASRock...
The Mac mini does dual display, has HDMI out, and has an optical audio output as well. Admittedly, the SD Card reader on the back is less easy to get to than a reader on the front, and the base HDD is smaller (500 GB).
Different strokes for different folks?
lenkiatleong - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
But Mac mini does not bitstream HD audio to AV as far as i know. And this is the most critical point in my opinion for HTPC.philipma1957 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
1.2k for 1.2 k I can have a 2500k cpu a crucial 256gb ssd a 2tb hdd a blu ray from asus 8gb ram a mobo from asus the catch is I need a 14 by 14 by 7 inch case.Any real hi end ht has amps, larger speakers ,large tv. Some subs not one sub.
A gear rack and hiding a case the size of 14 by 14 by 7 on a gear rack is easy.
This is for a design freak with tiny little bose speakers and a wall mount led flat screen.
while that ht is costly ie hi end it makes poor quality sound.
ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
This is a HTPC for the high end home theater. Nothing prevents you from routing the HDMI output from the Vision 3D 252B to an amp / pre-amps and use that to drive the large speakers.aliasfox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Or potentially it's for people who are limited on storage rack space. My five level rack currently houses my blu-ray player, receiver, and dedicated stereo amp, as well as my cable modem and router which live on one shelf.If I were to replace my receiver (currently acting as my pre/pro) with a dedicated pre/pro and another amp to do surround duties, I wouldn't have another entire shelf for a big box htpc - I'd only have the space next to the modem and router to share.
zerorift - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Maybe I'm just not seeing this in the review, but what software did you use to record the graphs of power usage?ganeshts - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
The graphs are from HWInfo. The software is capable of much more than just simple graphing. Here is another screenshot (and the link to the software):http://www.hwinfo.com/images/HWiNFO32_1.png
www.hwinfo.com
nsparadox - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I used to build HTPCs back in the day to record shows as a glorified DVR. There's no bundled tuner. What's the point of HTPCs nowadays, assuming you're not using them as a DVR?I can do pretty much all of these things this machine can do with a Blu-Ray player, Google TV, integrated TV software, a Roku box, or just an HDMI out to an existing tablet or laptop PC. And the prices for these approaches ranges from free to $200 depending on what equipment you already have?
Even for massive movie hoarders who want to stream their collection, you can do that with most of these devices.