ION2 again

[psycik]

http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-MAG-Intel-NV...=8-1-fkmr0

What would something like this be like for a nPVR client machine (playing NZ DVB-T content). Would it deal with it.

[tmrt]

http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-MAG-Intel-NV...=8-1-fkmr0

What would something like this be like for a nPVR client machine (playing NZ DVB-T content). Would it deal with it.

I only have experience with Asus AT3IONT ION machine and linux. It needed a lot of tweaking to make even a decent SD playback. The crucial condition was to put in two DDR3 sticks to enable dual channel operation otherwise RAM was to slow.
When it comes to HD, ION can barely deinterlace and so called advanced mode does not work at all. (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU)

ION would also not hardware accelerate all codecs. ION2 might be better in this respect since it supports CUDA.

As far as I know ION2 is not any faster then ION (http://www.nvidia.com/object/picoatom_sp...tions.html) so I would not expect a significant improvement. On the other hand Windows drivers might be better than linux and less tweaking might be necessary to optimize the playback.


P.S. Maybe ION2 is anyway better for deinterlacing than ION

ION: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost...ostcount=1
ION2: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost...tcount=326

[psycik]

I would definitely run it under windows, and with W7 hopefully it would hardware decode our h.264 content.

[imagn]

I wouldnt sell the ion short just yet. While i can only give you my north american experience (not much h.264) it has done well for me. I have the acer revo 1600, and have been mostly satisfied. It have done well on HD mpeg 2 video, have never had an issue with it playing back any of these files. It has performed well on HD h264 rips but there have been issues with slight stuttering in some scenes. Mind you i have not added to this at all, it has one stick of 1gb ram and is running XP.

I am planning on upgrading to the acer revo 3700 (ION 2) is the next month or 2 to complete the switch over to Win 7 and NPVR. I thought about upgrading the current box but am out of licences for win 7 and will be giving this box to my mom for her GBPVR setup


As long as you have the correct codecs that allow Hardware Excel, it came with power dvd 8 and it ususe this fine in GBPVR and NPVR, then i think you are going to be fine

PS the item you listed in NOT the ion 2, its the old ION graphics card.

this is the one with the ion 2, http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-Intel-Mini-P...450&sr=1-6

I decided against going the ZOTAC route as it will cost just as much to put to gether and put windows on it as the acer revo 3700 and the revo has a faster processor

Revo:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AspireRevo-AR...558&sr=1-1

[mvallevand]

I bought the ASRock ION because of the built in DVD but overall am disappointed with it. It was fine for XBMC, and as a basic NPVR client but it is clearly not a full HTPC. From what I've read the ION2 might be a step backwards.

Mine also didn't come with Win7 so like the Zotac, it did end up costing too much (although I am back to Linux on it). I agree with imagn's suggestion to get the Acer Revo with Win7 this is really going to be just a client.

Martin

[toboR]

I have this device, but I use it with XBMC Live, where it performs flawlessly with 1080i material. I would expect the responsiveness to be reduced somewhat if it was running Win7, but I haven't tested it. The wireless capability is total crap.

[sub]

I bought a Asus AT3IONT (original ION, passive, dual core 330) about a month ago or so to play with. Its actually working surprisingly well with for me (Win7 installed), but I've not had a enough free time to play with it to know all its quirks inside and out.

[imagn]

I found this article to be somewhat interesting in describing the performance of an ION2 chip

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-Next...021.0.html

[Jobi Wan Kenobi]

I love my Ion 330 dual core. It handles all the HD content I can throw at it, including Blu-Ray. It even handles Live TV in both NPVR and WinMedCenter w/o blinking.