Details about the Dell mini-pc's 'Zino HD'

Post by **Post-IT** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:17 pm

Source: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/62880/detail ... doken.html

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Er zijn details over twee mini-desktopsystemen, die Dell onder de naam Inspiron Zino HD gaat uitbrengen, verschenen. Het ene systeem zal op het Atom-platform gebaseerd zijn en het andere zal met AMD Athlon-processors uitgerust worden...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:49 pm

Mwoah, way wait for Dell? I have got myself an ASRock ION 330 last week. It's not as shiny, but at least it's not plastic. The white one is under 250 Euro:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/240821/a ... 0-wit.html
It comes with an nVidia ION chipset (duhuh), a 2x 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 CPU, 2GiB PC2-6400 RAM, a 2.5" 320GiB SATA drive and a DVD-+RW drive. It's said to be BIOS overclockable to 2x 2.1GHz (but what's the use?).

I plan to have it run Small Business Server 2008 (though that needs 4GiB to install). For now I'm testing it with SBS 2003 and it runs just fine. At load it dissipates 34Watts, in idle just below 27Watts.

Post by **jvs** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:35 am

I might use it for HTPC purposes because this one has a regular SPDIF out (!) most others (like the Dell one but also Asus etc) hasn't.

Just asking, can I use a regular ethernetport to communicate directly with a denon-link (3th generation)?
In that case I don't need the SPDIF for my music library although I still need a SPDIF out for movies.

Post by **MindBender** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:22 pm

Almost all of them have SPDIF (optical, Toslink) out, including the ASRock. I'm a bit surprised that Dell doesn't offer one. ASRock offers digital audio over HDMI through nVidia chipset drivers, so I'm sure Dell offers that as well.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "use a regular ethernetport to communicate directly". It has a GigaBit Ethernet port, which can communicate at 100 and 10 MBit/s too. And you can connect it to the Ethernet port of your amplifier directly if either of the ends support automatic MDI/MDX switching, or simply use a cross-cable if they don't. But this will limit your connectivity, so why would you?

Post by **MindBender** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:28 pm

I don't know Denon-link, so I looked it up. Do you mean this cable:
http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp ?
And what signals does it carry? It looks like an Ethernet cable, but high-purity copper and other desirable properties for the analogue domain don't really apply to Ethernet. Sure, transients will travel anywhere, but you cannot carry out this quality throughout your network consistently.

Post by **jvs** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:45 pm

As I understand they use the special cable for dvd to receiver.

I want to use the link for a flac stream for instance received from a nas (I know that is possible)

http://www.synology.com/support/faq_sho ... d&q_id=298

see also this posting

http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1090

I am not sure if there are possibilities to transport a movie stream.

(I agree there are optical out's on some of the other Atom's but I can't find the same optical out, Toslink, as on the Asrock, if there are I'd like to know)

Post by **Post-IT** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:20 pm

For streaming HD content and playing HD files, I use a HDX-1000 player. It's small, fanless, and plays full 1080p without any trouble. If you have a DLNA supporting player or even TV (such as the higher end Samsungs), you can stream the content from your DLNA server (such as Synology). Most higher-end TV's are DLNA compatible and have their own interface.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Li ... k_Alliance

P.S. I bought a Samsung 6-series LED TV, so I don't have the ethernet interface, and therefor don't use a DLNA setup. Because I already owned the HDX player which filled my needs, I think it wasn't worth the extra few hundred euro's for the 7-series LED TV.

Post by **drmacchi** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:08 pm

@Post-IT , good think! but i have a doubt: what kind of files streamed over lan are really pure 1080p ? generally it's divx , avi stuff and when resolution is 720p it's even too much.
lorenzo

Post by **MindBender** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:52 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by jvs
 As I understand they use the special cable for dvd to receiver.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Denon-link seems to be a proprietary (closed standard) protocol to transport digital signals from a Denon DVD player to a Denon AV receiver. It is highly unlikely you can use this port for anything else.<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I want to use the link for a flac stream for instance received from a nas (I know that is possible)
http://www.synology.com/support/faq_sho ... d&q_id=298
see also this posting
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1090<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">That is possible. Some Denon AV receivers contain a media player, but those connect to your network using their built-in Ethernet port, not Denon-link.<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I am not sure if there are possibilities to transport a movie stream.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Depending on the media server in your NAS, you can play video content too. But I am not sure if the media player in the Denon AV receiver can play video too. 
I have a Thecus N5200BR-Pro NAS and I have accidentally discovered that it has a media server on board. My Philips TV has an Ethernet port and it came with a lame PC application to enable it to play content from a PC. I connected it to the network, tried it once and forgot about it because it's of not much use if I have to leave my PC on to use it. But when I was playing with the TV a couple of weeks ago, it displayed my NAS in the server browser. So I tried to play a couple of 'difficult' movies (MKV, DiVX, ...) and it worked! Both NAS and TV turned out to be DLNA compatible. So that's the protocol to look for if you want to play everything.<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">(I agree there are optical out's on some of the other Atom's but I can't find the same optical out, Toslink, as on the Asrock, if there are I'd like to know)<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I have seen more of them, but unfortunately I cannot recall brands right now. All were more expensive though. Look for nettops based on the ION chipset. They are supposed to play 1080p fluently.

Post by **jvs** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:46 pm

Good idea, I found a DLNA receiver...

http://www.avblog.nl/windows-7-ready-av ... van-onkyo/

Never thought about just trial and error on movie files (is not mentioned in this article, I'll do some more research on that one)

Otherwise I can buy a new TV (with toslink out to feed my current Receiver)...

Post by **Post-IT** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:21 pm

@drmacchi: There is a whitepaper on the DLNA website, it states the following compression techniques to provide streaming capabilities using current network infrastructures:

For more details have a look at the whitepaper: http://www.dlna.org/News/DLNA_white_paper.pdf

Post by **jvs** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:38 am

hmmm too bad, it looks like a teversity method....

I'd like to keep the original video format, I'll keep searching

Post by **Post-IT** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:39 am

When using existing networks you are bound to compression techniques. The alternative is to make a separate network for pure HD. There are some suppliers in the US for that... don't be surprised, it's expensive!

Post by **jvs** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:34 am

I'll wait for the NetBox-nT330i and spend some euro's on Hdmi conectivity

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/B ... index.html#