Asrock Vision 3D HTPC - Owners Thread

No-one else has one, I'm surprised.
 
Looks good. I have been looking to get a HTPC and this might be the one. I only want it for ripping blurays and bluray playback. the HDD isnt big enough to store too many HD movies but I presume I could just add external storage. Let us know how you are getting on. I dont really want the hassle of trying to build one myself, I dont really know too much about computers so this looks perfect
 
Hi everyone,

I thought I'd start this thread for the Asrock Vision 3D HTPC that is now out. I managed to get mine delivered today and have set it up.

ASRock > Products > Vision 3D Series
Any chance of you posting your thoughts, like how noisy are you finding it?

I'm tempted as it looks excellent for a pre-built HTPC and seems to be about as future proof as you can get in the world of PC's. Seen a really good review at ASRock's High-End Vision 3D HTPC Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News but been waiting for real life user reports before pulling the trigger on a purchase.
 
Hi guys,

It is quiet but not silent, it's nowhere near an xbox360 for example but from 4ft away you can hear it VERY faintly.

I am still trying to set it up how I want with regards to a media front end like Boxee. I have had a few issues with my onkyo receiver taking the hdmi signal and not sure where the problem lies.

Bitstreaming does work perfectly for blu-rays and shows so on my tx-sr608 receiver. I think there is a problem with chapter changes though and the audio drops for 3 seconds each chapter on terminator 2 skynet edition.

I don't know if this is a powerdvd software issue, hardware on the asrock or the receiver's hardware.

Boxee has its own problems not linked to the machine too with some .vob files playing in slow motion and audio getting stuck.

Hopefully I can iron out the issues, issues that might not have anything to do with the asrock.
 
Hi there I was looking at one of these to,

Q1 does the noise compaire to a sky box or the sound of a ps3 on low fan speed ?

Q2 I was also woundering if the picture quality output is as good as a top range blu-ray player or a ps3 as I have tried a pc system in the past and thought the picture was not as good as what a ps3 displayed.

Q3 does it support 24p

Q4 what about different refresh rates as videos are in 24, 50 and 60hz

Q5 can this device play full none compressed blu-ray 1080p rip as u need a powerfull system to play them high 20mb to 30mb bitrates.

Cheers

I was wanting to install xbmc on mine
 
oh well never mind such much for the help
 
Sorry guys for the late replies....

Asrock got back to me about audio drop outs:

Dear Sir,
Thanks for contacting ASRock.

We did the test but we think it should be relate with OnkyoTX-SR608.
Since we can see the same behavior if using Sony and Pioneer player .

Please kindly understand due to the DTS-HD Master audio format is decoding by amplifier, Vision3D just pass through the audio to Onkyo TX-SR608 for decoding.
The delay should be caused by the amplifier still decording the audio format (DTS HD Master).

Thanks!

Best Wishes
ASRock TSD

Meridius:

Q1 does the noise compaire to a sky box or the sound of a ps3 on low fan speed ?

I have neither machines, but at 4ft away in an open hi-fi stand the noise is not an issue for me and I'm guessing it is probably quieter than a PS3 easily.

Q2 I was also woundering if the picture quality output is as good as a top range blu-ray player or a ps3 as I have tried a pc system in the past and thought the picture was not as good as what a ps3 displayed.

I previously had a Sony s360 (very similar to the ps3 player) connected to my LED Samsung TV and blu-ray playback via PowerDVD 10 on this Asrock is just as good if not better from what I've watched. It's definitely not worse.

Q3 does it support 24p

I should hope so, I have not had any noticeable frame drops or noticeable judder etc that could be caused by it not being 24p. I need to go home and do some checks for you though.

Q4 what about different refresh rates as videos are in 24, 50 and 60hz

This is largely down to TV settings no? In display setup you can change between 50hz and 60hz for definite. I can check the display resolutions list more when I get home, but it is relying on what the TV can support and the amp / receiver you have connected. My Onkyo TX-SR608 is 24p compatible for example and this as far as I know (correct me if I am wrong is linked to refresh rates too?).

Q5 can this device play full none compressed blu-ray 1080p rip as u need a powerfull system to play them high 20mb to 30mb bitrates.

I haven't ripped a disc to try this, but this machine if you check the specs is basically geared up especially for this practice, so you won't have problems as far as I can see.
 
With regards to the audio drop outs, it has only happened on Terminator 2 blu-ray for me and as it says above, it happens on other amps too, so It's not that disappointing really. If I rip the disc it might actually solve it.
 
Extra info:

I have installed Win 7 Ultimate on it and have it booting into Boxee as the shell.

So I press Power, it loads Win 7 with the splash screen then immediately loads Boxee with the splash screen. I can ctrl+alt+del out of that and run a new task explorer.exe to get to PowerDVD for blu-rays if need be (Boxee doesn't support blu-rays I don't think).
 
Hi there thanks for the info.

If u don't get any dropouts using a stand alone bluray player u should not get this problem with the asrock, if u are it has to be the asrock fault not your amp. I never get any audio drops outs at all from my denon bluray or my ps3 playing any files so I don't know why this is happening on the asrock. I would not put up with that to be honest.

Regarding the refresh rates this is not controled by the tv it is controlled by the player but the tv has to support the refresh rates.

All tvs support 50hz and 60hz and now the 24hz for blu ray. But the problem is that pc software will play everything in 50hz if u have your gfx card set to that. Which is wrong as u don't want that u need the pc to automselect the right refresh rate eg.

50hz = 50hz and 60hz = 60hz and so on u don't want the pc to play 60hz stuff at 50hz but I suppose This is more software that Hardware related
 
The Asrock lets me select 1920x1080 16bit colour @ 24hz.

However, on this setting every 10 seconds or so the video stutters. I had this problem with my other PC and an older Samsun TV too, so nothing new to me. I am watching blu-rays at 60hz and it looks fine though.
 
It's lovely but nowhere near £ 600 plus worth of lovely.
 
I've now got one of these, works great and is a very nice compact unit with integrated IR receiver with everything working perfectly with XBMC which I use as my front end, plus it will support HD Audio bitstreaming when it comes to XBMC in the next Eden release.

The one problem I'm having is trying to update the graphics driver, has anyone successfully done this?

The driver supplied on the CD is version 260.81 and there isn't a newer version on the ASRock website for download yet, however going to the Nvidia website it say's version 260.99 is the latest for the GeForce GT425M.

I download ver 260.99 from NVIDIA DRIVERS 260.99 WHQL

However when I try to install it does a system check then say "Install cannot continue - This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware"

This is more first experience of Nvidia graphics so not sure if perhaps I'm doing something wrong.
 
I download ver 260.99 from NVIDIA DRIVERS 260.99 WHQL

However when I try to install it does a system check then say "Install cannot continue - This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware"
There is a new BETA 266.35, if that doesn't work the issue may be "Notebooks supporting Hybrid Power technology with Intel chipsets are not supported by this release.".
 
JeffD I had the same issue but just forgot about it. Nice to hear XBMC is going to have HD bitstreaming support.
 
Hi,

I have problems on playback BD3D. I have a Panasonic TX-P50VT20 plasma, tried the bundled PowerDVD10 and TotalMedia Theatre 5 softwares, but no success. The TV switches to 24Hz, but without 3D. I using W7 x64.
Also tried with the latest 260.99 drivers. The original installer failed, so i modded one 260.99, but this also not solved my problem. Does anyone have experinece BD3D playback on 3DTV with great machine?

If someone want to try the driver, it can be downloaded from here: [mod comment: please use the official driver site]

Br.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi,

I have problems on playback BD3D. I have a Panasonic TX-P50VT20 plasma, tried the bundled PowerDVD10 and TotalMedia Theatre 5 softwares, but no success. The TV switches to 24Hz, but without 3D. I using W7 x64.
Also tried with the latest 260.99 drivers. The original installer failed, so i modded one 260.99, but this also not solved my problem. Does anyone have experinece BD3D playback on 3DTV with great machine?

If someone want to try the driver, it can be downloaded from here: [mod comment: please use the official driver site]

Br.
Can't help as I don't use the 3D functionality.

Could you post the instructions for how you modded the driver as I've still not been able to find a way to install 260.99.

I would be grateful you could also PM me the link that's been removed by the mod.

Note to mod - The problem with this ASRock is that drivers from the official Nvidia site cannot be installed.
 
Hi all

I picked up one of these a few days ago to replace my current larger, slightly noisier HTPC. I swapped out the HDD with a solid state just for some extra quiet too.

All seemed to go well ... a quick install of Windows 7, then XBMC Dharma with Aeon skin on top.

I'm running over HDMI to an Onyko amp, then to a Samsung 6000 series.

I had a similar setup before which was fine with all sound formats I threw at it (was an ATI Radeon setup)

However, I've noticed that sound within XMBC can stop. This doesn't happen suddenly but will take place

* when I pause and restart video/music
* if I leave XMBC on a menu for a while

Interestingly it doesn't *always* happen.

Stopping and restarting XBMC always brings it back. Other windows apps are fine. I have XMBC set to output to HDMI.

Any ideas?
 

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