eeeBox and Pinnacle USB HDTV

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haydenbarker

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Topic # 29715 16-Jan-2009 11:13

Hi THere,

I recently invested in an eeeBox to go with my LCD TV. I have tried playing some 720p movies on it and it seems to keep up. It dies with 1080p though. I have seen the USB HDTV tuners and was wondering if you really need the recommended "Dual-Core" to recieve Freeview HD ? I have loosely STF but haven't seen anything specific.....

Comments ?

Thanks

chiefie

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Reply # 189960 16-Jan-2009 11:17

eeeBox uses Intel Atom CPU which isn't really great at processing anything higher than 720p. It might do alright at 1080i but don't hope for miracle with 1080p as it's too much for Atom's N270 at 1.6GHz with 1GB DDR2 memory and Intel GMA 950 GPU to process.

read this page [http://www.eeextra.com/eee/eeebox-specs.html]

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haydenbarker

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 189964 16-Jan-2009 11:27

I'd be fairly happy with FreeView and 720p.... might have ti investigate further. Be good to hear from someone who is actually using a USB freeview reciever about thier experiences.

jonathan18

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Reply # 190221 17-Jan-2009 19:22

haydenbarker: Hi THere,

I recently invested in an eeeBox to go with my LCD TV. I have tried playing some 720p movies on it and it seems to keep up. It dies with 1080p though. I have seen the USB HDTV tuners and was wondering if you really need the recommended "Dual-Core" to recieve Freeview HD ? I have loosely STF but haven't seen anything specific.....

Comments ?

Thanks

I know this isn't particularly helpful, considering you've already bought the Eee, and perhaps you already know this, however Asus appears to have acknowledged the restrictions of the current Box models by announcing at the end of last year that they will release two models which appear to be more designed for HTPC work - the main differences being able to "enjoy viewing hardware-accelerated HD content" and an HDMI output. More info here:

http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=13626

As to whether that would have made a difference in your situation, I will leave it to the experts on this forum! I had been contemplating using a Eee Box or Mac Mini for a HTPC, primarily for Freeview, however have been put off to a great extent by the apparent problems (simply not grunty enough to record two channels and watch a recorded programme, which I really wanted to do). I assume my hybrid solution will be a Freeview HD PVR and a Mac Mini for all other purposes (photos, SD movies, internet etc), or see what the new Boxes are like when they're released. It may pay to do a search/read through a few threads as this kind of topic has been touched on (I specifically asked about the Eee Box and Mac Mini for Freeview).

Cheers
Jonathan

sbiddle

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Reply # 190227 17-Jan-2009 20:16

To view Freeview|HD you ideally do need a video card capable of H.264 hardware acceleration. Software decoding does work but does still max out a mid range dual core processor decoding TV3's 1080i stream and won't deliver the same picture quality.

As mentioned the new eee's will have a GPU capable of H.264 so would make the ideal PVR box or extender to mount on to your TV if you want to go down the server/client architecture.

Dixm

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Reply # 190959 21-Jan-2009 07:46

yeah they added the ati video instead of the old intel crap - thats what makes it work. Not a lot of cpu need if you have a hardware accellerated video decoder.
I think I'll get one once they hit and the xmas spend is payed off :)