Setting up the Acer Revo 3610:
Getting the Revo up and running is simple. The unit has only a power cord, a wireless key board and a mouse. Then hook up an HDMI or VGA cable to your HDTV or computer monitor. Done! I chose to hook it to a RCA 40″ full 1080p HDTV.
Set up of Windows-7 took just a few minutes. You can select the name of the PC, region, password, and network settings. Afterward, the setup goes through a 2 minutes process before you are presented with a log on screen and finally the desktop. See both CRT screen shots below. As you can see, there are some bloatware icons on the desktop to contend with:
After logging in, the Revo prompts you to make a Windows-7 OS backup disc set. Take note, this is because the Revo does not come with a Windows OS re-installation disc! Since I do not yet have a Esata or USB CD/DVD rom, I promptly installed my Windows Home Server Console program and set up a user account for the Revo. From there I did a complete OS image back up, which took about 40 minutes to complete. That way I could restore my Revo to factory specs should something go dreadfully wrong. You can later use the Acer Backup program to make those restore discs once you get a DVD rom connected, but the sooner the better. Fortunately, I have WHS.
Initial Updates, Software Installation and Adobe Flash Fixes:
First off, I headed to the MS Update site and updated everything except for the Windows Office Suite. The Nvidia video driver needed an update as well to 191.07. The Revo already had Flash 10.0.22 installed (more on Flash later).
I then installed MPC-HC video player, Boxee Alpha and Hulu Desktop. I played a 720p 30 HD H.264 file and it played flawlessly on the Revo via WMP 11 adn MPC-HC. I then tried some files shared (.avi & .mkv) via WHS through Boxee and they too played flawlessly. Next up, Hulu Desktop and Hulu via IE.
Now Hulu plays video, like many on line video sites, with Adobe Flash. This wreaks havoc on slower CPU’s and is just the same on the Revo using the installed Flash 10.0.22…for the moment. Here is how things shook out with Hulu playing a 30 Rock episode.
Flash 10.0.22 out of the box
Hulu via IE 86 was a almost perfect, but skipped. CPU was 79%+
Hulu Desktop was almost perfect, fewer skips. Better than IE. CPU usage was 76%
Boxee was almost perfect too! Same as IE. Surprised. CPU usage 59%-66%. (odd how it’s lower than IE)
All three results had high CPU usage (as expected), but was surprised by the quality of Hulu using old Flash, which does not support GPU acceleration and off loading!
Flash 10.1 Beta to the rescue!
The new Flash Beta 10.1 now allows for GPU acceleration to the video card! (Even for non-ION PC’s. As long as your card and any video player being used supports this feature!) This is the update all Atom ION users have been waiting for!!!! Now lets see what this Revo is made of.
Flash 10.1 installed: For this test I installed the Nvidia Beta ION video driver vs 195.55 11-13-2009, developed just for the Flash 10.1 Beta. This further reduced the CPU usage below my initial tests done last week! Today, Nvidia released the final version that is WHQL certified vs 195.62 11-27-09. So, I’ll be updating again and so should you!
Hulu via IE 86** worked flawlessly! CPU usage was down to 16%!
Hulu Desktop worked flawlessly! CPU usage was down to 16% !!
Hulu in Boxee was the same as 10.0.22 test above. CPU 60-80% Some skipping as it has Flash 10.0.22 that is built in.
As you can see, the GPU acceleration usage of the Flash Beta works superbly with Hulu Desktop and any Flash media streamed via IE! The only real skips seem to come as a result of low download buffer. So, pausing at the beginning to build the buffer eliminates this.
Installing the Flash Beta does not update Boxee’s Flash version. Boxee does not trigger or utilize GPU acceleration of any sort. So CPU usage will always be high with any video played through Boxee. Flash is very poor unless you have a quad core CPU to handle the duty. This will change when Boxee Beta is released on December 7, 2009. Watch out!
**Flash is not supported at all in IE 64 bit**
Video Players:
This has nothing to do with the Flash update. Only how the players utilize GPU acelleration with Ion as expected.
I played a .wmv HD file and a 720p 30 h.264 files with the MPC-HC 64 bit player and the WMP 11. Both worked flawlessly using 20% cpu +/-
Now, these tests do not cover all scenarios with Flash. Your mileage may vary based on Internet connection speed, HDTV resolution settings, and even Flash player types at different web sites. At the 1080p setting on the Revo Nvidia controller, some flash playback was just a bit off compared to setting it to 720p. But barely! And this varied by web site too. Example: YouTube HD is useless, but I found their encryption to be terrible and bandwidth from them is poor. But theirs was the only site that gave poor Flash performance.
HDTV Screen shots with Task Manager: With Flash 10.1 Beta
Desktop at boot
Hulu Desktop
Hulu IE x86
Hulu Boxee
HD Nation on Boxee -The encryption of Revision shows makes for flawless play in Boxee even with higher CPU usage. White screen because captured between scene changes.
HDTV Screen shots with Task Manager: WMP-11 & MPC-HC 64
HD Nation on WMP 11
HD Nation on MPC-HC 64 withVideo Stats
There’s MORE on page 3!!
Similar Posts:
- Flash 10.1 Beta on Acer Revo 3610 testing Results
- Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta Released for Atom Ion
- New Acer Revo 3610 HTPC
- Acer Revo 3610 Atom ION-Video Demo
- Acer Revo 3610 Unboxed
Only tried boxee.. I didn’t see the newest nVidia update. I chose the ion card with a desktop. I’ll check again…
okay, found it and update both. youtube video looks fine in browser, but choppy in boxee (not the latest boxee release, but the previous one.. does that matter?)
Kaz,
Yeah, it could. The current boxee build is 11487 and had a ton of bug fixes. I’ll tell you though, I’ve found that some TV shows play better than others on boxee. It varies from episode to episode depending upon the encryption they used.
Lastly, boxee has not had a build release since the flash RC releases. I’ve asked the dev’s if they have anything coming in a future boxee build that may address this. We’ll see,…
I got an Acer Revo back when they first came out and I love it. Like you said, it seems to play back anything with total ease, and no noise or heat.
My only complaint about your site is that I didn’t see a date on the article – did I miss it. Given the fast changing technology word, it is crazy to not have a date, clearly displayed, on a review of a technology product.
Tom,
Welcome, glad you like the site.
All posts have a date on my blog. The date is at the top of the post on the main page of the blog with each posting. Once in the post itself, the date disappears. Most WP themes are this way. Good idea to have it on the post itself though…I’ll look into it. Thanks.
Have configured a couple of these and performance improved markedly after the included McAfee Internet Security trial was removed. Some lighter free antivirus like Avira allows the system to perform reasonably, but on any Atom based machines I seriously consider running without any antivirus software at all to save performance.
There seems to be a bug or something on this page or some fonts are not installed on my PC. Somehow not everything is displayed correctly. Any ideas?
Keyboard,
Works for me on FFox & IE on 5 different PC’s. Must be your system.
MKK,
Yup, I have this laid out on my set up post. Most any low resource AV works fine and does not impede the Revo. I’ve tested several and found the MS Security Essentials to work the best at not lagging the Revo.
They are great little boxen, are they not, Paul?
We got a single-core 3600 a year back, and it works just fine on our 720p TV. Got a couple of the 3610s a month back, cheap.
The trick that worked for us was to try Sabayon Linux (amongst many others) – cannot recall which revision it was, sorry – but it had the ability to launch XBMC from the main menu for Media Stuff, and then revert back to Sabayon for surfing etc. Not ideal, but it worked.
So I tampered with Ubuntu 9?? until the interface was what we wanted for TV and we could do enough of the XBMC stuff without using XBMC.
The Ubuntu Netbook version worked fine on the big screen – and the Ion/Atom environment worked fine.
It’s a similar problem, visually – the tiny netbook screen can be as hard to read as a distant TV – but it has big icons and so forth just like a Meeja Center.
Would not willingly use Win again, am too lazy to do the weekly repairs to its defences and forever fiddle with the b***** Registry.
Big Ben,
Glad to hear your revo works with Linux with XBMC.
I don’t talk or troubleshoot either on this blog or forum.
Weekly repairs to use Windows? Fiddle with the registry? Huh? Dude, I don’t know anyone that has to do that….
Besides, Windows environment works more smoothly for media than ANY other OS.
I’m about to pull the trigger on a AR3610-U2002, but I need some info about the Ion chipset: Is the Ion chipset in the U2002 (250G hdd version) the HD 1? I’ve been reading some not so nice things about the HD 11 Ion. As soon as I get a reply, (assuming U2202 is HD 1) I’m going to buy. Thanks in advance!
I’ve never heard of anything called “HD1″ or “HD11.” There’s a lot of hype out there on these boxes, so beware what you bank on.
The Revo 3610 is the dual core 330 atom with the ION Chip & CHipset. It’s all there is, there’s nothing else
The older 1600 single core (no longer made for almost 2 yrs) had XP and had the ION LE, which was limited to DirectX9 or less due to licensing issues that XP had. Direct X is mostly for video games and has nothing to do with HD playback. That’s the only Ion LE vs. Ion I’ve ever heard about and it has nothing to do with video playback.