I know that a few of you 3610 Ion users are not getting fluid playback of Flash or DX in a browser or in Boxee even with the updates and all. It is typically a high CPU usage that causes it. I’m stumped. I really am. As I’ve had great, smooth playback with my unit since day one. Though, it seems to be random that a few are having a poor experience. And the symptoms are very similar to 1600 ION LE users and this just should not happen on the 3610 with its dual core CPU. So, here is a listing of my exact set up. It should be mostly complete.
My Personal Revo 3610 Set Up that works well
Revo Specs & Setup:
- Revo 3610 Ion 330 2 gb ram With Windows-7 64 bit preinstalled.
- Connected via Cat-5 wire via a 100 mb network. (wifi sucks
) Wifi uses a lot of CPU and may hinder playback. Especially Revo 1600 users with the single core and ION LE chip. - Windows Aero is still activated and SHOULD stay on! Turning it off will cause GPU acceleration to stop working and video will lag horribly
- Turn off UAC This should be the first thing you do for annoyance factor alone
- Uninstalled all Bloatware to free up ram after boot.
- Kept Acer Keyboard and back up programs
- Configure Acer Backup not to run or prompt at start up
- Can run MSCONFIG to toggle off anything else you want to at start up. Be careful!!!
- Currently, ram after boot is 1.1 gb!
- Updates- ALL MSOFT updates except Windows Live junk
- Uninstalled factory Flash 10.0.22
- Installed-
- DX 11 update for DX 11
- Installed Flash 10.1 1p Beta RC-2 RC-7 Final Release add-in & activeX (see download link below) For ALL windows platforms 32 & 64 bit systems.
- Silverlight 3 4 via the MSOFT update center
- Installed Nvidia 195.62 197 WHQL 257.15 Beta 258.96 WHQL
- Installed Nvidia Chipset 15.51 (see mega zip pack below)
- Installed MPC-HC 64 for DX and MKV,MOV, WMV (HD) movies outside of Boxee
- Installed FireFox
- Installed Move Networks Player For Boxee use No longer needed.
- Installed the Nvidia HDMI audio update (cant remember version 8/2009)
- No other codec packs or other junk installed.
- Did not touch video card memory settings in Bios. Left it stock
- Installed Microsoft Security Essentials
- Boxee Beta-every version that has been available
- Factory sleep and screen saver options-changed to 1 hr delay.
- This is strictly a HTPC for Boxee and to surf the net on a 40″ 1080P HDTV. No other software or programs or anything is installed!!!!
- Connections and settings
- Directly to the HDTV via a 6ft HDMI cable with the audio.
- Have Revo set to 720P 60 Hz
- I feel that with Hulu and other streamed shows streamed in about 480P resolution anyway, the picture clarity is better at 720P rather than magnifying it further at 1080p and reducing picture clarity. When I do want true 1080P playback using the Revo, I change it back. The TV auto detects the feed. Video playback with the Revo set to 1080P is the same and fluid as 720P is.
- Video playback
- Flash-Smooth as can be in Hulu Desktop and IE. In Boxee there can be juuuuust a hair of a stutter every once in a while. Heck, this varies depending on each Boxee Beta build.
- DX/HD MKV Full 1080p file-Flawless in MPC-HC 64! Boxee does not yet support HD playback with DX, so it is way laggy. Soon to be updated. Boxee supports GPU acceleration only with HD 720p & 1080P files that are H.264 .mp4 file containers! Any other file container (mkv, mov, wmv etc) in 720P or 1080p may/will lag if played in Boxee.
- Move Networks- Flawless and fluid in IE 8. Pretty good in Boxee, but this is due to Boxee and not the Revo. Again, can vary depending on the current build of boxee All Network TV sites have gone to Flash and Move Networks is no longer being used by any major show sites. No longer needed.
- Netflix- Flawless via IE. Flawless via Boxee. I watch this DAILY! I’m addicted….
Files to Download:
- Many users have had smoother playback with the older Flash 1p Beta version vs. the 2p version. It’s no longer available, but I made a Mega Zip Pack below.
- Beta 3 is now available and I am testing it now with good results so far…. More later.
- Flash RC is out now. I’m using RC-2 RC-7 as it is far better than RC-4 when using Boxee Beta
- Flash Beta 10.1 Final Release Add-in & ActiveX . Get the latest at www.adobe.com. IE needs the Active X and FFox uses the Add-in. Use the actual browser to download each.
- If you want older versions of flash, see my : Flash Archive Download Zip Page
- Nvidia Drivers- 195.62 197.57 257.15 258.96 WHQL and included Chipset 15.51. For ALL windows platforms 32 & 64 bit systems.
- DirectX Update DX 9 & 10-Here Just do it! (Win-7 users get DX 11 with Windows Update)
- Silverlight- Via Windows Update There was just another update too!
- Install–FireFox 3.6.8 or Higher – Here
- Install–Move Networks Plug-in – Here (need this for IE or FFox or Boxee Beta to show NBC, ABC and Fox TV shows) All Network TV sites have gone to Flash and Move Networks is no longer being used by any major show sites. No longer needed.
- Media Player Classic HV 64 – Here
- Microsoft Security Essentials AV – Here
- Boxee Beta – Optional, but I’m biased
Here
Test Video Files
- Test File MKV 1080P 24 fps- Here
- Should play flawlessly in MPC-HC 64 or WMP!
- Boxee will be laggy until the DX acceleration is enabled in future builds.
- There are a few scenes in it that have some slight distortion, but that’s due to the quality of those shots not the Revo. The point here is that the file is full 1080P @ 24 fps and to test fluidity of playback.
- Test File H264 .MP4 hd720p 30fps – HERE
- Revision3 HD Nation Episode #30 (direct download from their server)
- This will play flawlessly in MPC and Boxee at under 15% CPU
- Mentions my Revo blog at about the 19-20 minute mark. Shameless plug…
- Test File WMV hd720p & HD1080p – HERE
- Microsoft WMV HD Content Showcase
- You may have to log in with your Hotmail account to see the links to the files.
- I seem to recall this plays well on MPC-HC 64. May pixelate at the start.
- Boxee is laggy.
- Test File YouTube Flash hd720p & HD1080p – HERE
- Youtube: YOKID37 Channel
- This user has nice 1080p HD Flash files. Typically, movie trailers.
- Due to streaming over Internet, bandwidth will affect smoothness. May have to pause and fully buffer before playing back video on FFox or IE or Boxee. Youtube’s bandwith sucks.
- Use Boxee Bookmarklet for FFox to que files to your Boxee Que.
- You can toggle the HD version in boxee once it starts, but it looks like it’s only the 720p option.
UPDATED-Installed Programs, Free/Available Ram info
People have been asking for a complete list of the programs I have installed after removing the bloatware on my Revo 3610. Plus, how much Free/Available ram do I have left. Well, here goes:
Installed Programs:
- Revo 3610 Installed Programs
You’ll notice I have an MCE TV and WHS Connector program. That’s just for my usage, so most will not need them . I left out all the MS updates. That’s pretty straight forward as you should install all security, drivers etc. I left out all the Windows Live crap.I have a total of 37 programs installed. I could stand to kill off the Acer Screen saver and the Nero 9, but I’m not in a hurry to do so.
TaskManager:
- Revo 3610 Taskmanger
This is after boot and the machine has had a few minutes to settle down. Now, don’t freak out when you see Free 149 as that’s not all that is available after boot. With Win-7 combines and lists memory differently than XP.
- Total is the amount of RAM installed on your computer, listed in megabytes (-the 256mb ram for the video card).
- Cached refers to the amount of physical memory used recently for system resources.
- Available is the total of standby and free memory from the Resource Monitor. Set aside for instant use by programs, drivers, etc. (this is what you want to look at!!)
- Free is the amount of memory that is currently unused or doesn’t contain useful information (unlike cached files, which do contain useful information).
So Revo has the following:
- Total 1791 mb or 1.79 gb total ram after the video card takes it’s 256 mb
- Cached 1000 mb or 1 gb
- Available (+free) 1134 mb or 1.1 gb
- Free 149 mb or ….149 mb.
As you can see, I have 1.134 gb of ram remaining after boot to run all my programs and processes. Not bad.
If you want a better breakdown of the total-cached-Avail-free, click the Resource Monitor button and mouse over the same words in the Memory section. You’ll get balloons with the a little bit more info on what each means.
Acer Revo Video Demos:
I’ve made three more videos since last November that highlight the Acer Revo using Boxee Beta with Flash. Check my latest Blog Post link for the details and link to my YouTube Channel
http://www.pauljroberts.com/boxee-beta-on-acer-revo-video-review
Derek,
I’ve had no issues with ISO playback and screen fitment. If it’s letterbox on the DVD itself, then it’s letter box on Boxee. If it’s full screen 16:9 on the DVD itself, then the ISO plays in boxee the same size.
I would have to say this fluctuation in sizes may be related to what software you are using to rip the DVD files. There are multiple views on some DVD’s and the ripper software can sometimes grab whichever version it feels like during the rip process.
I have no experience with WD TV or the movies you refer to, so I cannot comment on the differences. Post on the boxee forums, maybe one of my Smods or mods will know of something if it’s not the rip software and what files it’s grabbing for screen size.
Thanks a lot for the guide, Paul. Very very helpful.
My experience after following the guide was that I had great playback through Firefox for Hulu and Comedy Central, but terrible choppy playback in Boxee.
After reading through some comments, I found someone who mentioned that enabling Aero helped them. I had disabled it, because that seemed like the intuitive thing to do.
And, I can confirm that *enabling* an Aero theme totally fixed the streaming in Boxee. I now have fantastic playback… for some reason.
If you get a chance to update your post, I’d edit to say Aero *should* be enabled on the 3610. It actually doesn’t work well without it for some unknown reason.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s not a huge concern and probably has more to do with my TV than anything.
I’ve been using Windows Media Center 7, too, and am anxious to integrate my extended collection of ISOs. I know that I can use Mikinho’s Media Center Mount Image app, along with DVDFab Virtual Drive, but Mikinho’s site appears to be down and I can’t find his app anywhere else. Have you had any experience with accessing ISOs inside WMC 7?
AtomicCEO
Yeah, I’d heard that and tested it to be true on my system too. Makes sense once you see what Aero actually does for the GPU.
I thought as you did at one time.
I’ll clarify that bit in my Set Up post. Good idea! Thanks.
Derek,
Sorry, but I don’t use WMC at all, so I’ve had very little use over the years once I decided I did not like the workflow and function.
If there is a plug in to make ISO’s work, give it a try.
I tweeted mikinho to inform of site outage. Reading his tweets over the past few days, he’s had this issue already and fixed it .
Update:
Mikinho tweeted me two links for 32 bit or 64 bit.
mikinho@pauljroberts My VM is corrupt, the hosting company is working on it =/ v1.7 x86-32: http://bit.ly/cFRwXj x86-64: http://www.chi-town.com/mikinho/mount-image-setup-x64-1.7.msiabout 4 hours ago via Chromed Bird
My Revo Forums:
http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/
Great info! Thanks a lot! I did the installation and everything works except h264.mp4 playback which does not play in neither boxee nor WPC. Any ideas why? Which of the programs above was supposed to include h264 codec?
Alex,
Glad my site helped out! Thanks.
An H264 mp4 file plays natively on Windows Media Player, MPC-HC, Boxee and most any video player. H264 and MP4 requires no additional codec
Your file is either not H264 .mp4 or was encoded with some other off beat codec.
I included files at the bottom of the post that are proper H264 mp4 files. Download one and test it.
Thanks. I did try it with the linked file before but probably did not download it properly. It works now.
However, I still have sporadic problems with Netflix playback despite all the same setup. Every other time (randomly) the playback is very choppy. Then the other time it’s OK. It’s not the inernet – i am consistently getting over 5Mbits/s on speedtest. It seems to be the CPU. Playing neflix in explorer – same proble. So far WMC plays fine. Any ideas?
Alex,
Ok, good to hear.
NFlix? Hmmm, boy. Real frustrating here to. Worked perfectly in HD the first week then went to crap. Seems I have plenty of CPU, but once the playbitrate and the download bit rate both hit 2600 or 3800 it starts to stutter. Did not do it that first week at all. I’m wondering if they are tinkering with the encoding, bandwidth or the player code? I’m not sure. All I know it went to hell real quick and I can’t do anything on my end to get it back. I even turned off all sorts of services and got down to 39 items running and it still would not play. I’ve had to set the browser to 1500 bitrate manually and just deal with how it used to be before HD streams.
WMCenter? I don’t use it, but may have to see if it is using the HD stream or not and how it plays for me. I’ll post back.
We may need to move this to the my forum: http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/
I have been looking into this solution with Boxee, or a Boxee box, or Sezmi PVR solution, to cut my satellite service and the one thing I would additionally like to integrate is Live OTA HD channels into this HTPC Do you have any thoughts, comments, recommendations about adding a usb tv tuner onto this unit to connect a OTA antenna and DVR recording capabilities, or would a satellite internet solution be a better way to go. I am afraid the added cpu load of the tuner would cause performance issues.
The only way I can sell this to the family is to make it as easy to use and close as possible to our Dish HD DVR setup . I know i can justify the cost in a few months of sat bills, but trying to figure out a smooth interface.
I have been playing with Boxee on another non HTPC right now, and having alot of problems with performance and interface(audio and cant get Hulu to work), so I believe it is not going to be the end all solution, but will be a combo of softwares.
Any advice would be appreciated
Paul:
You can disregard some of my question above – I see this issue with USB tuners has been discussed to death with no final resolution. Seems the Hulu thing and Boxee is also a common problem.
Wondering if a newer Revo is on the way with a bit more horsepower.
Michael,
Please see more on this topic in my forums:
http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/
Michael,
The new revo I’ve seen on the web but Acer has not confirmed the release other than their Aton/Ion 2 laptop. Nvidia still has to release a video patch driver that helps Windows play Flash with GPU acceleration. I feel that all the other vendors are waiting for this patch to be made BEFORE they all go to market with the Ion 2 boxes. That’s why nothing has been released other than the Zotac Zbox, which is having playback issues without the new driver.
Read more in the forums: http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60
I have an Acer Revo 3610. When I try to watch Hulu full screen my TV says no signal. Any thoughts on what might be causing this? I’m wondering if there could be something wrong with the HDMI cable, but I feel like I’m grasping at straws.
I’m also experiencing a stuttering issue when streaming Netflix in HD. Hopefully this is temporary.
Mike,
The no signal issue: Check for good cable connections. Open the Nvidia controller and be sure to set the Revo to HDMI out and select your 720P or 1080p resolution (I recommend 720P). If you have it set to vga…that may be your issue. Update the Nvidia drivers. The new WHQL 257.27 is out now.
Stuttering with Netflix is normal right now. NF is in the midst of tweaking their player, bitrate settings etc. So, be sure to disable the HD opion in the player by clicking the HD tab and uncheck the “allow HD” and it should play in 1500 SD quality like it did before the move to HD streaming a few weeks ago.
Sometimes, when they have the player tweaked right, it will stream HD nicely, but it comes and goes as they tweak it lately.
Hi Paul, My revo 3610 is pretty much set up. I am having one issue with the display though. My TV is 720p (1280 x 720). Its a 50″ samsung. However, when I set 720p as the resolution on my revo, the display on the TV is not fully within the TV screen. In order to get the display correctly within the TV screen I have to reduce the resolution on the revo to 1242 x 696. The recommended resolution on the computer is shows as 1280 x 720. Is there a way out?
John,
You did not state what cable you are using: HDMI or VGA.
Set the revo at 720P. Then adjust the TV settings themselves. Those settings are Normal, cinema, Overscan (try NOT to use that), stretch, or some variant of all of these.
Some older TV’s don’t play well with PC’s even if connected via HDMI. They interpret the signal oddly and make it a strange size. Try to use the TV’s format settings I outlined.
Thanks Paul. I have an HDMI connection. I did as you said. Set the revo resolution to 720p and adjusted the TV resolution. The TV screen was with the aspect ratio 16:9. When I changed it to “Just Scan” the screen fit well. Thanks.
Hi John,
Thanks for the excellent start-up guide. I have just purchased the Revo R3610 which I presume is the slightly newer model as it comes with the 500GB HDD and 4GB RAM. I am pleased to say that your guide has made my machine into a Media Center to be proud of.
Whilst the Revo won’t hook onto the back of my Sony 40″ TV, it is more than small enough to sit proudly down in the TV Stand. I can now finally get rid of my PC Tower
One question though, I have a large collection of TV Shows already on my NAS Drive, but Boxee has some issues with collating them, what other programs can you recommend?
David,
Thanks for the props and glad my blog was able to help get you going.
Your model is the usual for the UK as the USA models have only 2 gb ram and 160 gb drives.
Boxee has had some NAS issues. I’ve not trouble shot any of those issues on the Boxee forums, I’ll ask my fellow Super Mods on the Boxee forums to see what some of the solutions may be.
Other media center programs? Ahhh, most need too much power to run and don’t offer what boxee does. I’d say just use WMC that is already on the machine. But, I’ll see what I can find out about getting the Nas to work
What model is it? Network connected or USB?
My Revo Forums:
http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/
Hi Paul,
One more question for you. Is the HDD in revo swapable? Is it a 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDD? Can I replace it with a 1TB internal HD?
It is 2.5 SATA. You can run any size HDD you want..either traditional platter style or a newer SSD.
HI all,
I have an issue with my sound. Winamp or other players are stopping for like a second or iI can compare to playing like old LP if like? ANyone know what it could be?
hi there,
i need some help, wondering if you guys can help me?
ive updated the video and audio software for the ion chipset… and im able to sent video and audio from the pc to the receiver. the only problem is that the audio is only 2.1 and even when i play a 5.1 movie, the receiver just show 2.1
i went in to audio setting in the control panel and chose the nvida hdmi out as the default device, and i was able to configure my speaker setup to 5.1 and when i press the test button, the five of the speaker and woofer sound just fine, but whenever i play a movie in the WMP i only get 2.1, i also tried WMC and nothing.
what am i doing wrong?
lol im so dumb.. never mind guys, the problem was in the receiver, it wasnt set to doubly 5.1.. lol
Mac,
Glad you sorted things out.
Be sure to check my forums out too for help.
http://www.pauljroberts.com/forum/
Hi I also have revo 3610 worked great till yesterday when I want to play a movie I see all my movies fan art but when I go to play it tells me files are not avalible I spent all day tring to fix no good any help thanks.
Dino
Dino,
Are we talking about playing them on WMP or MPC-HC or VLC or or WMC or on Boxee? I ask cause you mention “fan art.”
Hi Paul,
I am trying to use a toslink cable to connect my revo 3610 to my tv through revo’s spdif out. My tv’s port shows SPDIF out. Does it mean it can only output the digital audio from the TV but not receive digital audio inputs? When I connect my revo shows (under audio in control panel) that I have spdif connected. But I hear no sound from the TV. With HDMI things are working fine. My tv: Samsung PN50A450.
Thank you for your help.
John,
It’s my understanding that teh SPDIF on the TV is out…same for all audio jacks on a TV except for HDMI of course. I’d suggest you read your TV manual to make sure.
If it’s really an IN, then you may need to right click on the sound icon on the Revo’s lower right tray and select and enable the Realtec audio device.
Hi Paul,
Just a re-visit after more than a year of perfect running with my Revo after using your initial setup advice, so thanks again
.
I encountered a problem this week with some insane driver corruption, and long story short I decided that it was time to wipe the machine and start fresh. My only question was if the build was still current, or if there was an update somewhere else?
I tried your forums but I don’t seem to be able to register.
Look forward to your response.
Cheers
David
Sorry Paul, I did mean you, I just read your last comment on here and the name John got stuck in my head
LOL…that’s cool. I’ve done the same thing before. I edited your post and changed to my name.
David,
Glad to hear the REvo is working well sans the recent wipe job. You mention “if the build was still current.” I’m not sure what you are referring to? Do you mean video drivers or Boxee app or Adobe Flash? Can you clarify?
Due to insane, and I mean INSANE spam issues….the forums were locked down. Then I accidentally deleted everyone’s posts but mine…aaaargh! And I’m not going through the backup process of fixing it. Oh, well.
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your quick response. So I re-formatted my Revo overnight last night using the built-in Acer e-Recovery. My machine is just performing the final few stages of setting itself up, and then I will need to run through your blog to do all the steps again like removing all the crap software etc.
I wanted to know if this page is still up-to-date or is there a better process / different drivers.
Also I never converted to Boxee because of that issue with the external drive, but I organise my files on my external drive and I use Windows Media Player Classis to watch them just fine.
But I also started watching streaming TV from the web such as BBC iPlayer and the like (not sure if your aware of that it’s a UK thing, but I’m sure you have steaming players for watching back TV channels).
Just wondered what advise you might give for getting the TV to ultimate performance. For one I have decided to move my modem closer so it can use cable over Wireless and it connects to my Sony 40″ TV via HDMI so I change the resolution. I notice you say leave the font and everything at 100% but I’m a bit blind, and the TV is a fair distance, I have trouble reading web pages and the titles of my files, so I normally increase the font, is that going to have an effect on performance?
David
Like David, I’d be interested in hearing if there are updates to the drivers you mentioned in this post and what today represents a best setup. I recently wiped my Revo with the intent of starting over, as I was one of the few who had a less-than-stellar experience, and would love to do this right.
Can you tell us what’s working for you today?
Hey guys, ive been using my revo 3610 for a year now, and let me tell you the first months i had performance issues.. and it all was because i had changed the resolution on the revo.. paul suggested to use the default them (aero i think) and the normal resolution and everything ran just fine after that
also, flash sometimes acts up when you are zoomed in in the browser so i recommend using 100% zoom
thanks for the blog and info! had my revo r3700 a couple of weeks now running home premium 64 bit. flash/youtube vids @ 1020p play fine but tonight tried playing a 720p mkv h264 blueray rip in vlc player for the first time and it was choppy. tried messing with the vlc settings, closing all progtammes and thought i wudnt be able to sort it. read elsewhere online saying only h263 files support GpU enhanced playback, not h264. But anyway, found your blog and simply installed the 64bit windows media player and the direct x runtime and the vid now plays perfeclty fine, so am happy. Just thought id say thankyou.
Scott,
Thanks for stopping by to say thanks! Glad my site was of some help.
The 3700 works similary, but does have some of its own unique issues. Your situation was not due to VLC or lack of GPU acceleration or H263/H264. It was lack of or non-updated DirectX and DXVA support. Once you installed it things worked again as it should.
FYI
-H263 and H264 do support GPU acceleration. The 2nd half of the support of GPU acceleration is the OS, the video player and then the container type. All must jive to make it possible.
MKV containers are aaaaallll over the place due to the hundreds of ways they can be ripped. They can play on one PC and not another. Or in one player and not the other. That’s what gives Boxee fits…lol.
The OS too can affect if it will work.
THen hardware. Then vid card must support it too. Then the 3700′s have challenges due to the way Nvidia had to place the chip on the mobo which causes a bottleneck and laggs flash or high bit rate HD vids. There have been advances made with that unit, but I’ve not kept up with them.
Thanks again
Paul