Comment posted on My Personal Revo 3610 Set Up that works well by Paul Roberts
Steve,
The simplest way is to open the task manager and look at the CPU %. If flash, silverlight, or H264 is not being accelerated, the CPU will be pegged at 70%-100%. With acceleration working, depending upon the media type and player (all flash players are not equal!!) the CPU should be 13%-35%.
Also, the full screen will use more CPU. So stretching the video window bigger will hit the CPU more than a small window. This is because the CPU still has to run the player itself and produce the final image on the screen. The GPU will handle the decoding and rendering of the video itself.
Look at my Revo review page. Look at the pictures of my task manager. That will show you how Flash 10.1 1p worked back in December. Check my crappy video’s too with running operations. It’ll give you some ideas.
Paul Roberts also commented
- It is 2.5 SATA. You can run any size HDD you want..either traditional platter style or a newer SSD.
- 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/
- 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.
- 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. - 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
Recent comments by Paul Roberts
- Acer Aspire Revo 3610 Atom ION 330 Review
Definitely. It handles all those programs just fine. May not be the best Adobe Photoshop editor, but everything else should rock. - WordPress Theme Amazing Grace
Louie,The categories (Technology Business News Business Articles) are created in the Post Section under Categories. That’s where you’ll make new posts to the blog and then post them under that genre.
The Pages (about me, contact, services etc) are under the Pages tab in WP dashboard. Those are separate dedicated pages that are not blog posts.
The columns on the far right (left and right columns) can be edited two ways. They can be updated under Appearance, Widgets. The widgets can be used to update both columns with default offerings. Or, like me, I added PHP or HTML or Java code by pasting it into the Appearance, Editor, and open the sidebar.php. I put the Google ads, and retaggr and search and website grader. You’ll see the coding in the sidebar.php listed as left sidebar and right sidebar. Be carefull here and make a duplicate by pasting in notepad in case you hose it.
- WordPress Theme Amazing Grace
Louie,I changed my blog back to Blue Grace with my double columns. Is that what you want yours to look like? If so, I pasted alot of code for those widgets and such.
If so, I’ll dig up what file in the editor and where the far right column code is and shoot it at you tomorrow.
Let me know you read this so I can change my theme back to the new version.
- WordPress Theme Amazing Grace
You have to use Theme Editor itself in WP admin console. I no longer run AG theme, but I seem to recall in one of the templates you can read the code and it will be labeled right column and left column. YOu can manually add to them with HTML or use the WP widgets to add to those columns. - Acer Aspire Revo 3610 Atom ION 330 Review
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 elseThe 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.
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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.