Overwhelmed with options for newly purchased Zotac HTPC

[ryangarfield]

I just purchased a Zotac Zbox today curtesy of Amazon lightning deals and am now completely overwhelmed with all my options for everything. Its completely barebone so I need RAM, HDD and OS. It supports up to 4GB of Ram in one slot, should I go with 4 or just 2? Should I go for a 7200RPM HDD, or will a 5400 not make much of a difference in boot times. And then there is the hardest decision, which OS and front-end should I use on this thing? Windows w/ Boxee, XBMC, XBMC live, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu w/ XBMC...are there others? lol....Anyways any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

[usually_quiet]

Memory: Buy 2 identical 2 GB sticks of dual channel memory. You will want to use dual channel mode for efficiency. A 32-bit OS won't be able to use more than 4 GB. A 64-bit OS should probably have at least 4GB installed, and I don't think anything an HTPC would normally do requires more memory. Zotac should provide a list of tested memory at their website on the page for your motherboard. Pick something from that list to be on the safe side.

Go for a 7200RPM HDD for the boot drive. The difference in price is minimal, plus SATA drives are more often 7200 RPM.

I don't think Boxee and XBMC provide TV tuning/recording ability at this point, so you will need somethng else if you want to install a TV tuner. Try GB-PVR/NPVR and MediaPortal if you want a free program for a Windows OS with no Media Center.

If you want to use Linux and MythTV to save the cost of buying an OS, you'll need to make sure that device drivers are available for the motherboard and anything else you install. (For example, device drivers aren't available for all TV card brands/models.) I have never used it, so I have no basis for comparison with Windows for features/ease of use.

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium's Media Center, and I like it very much for watching/recording TV using a TV tuner card. I found set up to be very easy. Copy protection/encryption isn't an issue for me since I'm using an indoor antenna with my TV tuner card, and it is not hard to remove the .wtv wrapper on unencrypted recordings to save them in another format. However, some people don't care for it because it obeys copy protection flags on programming from paid TV service, or because they want to avoid the extra step of removing the .wtv wrapper. Also, be aware that while most newer TV cards have compatible drivers for Windows 7, some older/inexpensive ones ones don't.

[ryangarfield]

Would a ZBOX be capable of handling a tuner card? It would have to be USB, as its too small for a normal one.

[usually_quiet]

Would a ZBOX be capable of handling a tuner card? It would have to be USB, as its too small for a normal one.

Depending on the USB TV tuner, yes you can use one. SilconDust's networkable TV tuners would work too using a LAN connection, but are ATSC/QAM only.

Using an ATSC (digital over-the-air) tuner card, all the computer has to do is record what it receives, no encoding necessary. For NTSC (analog cable and for a little while yet analog over-the-air) or analog capture (from a cable/satellite box) one with hardware encoding would be the most likely to work well because all the PC would do is record.

The small USB stick type devices won't do hardware encoding, but would be fine for ATSC tuning. Hardware encoder chips generate too much heat and need a larger enclosure. The Hauppage HD PVR, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1950, AVerMedia AVerTV USB HD DVR or ATI TV Wonder HD 650 Combo USB are capable of hardware encoding. An additional software plug-in must be purchased to use the Hauppage HD PVR and AVerMedia AVerTV USB HD DVR with Windows Media Center. Also, Windows Media Center will only work for capture from a cable/satellite box if there is a compatible IR Receiver/IR Blaster installed.

You won't need to worry about clear QAM, although that is handled the same way as ATSC. From what others in Canada have said, cable providers are not required by law to provide any unencrypted digital channels, not even local stations, so there are typically none available.

[usually_quiet]

I got curious and looked at an Amazon listing for a Zotac Zbox, then went to the manufacturer's website and looked at the documentation.

Turns out, I gave the wrong advice. It takes only a single stick of SO-DIMM DDR2 800 laptop memory. So get one 4GB stick of laptop memory. The manufacturer's tested memory list won't be much help. The brands and models tested don't seem to be easy to find. Maybe a memory finder at another website, like Corsair, Crucial or Kingston will help. There doesn't seem to be much choice or variation in the SO-DIMM 4GB DDR2 800 sticks I looked at on Newegg's website, so maybe any of them will work.

[Edit] Assuming you bought a Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U this memory worked for a reviewer at Newegg: Patriot Signature 4GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Laptop Memory Model PSD24G8002S

[ryangarfield]

Would there be any benefit for this machine to have a 64 bit OS over 32? Thanks for all your help BTW

[usually_quiet]

Would there be any benefit for this machine to have a 64 bit OS over 32? Thanks for all your help BTW

There is no great advantage to a 64-bit OS in your case, because of the limitations on how much memory can be installed in that PC, but sometimes people have other reasons for wanting to use one. ...Such as, there is a difference in price (during a sale, or it's part of a bundle) or that a 64-bit OS is the future of computing.

People get a 64-bit OS mainly to be able to have more memory available for applications that can use it, or to be able to have more programs running efficiently at the same time. The limit for a 32-bit system is 4GB of memory, but that includes what the video card has, and what the operating system assigns to various devices. So, if 4GB of memory is installed in a 32-bit system, the OS can't actually use all of the 4th GB.

I know more about about 64-bit versions Windows 7 than I do about 64-bit versions of other operating systems, so I'll write about that. It's possible to run a 64-bit Windows 7 OS with less than 4GB, but memory management is supposedly more efficient with at least 4GB installed. There is a downside to Windows 7 64-bit. Some 32-bit applications don't run well or at all using a Windows 64-bit OS. Also, 32 bit-drivers won't work for Windows 7 64-bit and once in a while there is no 64-bit Windows 7 driver available for a particular device.

[ryangarfield]

I guess I should mention that I'm actually not in Canada at the moment, but rather Racine, WI doing an MBA. We have ATT U-Verse with a DVR, but that can only hold so much and I would like to permanently keep some of the shows that I record. I'm worried that over-the-air broadcasts would not be received well as it would be in the basement. How could I get the ATT signal to record on my computer?

[usually_quiet]

I guess I should mention that I'm actually not in Canada at the moment, but rather Racine, WI doing an MBA. We have ATT U-Verse with a DVR, but that can only hold so much and I would like to permanently keep some of the shows that I record. I'm worried that over-the-air broadcasts would not be received well as it would be in the basement. How could I get the ATT signal to record on my computer?

ATT U-Verse is an IPTV provider, so you won't be able to use a QAM PC tuner to watch or record local channels (the only ones that are usually unencrypted in the US) instead of using a DVR. Microsoft is still working on IPTV support for Media Center using a LAN connection, so you will need to use an analog capture device with an analog output from the DVR instead. If the DVR has a FireWire out port you might be able to record from that during the actual broadcast, but it's not a certainty. There are capture programs that work with FireWire, but I'm not sure what (if any) PVR-type software works with FireWire.

As far as I know, because of encryption, you can only get your recordings off a cable company DVR by re-recording them to the PC using an analog capture device. Re-recording using FireWire out usually doesn't work for transferring TV shows stored on a DVR.

[Edit]I took another look at the Zotac Zbox. It appears there are no FireWire ports, and no way to add one using a PCMCIA card like some laptops permit.

[ryangarfield]

So I got my ZBOX all set up last night and was able to get it playing 1080p files, now this morning I boot it up and it no longer plays them without being choppy, in fact even 720p files are choppy. What happened? I was using VLC btw. Are there any settings I need to change with any of the hardware? Do I need further codecs?

[redwudz]

I would try MPC-HC and see how it does for playback. VLC is a good universal player, but it does seem to need more CPU power than some other players. VLC uses it's own internal codecs, so adding ones to the PC won't help as it can't use them. MPC-HC is more optimized for HD playback and can use the video card for assistance if it will work for that.

When playing HD video with VLC, check the Task Manager, especially the amount of CPU used. If it's above about 20%, or worse 50%, you may get stuttering.

[ryangarfield]

Got It!! After installing MPC-HC, it worked perfectly, and it was because it used hardware acceleration (DXVA2 or something like that). Found out there is an option in XBMC to turn on hardware acceleration and it works erfectly in that too now. I knew there was something I was missing! Thanks redwudz!