ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID33/ID34 Video Podcast

We take a look at our brand new ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID33/ID34 mini-PCs and use XBMC Media Centre "Dharma" beta for Windows to demonstrate the capabilities.

Specs
ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID33 2 x DDR2-800 SO-DIMM slots Support 1 x 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 Gb/s HDD/SSD
ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID34 2GB DDR2-800 250GB 5400RPM HDD
Intel® Atom™ D525 processor (1.8 GHz, dual-core)
Intel® NM10 Express chipset
Next-Generation NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor 16 unified shaders 512MB DDR3 memory NVIDIA® CUDA™ technology NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD technology
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology
1 Mini-PCI Express expansion slot
Slot-load Blu-ray drive 4x Blu-ray read 8x DVD / 24x CD read/write
Blu-ray ready Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 included
Onboard 802.11n WiFi (300Mb/s)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• zbox
• blu-ray
• intel
• atom
• next-generation
• ion
• nvidia
• d525
• mini-pci
• express
• wifi
• 802.11n
• dual-stream
• 300mbps
• hdmi
• 3d
• ready
• lpcm
• instructions
• video review
• gadgets
• technology
• video game
• computers
• installation
• tips & tricks
• diy
• software

[SquirlKiller]

each core is 1.8 ghz?

[ZOTACglobal]

@SquirlKiller Yes

[jz120376]

5.1 wav files just output white noise and 5.1 flac files get downmixed to stereo. This is a huge disappointment.

I called Zotacs customer service line and tried to resolve the HDMI audio and Blu Ray playback problems but the reps that I spoke to seemed

to know less than I did and were no help whatsoever.

For $500, and for a machine that is ADVERTISED as "the perfect match for XBMC Media Centre" I would expect these basic operations to work out of the box.

[ZOTACglobal]

@jz120376 Please also check the XBMC forums for support on their software. We only manufacture the hardware. They will be more helpful with your problems with their software.

[jz120376]

There is a fix. I did hours of searching and unless you are a computer whiz dont even bother. I was reading the instructions and I might as

well have been reading another language because I have NO IDEA what I was looking at. This isnt a very big deal though. The only reason I would want HDMI

audio is to be able to listen to the HD audio tracks (Dolby True HD and DTS-MA on Blu Ray discs) which this machine doesnt even SUPPORT. Why add a Blu Ray

drive to a machine that CANNOT output HD audio?

[ZOTACglobal]

@jz120376 The ZBOX Blu-ray can output LPCM audio, when decoded by a software player and still considered high-definition loss-less audio.

[111olbap]

@SquirlKiller (head bang) As opposed to what, chief? Jebus on a cracker...

[Zareste]

guess who's flagged

[mahchymk93]

Vizusuauzuzuzlaizations.

[Kha1eed]

I really want one ! But i dont know where to buy it in Europe .

If you have a sample to sell ,contact me ;)

[jz120376]

OK after owning this product now for a couple of weeks and working out most of the bugs with XBMC I think this might be the best component in my home theater setup. Have not had a probelm with it yet. It runs XBMC perfectly. I did a reinstall of XBMC with XBMC Freak Live CD version and most (not everything) works fine. I STILL think the advertising is misleading though being that XBMC doesnt support BluRay and the machine is advertised as the perfect match for XBMC .