[mythtv-users] zbox as a frontend: ID41 vs ID80

[Paul Gardiner]

On 06/04/2013 16:48, Kenni Lund wrote:
>
>
>
> 2013/4/5 Paul Gardiner <lists at glidos.net <mailto:lists at glidos.net>>
>
>     About to give in, and update my current ION1 frontend
>     to a zbox. Just looking for some advice on which to
>     choose. I may need to hurry if I want an ID41.
>
>     I'm mainly wondering if a GT520M in any way produces
>     higher quality than an ION2 (e.g., maybe using more bits
>     in transformations).
>
>
> I use a Zotac IONITX-A (ION1) and a Zotac Zbox ID41 (ION2) as frontends,
> and a month ago I configured a Zotac Zbox ID80 for a friend.
>
> My IONITX-A is unable to playback my 1080i channels with the Advanced 2x
> deinterlacer, while my ID41 works fine. The Zbox ID80 also worked fine
> with the Advanced 2x deinterlacer at my friends place. TTBOMK I/we
> haven't tested with ~30fps material, only 25fps.

Interesting. Is that in that UK?

> I'm unable to see any difference in picture quality or "smoothness" when
> using the Temporal 2x or the Advanced 2x deinterlacer on my 46" TV (Xorg
> has of course been configured with proper modelines to allow MythTV to
> change mode). I can see a huge difference between for example Bob 2x <->
> Temporal 2x, Temporal 1x <-> Temporal 2x or Advanced 1x <-> Advanced 2x,
> but I'm unable to see any difference between Temporal and Advanced.

It's subtle, but to my eyes, there is a slight motion blur with Temporal
x2 which doesn't occur with Advanced x2. I could be imagining it, I
guess. That's on my girlfriends set up.

I have mine set up to perform mode changes, because I can very clearly
see the improvement with the TV doing the scaling. That was one thing
I was looking to avoid in moving to ION2, because then I could use
the HQ scaler instead and avoid the flickering of mode changes, and
also have more readable OSD with SD playback. There's also an issue
with 720p24 material, because most TVs don't have a corresponding
mode so you wont get smooth playback unless scaling to 1080p24,
where again you want the hq scaler.

> IMHO, it's not worth upgrading a Atom+ION1 frontend to a Atom+ION2- or
> Atom+GT520M-based frontend. If the ION1 frontend stops working, sure,
> but I would never do it as an upgrade. A newer Atom processor will give
> you a few percent extra processing power, but it's still too small a
> difference to be noticeable in menu navigation etc.

I do see the sense in your advice.

Cheers,
	Paul.