Coreavc

When I started writing about the ID11, my intent was to document video playback and use as an HTPC, several posts later, and I am finally getting to MKV H.264 playback configuration and performance. This is the sixth post in a series of posts related to the Zotac ZBOX ZBOXHD-ID11. Summary: The CPU is not powerful enough to render / decode H.264 video, and GPU acceleration via DXVA is required, as well as a DXVA capable player. The Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder, included as part of Windows 7 x64, worked perfectly for H.264 playback, and compared to other H.264 decoders had the lowest CPU usage. As a standalone player, Media Player Classic Home Cinema, is a perfect choice, it supports MKV, H.264, DXVA, and subtitles without the need of any other software. Playback of MKV H.264 in Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, MediaPortal, or XBMC requires the installation of Haali Media Splitter, and ffdshow audio and video decoders. For AC-3 / DTS pass-through playback via S/PDIF / HDMI, the ffdshow audio decoder is required. I am not an expert in how these things work, but I have a basic understanding of video playback on Windows platforms, so let’s start with the file format; an MKV file is a Matroska Media Container file. An MKV file can contain multiple audio-, video-, subtitle-, and other, streams. An MKV file is not a video or audio compression format, it is just a container. ...

In this post I describe my experience while upgrading the BIOS, in order to support 4GB of memory. This is the third post in a series of posts related to the Zotac ZBOX ZBOXHD-ID11. Summary: - 4GB is supported after upgrading the BIOS. - BIOS has to be updated using less than 4GB, else ID11 fails to post. [Update: 20 May 2010] After writing this post, the machine started bluescreen / BSOD crashing. Mostly MEMORY_MANAGEMENT / 0x0000001A errors, with occasional 0x000000BE and 0x0000003B crashes. When I initially installed the 4GB RAM, I ran memtest for one cycle, and the RAM tested fine. I just reran memtest, and it is reporting the memory as bad. I replaced the memory with a new stick, I ran memtest overnight, and everything seems back to normal. I hope it was just a bad stick, and not the ID11 that killed the memory. ...