[mythtv-users] Zotac Zbox Replacement

R. G. Newbury newbury at mandamus.org
Thu Aug 11 15:15:27 UTC 2016


On 08/11/2016 12:58 AM, Michael Papet wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've got a Zotac Zbox of uncertain vintage running Debian testing that
> simply cannot seem to draw OTA HDTV when the frames get "busy" (think
> rendering live sports) in 2016.  I'm done fiddling with Nvidia's driver
> and tried playback using OpenGL and vdpau. It just doesn't seem to have
> enough throughput.  I'm ready to blame it on the hardware being unable
> to keep up.
>
> My front end prior to the Zotac was an old HP dual-core desktop that ran
> HDTV sports just fine.  I'm trying to find middle ground between the
> tiny Zotac that looks fine in the media cabinet and the "too big for
> 2016" desktop.
>
> I'm looking to step away from Atom architecture for something like a
> USFF box that isn't Atom and available as an off-lease/used on ebay, no
> OS. I've had fantastic luck buying this way, so far.  A fan is fine as
> most seem pretty quiet these days.  With that in mind, any
> recommendations would be great.

If you open a console and run dmidecode and lspci -v you cam learn a lot 
about the machine.

I have an early Zotac Ion which runs an Atom 330 CPU at 1.6G and it 
handled OTA HD perfectly *with the proper nvidia driver installed*. Mine 
has an nvidia GeForce 9400M gpu which now uses the 'Legacy' 340.xxx 
series driver.

It's been my VOIP box for some years now but I ran it as a myth frontend 
for a while for testing purposes with iirc a 190.xxx series nvidia 
driver. It had no problems even with very high bit-rate HD content. 
(Normal network broadcast HD runs about 7Gig per hour recorded, but CBS 
for one, broadcasts sports (NFL!) at a higher bit-rate and runs about 
11Gig per hour. The Zotac had no problems with that).

Maybe you should try installing the nvidia driver again? It's fiddly to 
do but worth it.


Geoff






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