[Tutorial] ASRock 330 Nettop, NVidia ION (w/VDPAU) and Jaunty

[akshunj]

(Mod, can I get a sticky? Thanks!)

So, I finally got tired of Intel driver regressions and I retired my Acer 5610 Home Theater laptop. The replacement? That slick looking ASRock ION 330 "Nettop". When I read about the NVidia ION card and what VDPAU is capable of, I was like, "you had me at hello." And of course the ultimate goal was to load Boxee on it! Here chronicles my journey:

1. This computer is FULLY Linux compatible with one POSSIBLE exception: I have not been able to get HDMI video-out to work. NVidia settings let me configure HDMI, but it just won't talk to the TV. Not sure if this is my TV's fault or the ASRock.

2. I grabbed a Rocketfish bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo over at Best Buy. Used this guide to making them work. I found I was crippled without my laptop's LCD and touchpad. The bluetooth stuff made life a ton easier.

3. I installed Jaunty (actually I use Linux Mint Gloria, but same difference to anyone casually reading this). I did all the updates and basic customizations.

4. Then I added this repository so I could juice up on some VDPAU goodness. I installed the NVidia 185 VDPAU drivers, plus the VDPAU-enhanced versions of MPlayer and Xine.

5. Oddly NVidia did not want to recognize my proper TV (Insignia 42" LCD) resolution. After HOURS of fiddling, I left it at a stretched-looking 1024x768. Not a disaster, but frustrating nonetheless. To watch most NTSC video content, I have to change to aspect ratio to 4:3. Grrrr.

6. Installed myth-lirc-generator, configured my remote, installed Boxee, and enabled VDPAU support!

7. And now the moment of truth, and some observations:

• Boxee's menu is FAST and SMOOTH

• Hi-Def videos play perfectly with only about 6% or 7% CPU usage (very mild picture-tearing on fast-motion)

• Given my screen resolution issue, I always have to adjust every video to "ZOOM 4:3"

• Much to my surprise, Hulu works great! I was surprised since going fullscreen on Hulu in Firefox crashed my browser each time. In Boxee, it works perfectly and seems to be VDPAU accelerated (pushing 40% CPU usage, though)

I will continue to list observations as I continue to test...

[marcel]

cheers for the howto and the update ..keep me posted on any issues..

[lament]

Originally Posted by akshunj

In Boxee, it works perfectly and seems to be VDPAU accelerated (pushing 40% CPU usage, though)

Flash is not VDPAU accelerated, btw. to get HDMI audio working, check out my thread - specifically Keith's post that I link to.

Marcel - regarding what aksjunj just posted, what would be the difference in performance by using these "builds geared towards use with Nvidia's VDPAU hardware accelerated playback of Mpeg2/VC1/WMV3/H.264" versus what's currently in Boxee's VDPAU support now?

Also, "Turn off Post-Processing and multithreading" - would this reduce the tearing that I'm seeing? How would one go about turning off multi-threading and post-processing?

Thanks!

[akshunj]

Originally Posted by lament

Flash is not VDPAU accelerated, btw.

I thought the CPU usage was way too high to be VDPAU accelerated. But there's still something different about the flash in Boxee versus Adobe's browser plugin. Fullscreen just doesn't work properly in Firefox, but it's fine in Boxee...

Originally Posted by lament

to get HDMI audio working, check out my thread - specifically Keith's post that I link to.

I actually was referring to HDMI *video* in my post. That's my biggest hurdle right now. But I'll check out the post anyway. Thanks for the feedback!

--Akshun J

[skolapper]

I did use search but found tons of confusing advice. It seems half of the remotes are too slow ? and the other half dont work with linux. So Ill have to ask again: Whats the easiest IR/bluetooth remote solution to use with an Asrock 330 Ion on linux?

Also, do the iPhone and Android remotes work with bluetooth or only with WLAN? What IR/bluetooth usb dongle is a good buy?

Thanks for help

[lament]

Originally Posted by skolapper

I did use search but found tons of confusing advice. It seems half of the remotes are too slow ? and the other half dont work with linux. So Ill have to ask again: Whats the easiest IR/bluetooth remote solution to use with an Asrock 330 Ion on linux?

Also, do the iPhone and Android remotes work with bluetooth or only with WLAN? What IR/bluetooth usb dongle is a good buy?

Thanks for help

I don't have the Ion motherboard (I have the Zotac mini-ITX), but I'm using the Adesso ARC 1100 without any problems. I still need to map the buttons properly.

But I just installed LIRC, set it as "Windows Media Center Remote" and it works great. I would assume it would work on the Ion board as well.

[rmclaren]

I have the Sony PS3 Bluetooth remote working successfully with Boxee. I have noted the procedure elsewhere on the forum. For less than $20, in my opinion, it is an excellent approach.

[medicineuk]

Originally Posted by skolapper

I did use search but found tons of confusing advice. It seems half of the remotes are too slow ? and the other half dont work with linux. So Ill have to ask again: Whats the easiest IR/bluetooth remote solution to use with an Asrock 330 Ion on linux?

Also, do the iPhone and Android remotes work with bluetooth or only with WLAN? What IR/bluetooth usb dongle is a good buy?

Thanks for help

I have an Asrock 330 ION I've brought two remotes one was a simple IR remote off ebay it worked but took ages to setup and I still couldn't get all the functionality working correctly. I stuck that one back on ebay and got a Windows Media Center Remote which was very easy to setup and works perfectly. My only issue with boxee is that I can not get it to suspend from remote it just quits but that's not a biggy.

[JEDIDIAH]

Originally Posted by lament

I don't have the Ion motherboard (I have the Zotac mini-ITX), but I'm using the Adesso ARC 1100 without any problems. I still need to map the buttons properly.

But I just installed LIRC, set it as "Windows Media Center Remote" and it works great. I would assume it would work on the Ion board as well.

There are a lot of IR remotes in the supported list these days. I've been using MythTV for awhile so I quickly got fixated on the Streamzap remote. Although MCE remotes also work (like the one bundled with the PVR-150). There are also general purpose IR recievers that are reputed to be able to talk with anything.

On my ION box I use the MCE remote dongle that came with the PVR-150 as an IR blaster and use that concurrently with a Streamzap remote.

[Andy22]

Im running on a ZOTAC-A ION and here is a small tip.

The atom can be easily overclocked via bios, im running 2.0GHz FSB 533-> 666 without any problems. I just boosted the cpu vcore a little.

I had some problems with hulu at 1280+ desktop resolution and suffered from hickups while playing. For me those 400Mhz more made the difference, now i can even use hulu desktop without any problems.