Smart Home Blog

ZOTAC recently launched its new product – ZBOX AD10. Its compact and stylish nettop based on AMD E-350 APU and a Radeon HD 6310. Additionally box sports 320GB HDD, 2GB DDR3 RAM, integrated 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. Good news for audiophiles. The AD10 supports Dolby® TrueHDâ„¢ & DTS-HDâ„¢ (Master Audio bitstream ready) over HDMI. So, it can be used as High-End HTPC.

New ZOTAC AD10 is available at very attractive price – just $276! Together with XBMC it might bring your home theater experience to the new level!

If you prefer new AMD Fusion E-350 APU platform to nVidia Ion 2 for your HTPC the Giada MiniPC A50 might be interesting for you. It’s based on a AMD Fusion E-350 APU with integrated Radeon HD 6310 graphics and supports HD video and audio. The slim case – just 25 mm, has enough space for 2GB of RAM and 2.5″ 350GB HDD. The Giada MiniPC A50 sports HDMI output, USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, built-in IR receiver and multi-card reader. The box is bundled with Media Center remote to control it the same way as the rest AV devices.

The Giada MiniPC A50 will be available in two colors – black and white, and in two configurations – ready-made with Windows 7 Home Premium ($449) and barebone ($299). Good to know this PC is compatible with Linux. So, you may install XBMC, Boxee, MythTV with a networked HDHomeRun tuner or VDR with USB DVB-S2 card and enjoy power and open source system on your quiet (just 26dB noise level) and energy efficient (30W power consumption) HTPC.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Long time platform nVidia Ion didn’t have any competitor in case if it’s needed compact, noiseless HTPC with 1080p support. Maybe that’s why its second generation was mostly marketing ploy. But now situation changed. AMD launched its new platform AMD E-350 APU which combines CPU and GPU on one chip. And according to information Hot Hardware and AnandTech it beats Intel Atom D525 with ION 2 on all categories except gaming – productivity, music, PCMarks, communications, and movies. Moreover, AMD E-350 APU supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA bitstreaming over HDMI. So, looks like nVidia should know what new features and improvements will be in the third generation of Ion. If it’ll be released, of course.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

You already heard about Zotac ZBOX nettop with Blu-ray player and nVidia Ion 2 graphics, I suppose. Now it’s time to announce the new ZBOX Blu-ray AD03. It based on the latest AMD dual-core 1.6Ghz processor and 500Mhz Radeon HD 6310 graphics. It give you support of DirectX 11 3D, 1080p video, Blu-ray playback, and Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio over HDMI (remember that nVidia Ion 2 model doesn’t support HD audio).

The ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 sports USB 3.0 ports, Mini-PCI Express expansion slot, card reader, a slim Blu-ray drive, Gigabit Ethernet and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. It comes with two configuration – barebone and fully functional nettop with 250GB HDD and 2GB DDR3 RAM which can be extended up to 8GB. The ZBOX looks very attractive as a base for compact, quiet and power HTPC. You need just add IR/RF remote control and USB TV tuner or DVB card if you need. However, Linux folks should check the support of Radeon HD 6310 first. Sure, now ATI drivers for Linux are much much better then two-three years ago. But they’re still not so good as nVidia ones. In any case, thanks to Zotac to give us more then one choice.

The ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 should be available now. No any words about the price but we can expect something around €500 for model with HDD and RAM.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Lx8100-AM2BB-M2NPV-VM HTPC Bare Bone will be interesting for all who’d like to build HTPC by themsevse and not use something ready. The bare bone includes a nice looking case with changeable front plates, LX8100 AMD 939 Motherboard with integrated NVIDIA® GeForceâ„¢ 6150/nForceâ„¢ 430 and SilentX 14dba Power Supply. Additionally, it has the 9-in-1 read reader, TV-Out, DVI, VGA, front USB/1394 and sound ports. There is a possibility to install VFD display to show some useful information.

The bare bond comes with free remote control and Fedora 5 based installation / recovery DVD. The DVD will get Linux users up and running in no time because many applications and drivers like 3D Video drivers, LIRC, sensors, Video for Linux(V4l), sound, TV viewers and radio applications are installed with the needed LIRC bindings for the included remote control.
There are available three configuration on the LinuxToys: without motherboard ($209.00), with motherboard ($319.00) and full set equiped with AMD AM2 3000+, 512 MB RAM, 250Gb HDD, DVD/CDRW, TV-Capture and installed and configured Linux-based media applications such as TV-Time, Kradio and KDETV ($559.00).

We’re going to buy the second configuration to use it as Plutohome Media Director. The nice price and appropriate hardware make this bare bond very attractive to use in Plutohome system.

[via lixsystems]