Acer Aspire Revo R3600, £159.95 delivered to Ireland from Ebuyer

Sir Oxman

FrankGrimes wrote: »

Just ordered this right now so will look forward to playing around with it. Ordered 4GB of Kingston RAM from ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130349237337

Says seller is UK based so hopefully delivery isn't too long. Total of €76 delivered for the 2x2GB sticks. Also ordered the USB sound card linked earlier on this thread (total of around €15 delivered) as I need optical audio for my amp. Seems the only other thing to add is a USB tv tuner or two and then we're laughing with a full HTPC setup.

Might play around with installing XBMC on it first just to see what it's like, but will ultimately put Windows 7 on it as a HTPC without live TV ain't no HTPC in my eyes and Windows Media Center is my favourite option for live TV.

Great thread by the way, very helpful!



Interesting post gambiaman, thanks! What was needed to fix the firewall issue - turn edge traversal on or off? Does this link cover it?

On the codecs, I had previously thought that installing the Shark007 codec pack was the best for Windows 7 & WMC, but it seems not based on your post: are there any files you can't play (natively in WMC) with your setup (e.g. .mkv, .h264, .vob, .iso etc.)? I generally use VLC for whatever WMC won't play, though it's not an ideal setup - is Media Player Classic Home Theater a better option than VLC? Either way, not having to leave WMC to play any video files would be ideal.

I hadn't copped the significance of the Flash 10.1 beta but it using hardware graphics acceleration sounds like a big deal. How did you get iPlayer working in WMC (I have a UK proxy server and am using TunerFreeMCE for iPlayer but interface isn't 100% perfect)?.

Hi FrankGrimes,

The edge traversal thing I tthink was down to me messing about with WFW's rules for Windows Media Centre Extensibility Host - WFW popped up a dialog asking to allow it when I first installed W7 and used WMC so I went in and messed about with the settings and set edge traversal to 'defer to user' for some stupid reason, when I reversed it to 'allow edge traversal' my 'stuttering' movie (stuttering streaming actually) stopped.

Now, I have completely reinstalled W7 and have WMC & mediabrowser setup and not once have I had the WFW dialog popup to allow this program so I haven't had to deal with that again, so if you do get that popup make sure edge traversal is allowed for the two rules WFW creates for that program.

I cannot play h264 files/1080pwithin WMC7 without the paid coreavc codec $10:
http://corecodec.com/products/coreavc
have a read of that - AFAIK, this is needed if you DO NOT want to use external players when using WMC - it uses the ION chipset in teh REvo to it's fullest leaving the puny Atom CPU alone.
MPC-HC plays everything cos it has DVXA built-in but if you don't want an external player involved, you'd be as well to buy the coreavc codec if 1080p is hugely important to you, I don't have many of those files myself - yet.
i haven't tried .iso files but Mediabrowser has a section to set up an .iso player
Ever other file I have plays without a hitch including vobs
I have ac3filter and coreacv (which installs haali media splitter) - that's the sum total of third-party codecs I have installed.

Flash 10.2 beta is a must for this machine as it again makes use of the ION in the Revo, I am watching BBC on my Revo through the WMC iPLayer plugin as I type, flawless. I use a paid for VPN:
http://www.witopia.net
Note they have US, UK, and HK connections for around 70$ but Hulu has the US ones blocked at this time. UK vpn is only availabnle in their openvpn-ssl package. pptp package only has one US vpn available.

I also have the tunerfreemce plugin but have a few troubles with it crashing when accessing 4od..

The iPlayer plugin I use for WMC is iPlayer Alpha 1.5 found here:
http://code.google.com/p/mce-media-core/
You must upgrade windows media components here:
http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/en/indivit.asp
before the plugin will work.

Anyone not familiar with Mediabrowser, here's a link:
http://www.mediabrowser.tv/

It's must have for WMC7

PS Let me know what usb dvb-s tuner you go for, I've a spare sat connection waiting to be used - I heard two tuners would be impossible (?) with this revo, I don't know for sure but read that somewhere

FrankGrimes

Thanks gambiaman, that is one massively helpful post, answers a lot of lingering questions I was uncertain of and I'm sure others will find that very useful too. Your setup sounds class by the way!

A poster did reply to one of my earlier posts on this thread saying he didn't feel two USB tuners would be possible with this machine, but I'll have to check into that more before I'm convinced. Reason being that TV tuners in WMC don't actually use all that much CPU resources (well, on my current dual core HTPC anyway), so it would seem logical that two USB tuners shouldn't be that much more resource hungry. That said, I fully appreciate that the limitation may well be the single core CPU on this machine, so further investigation necessary. I have a DVB-T USB tuner (Hauppage HVR 9000) for playing around with - might try that in conjunction with the USB DVB-S tuner when I get it and see how it goes. Unlikely to find an all-encompassing dual tuner card in USB format that does all the things the Pinnacle 9010i did or the forthcoming BlackGold card sounds like it should do (analog, DVB-T, DVB-S with dual tuner functionality). So that at the moment sounds like the only drawback for this machine when considered for fully-fledged HTPC usage, which isn't major given the price trade-off.

As an aside, for people using XBMC on this machine with no TV tuner functionality - where do you get most of your TV content - is it a combo of streaming or downloading (e.g. can you use Usenet in XBMC?) or do you have to use another machine to source the content and have XBMC point at it?

BenEadir

Hi all,

I've been following this thread for a few weeks and I'd like to ask a few questions which I haven't been able to clarify through the posts to date:-

1. Is this Revo R3600 effectively a DIY equivalent of an Iomega Media Drive or is it much more than that? What advantages would the Revo setup have over a 1TB plug and play Iomega Media Drive?

2. Can the Revo stream TV from the web and if so would the quality on a 50 inch Panasonic Vierra be acceptable or can I expect it to be very low definition and stuttery? (I'm thinking about streaming the odd premiership match here!!)

3. What channels can DVB-S and DVB-T tuners get here in Dublin and are any of them HD?

4. As the Revo only has a 160GB HDD can a standard external USB HDD be added to hold and play movies etc from?

Apologies if some of the questions are primitive. I'd give myself a 5 out of 10 for technical ability as a user and have flashed the odd set top box but this HTPC lark seems a different league. Those of you who have successfully done this seem to be very competent and I'm a bit concerned that I might be biting off more than I can chew if I take on this project.

I'm basically looking for a way to download and watch movies and TV (specifically the Premiership) onto my lovely Panasonic Vierra without having to fork out over €1,000 a year for the pleasure!! I don't mind paying N*L for the basic package for the free to air RTE's and BBC's etc and currently have a 3mb broadband connection via Eircom. Will I need to upgrade that to 7mb if I go down the Revo route?

Appreciate any help and pointers you can give me.

Ben

markyboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2NNg2OCLVM

The_Conductor

BenEadir wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been following this thread for a few weeks and I'd like to ask a few questions which I haven't been able to clarify through the posts to date:-

1. Is this Revo R3600 effectively a DIY equivalent of an Iomega Media Drive or is it much more than that? What advantages would the Revo setup have over a 1TB plug and play Iomega Media Drive?

No- the Revo R3600 is a complete fully functional computer- not just a media device. The Iomega Media Drive has a built-in UPnP Media Server- however its more akin to a large removable hard-drive with a limited operating system focusing on networking capabilities, than a fully functional computer. The Iomega has a much larger capacity than the Revo- but thats about the best selling point it has over the Revo.

BenEadir wrote: »

2. Can the Revo stream TV from the web and if so would the quality on a 50 inch Panasonic Vierra be acceptable or can I expect it to be very low definition and stuttery? (I'm thinking about streaming the odd premiership match here!!)

The Revo can stream anything at all from the web that any other computer can. The nVidia Ion 9300 supports hardware assisted decoding- so the Revo is actually far more powerful than most netbooks or laptops based on Intel Atom processors.

BenEadir wrote: »

3. What channels can DVB-S and DVB-T tuners get here in Dublin and are any of them HD?

RTE1, RTE2, TV3 & TG4 none are HD

BenEadir wrote: »

4. As the Revo only has a 160GB HDD can a standard external USB HDD be added to hold and play movies etc from?

Certainly.

BenEadir wrote: »

Apologies if some of the questions are primitive. I'd give myself a 5 out of 10 for technical ability as a user and have flashed the odd set top box but this HTPC lark seems a different league. Those of you who have successfully done this seem to be very competent and I'm a bit concerned that I might be biting off more than I can chew if I take on this project.

View it as a minature computer with a bizarre number of USB ports and HDMI out- and thats what it is- nothing more, nothing less.

BenEadir wrote: »

I'm basically looking for a way to download and watch movies and TV (specifically the Premiership) onto my lovely Panasonic Vierra without having to fork out over €1,000 a year for the pleasure!! I don't mind paying N*L for the basic package for the free to air RTE's and BBC's etc and currently have a 3mb broadband connection via Eircom. Will I need to upgrade that to 7mb if I go down the Revo route?

Appreciate any help and pointers you can give me.

Ben

The Revo3600 has HDMI out- but I have no idea how good it would be at driving a massive panel. A lot of the time the quality of the signal will depend more so on the quality of the file being played, than anything else. Even alegedly HD files- can have significant artifacts- if you blow them up on a 50" screen......?

eamon234

When I connect to my 19" LCD TV through HDMI video quality is fine when using XBMC but if I'm using the PC for browsing etc the quality of the text in particular is really poor at any resolution. It looks fine through VGA. Any ideas? Would getting a better HDMI cable make a difference?

The_Conductor

eamon234 wrote: »

When I connect to my 19" LCD TV through HDMI video quality is fine when using XBMC but if I'm using the PC for browsing etc the quality of the text in particular is really poor at any resolution. It looks fine through VGA. Any ideas? Would getting a better HDMI cable make a difference?

Check the resolution you're outputting- its entirely possible that its downscaling to a lower resolution? I can't see how a different HDMI cable would make any difference.

FrankGrimes

gambiaman wrote: »

I cannot play h264 files/1080pwithin WMC7 without the paid coreavc codec $10:
http://corecodec.com/products/coreavc
have a read of that - AFAIK, this is needed if you DO NOT want to use external players when using WMC - it uses the ION chipset in teh REvo to it's fullest leaving the puny Atom CPU alone.
MPC-HC plays everything cos it has DVXA built-in but if you don't want an external player involved, you'd be as well to buy the coreavc codec if 1080p is hugely important to you, I don't have many of those files myself - yet.
i haven't tried .iso files but Mediabrowser has a section to set up an .iso player
Ever other file I have plays without a hitch including vobs
I have ac3filter and coreacv (which installs haali media splitter) - that's the sum total of third-party codecs I have installed.

From looking at this thread on the Revo users forum it seems the poster at the bottom is saying Windows 7 doesn't need any additional codecs installed to run high-def video with hardware gpu acceleration. Does that differ from your experience gambiaman?

I've no problem paying for CoreAVC, just want to make sure it'll be used if I do get it - do I have to specify any settings so that WMC uses it as the preferred codec or will that just happen by default? I have a Samsung N510 netbook which also has a Nvidia ION processor so I'll probably uninstall Shark007 codecs and install CoreAVC on that too if it'll help.

Sir Oxman

FrankGrimes wrote: »

From looking at this thread on the Revo users forum it seems the poster at the bottom is saying Windows 7 doesn't need any additional codecs installed to run high-def video with hardware gpu acceleration. Does that differ from your experience gambiaman?

I've no problem paying for CoreAVC, just want to make sure it'll be used if I do get it - do I have to specify any settings so that WMC uses it as the preferred codec or will that just happen by default? I have a Samsung N510 netbook which also has a Nvidia ION processor so I'll probably uninstall Shark007 codecs and install CoreAVC on that too if it'll help.

Hi frank, all I have read says you need coreavc if not using an external player (ie, using WMC only) I suppose you could try it?

I've been trying out XBMC for Windows and it is very, very good
I am havng recurring problems with WMC and Mediabrowser, play film finish film can't use back button remote to get out of mediabrowser, have to manually end WMC - not good but probably something I can fix with a bit of messing around.

Mad_Mike

Boxee beta has just been released a couple of hours ago. Try it out on your Revo's. Excellent bit of software

FrankGrimes

Mad_Mike wrote: »

Boxee beta has just been released a couple of hours ago. Try it out on your Revo's. Excellent bit of software

What's the deal with Boxee - it's based on XBMC, so I assume the intention is to make it better than XBMC, so what's better about it? Curious to know as I'll probably try out one of them on my Revo over the next week.

My Revo arrived yesterday, great little piece of kit. So far all I've done is whack Windows 7 onto it but I'll play around with getting it fully setup over the weekend. I'd forgotten it came with a (wired) mouse and keyboard which are actually pretty dinky and made it handier to get it all setup than digging out an old keyboard from the attic.


Might buy something like this cheap wireless keyboard with trackpad to run it and see how that goes.

Haven't read it yet, but I'm hoping this thread shows the way to getting it all setup with Media Browser. Might be useful for gambiaman too.

trentv

Hi all, i hope someone can help, i got the revo yesterday and tried all last night to set it up with Ubuntu.
(i'm a linux newbie and I did my usb disk/CD creating on a pc running xp.)

I donwloaded the Ubuntu 9.10 iso and then used the usb-creator.exe tool to create a USB disk for booting.

When i try to boot off the USB i got a promising looking list of checks and setting up information which finished with checking battery (or something similar) and then it just went to black screen and nothing happened after that.

I tried again, using UNetbootin to create the USB disk and this time when i booted on the revo i got the Ubuntu logo in the middle of the screen fading in and out for a minute or two before disapearing and remaining black screen and nothing followed.

Then i got the ISO and made a CD from it, i attached my USB DVD drive to the Revo and it was found, i selected to install the OS and again after a short while the screen went black and nothing happened.... following this the Revo wouldn't recognise my CD drive again.

What have i done wrong?

Thanks

far2gud

Have you tried switching revoboot off in the bios? it will default to this partition on the hard drive otherwise.

trentv

Yea RevoBoot is disabled, i've tried booting from USB instead of installing from USB too and it still does the same thing.. black screen...

Sir Oxman

gambiaman wrote: »

Hi frank, all I have read says you need coreavc if not using an external player (ie, using WMC only) I suppose you could try it?

I've been trying out XBMC for Windows and it is very, very good
I am havng recurring problems with WMC and Mediabrowser, play film finish film can't use back button remote to get out of mediabrowser, have to manually end WMC - not good but probably something I can fix with a bit of messing around.

Recurring problems over - Mediabrowser 2.1.3 (Phoenix) works flawlessly on this Revo as now does Tunerfreemce.

far2gud

[QUOTE=Yea RevoBoot is disabled, i've tried booting from USB instead of installing from USB too and it still does the same thing.. black screen... [/QUOTE]

Wierd, Have you tried another usb stick? If so I would send it back.

trentv

I'm about to try the alternate install iso, if that doesn't work i think i'll have to send it back..

the USB stick works fine, i installed on my other pc from it so it shouldn't cause a problem...

Does it have to be formatted with anything specific or should the USB installer program do that for me? Its formatted FAT i think at the mo....

Mad_Mike

The installer will do it all for you
Sounds to me like the live install is having issues with your Ion graphics. Maybe not, I haven't read the thread to see if anybody else has tried Ubuntu on it. When you boot from usb, do you get a safe mode option?

Mad_Mike

Try the Alternate CD download here
Sometimes that can work where the other one doesnt

unklerosco

Whats the dealio with buying one of these with XP pre-installed. Is is possible to get a free upgrade to Win 7??

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002GMHVM0/ref=s9_simi_gw_s8_p23_t2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=13Y391EWTRRZGFWF3D2N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

Amazon have it for £179.99 with XP... I only ask cause I've a voucher for amazon..

The_Conductor

unklerosco wrote: »

Whats the dealio with buying one of these with XP pre-installed. Is is possible to get a free upgrade to Win 7??

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002GMHVM0/ref=s9_simi_gw_s8_p23_t2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=13Y391EWTRRZGFWF3D2N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

Amazon have it for £179.99 with XP... I only ask cause I've a voucher for amazon..

No- you can't get a free upgrade to Windows 7- you can install your own copy though? I've 7-Ultimate running- its great.

trentv

Well i have my Ubuntu working now and all is well.
I think the problem may have been with the filesystem on the HD in the acer.
I used the HP tool to format my USB disk to FAT32 to ensure it wasn't the problem with the windows formatting.
I then loaded gparted to it and used this tool to delete all partitions on the revo and format to ext4.
Then i went back to the original image i'd downloaded for full Ubuntu 9.10 and this time it loaded properly.
Updating the video drivers from the system menu seemed to fix the video problems, i.e. ultra slow mouse movement in XBMC.
Happy days!
Ohh, i noticed someone mention that they had increased the RAM to their video driver in the BIOS, is this only possible if you have more than 1GB, or if not, where is the setting to do it?

markyboy

trentv wrote: »

Ohh, i noticed someone mention that they had increased the RAM to their video driver in the BIOS, is this only possible if you have more than 1GB, or if not, where is the setting to do it?

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53888

2) Bios Settings:
Enter the Bios and disable "Use RevoBoot", then set the dedicated Memory to the GPU from AUTO to CUSTOM and then below set it to 512meg

Does anyone know how to increase the buffer settings for online video streaming?

torregolf

Which is best? Ubuntu or windows 7, I haven't been able to get Ubuntu working. Was trying to download to external hard drive?? Also, while I am using Hdmi cable, I have no sound, can I configure sound without Ubuntu. So right now, I am thinking of buying win 7 - can get student discount, thanks again for patience in reading this!

v240gltse

i used the following link to build my acer from an xbmc bootable usd stick. Following theses directions I got it working first time in under 40 minutes

best of luck

brendan

ShayC

Hi,

Is there much difference between the 3600 and the 3610 ?

thanks

Mad_Mike

I think the 3610 has the Atom 330 processor while the 3600 is Atom 230 and the 3610 has faster (N) wireless

unklerosco

just nabbed one of these on ebay.. upgraded to 4gb ram n genuine windows 7 prem. £191. Nice :-)

There's a few still on there from various sellers, most are upgraded to 2gb ram and are around £150 + £10 to ship.

The_Conductor

Anyone using Windows 7 on it (or on anything else) seriously recommend you activate all the control panels features in 'God Mode'.

Link to how to do it here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/GodMode-Windows-7-How-to,9345.html

billyhead

Lads,

Does anyone know where I can get this at the cheapest cost?

Rev. Kitchen

I got the 2 extra 2GB of Ram (4 in total) swapped them out no problem then rebooted the machine worked ok. It shows 4gb of Ram (says its only using 3gb for windows).

But after about 20 mins it crashed i got the blue screen and had to reboot it works for about 10 mins then crashes same thing again i ran the memory checks and got this message.

0xc0000017

Ramdisk device creation failed due to insufficient memory.

Ive no idea what that means, do i need to change some setting or is it something worse of course opening the screw voided my warranty !!

degsie

Put the original memory back in and see how it performs.

unklerosco

Got mine the other day.. Dear God Acer stuck a hell of a lot of bloatware on it.. Tis taking ages to get it all off!

fletch

Was thinking about getting this but then I noticed the other Revo R3600 which I think might be a better buy for me.

See here

It has a wireless keyboard and mouse, an extra 1GB RAM and Windows Vista. But it doesn't have a wireless network card(although I can get one for a few quid).

Is there anything else I am missing?

Rysinh

Elara have Aspire Revo R3610 for €331.54 plus pickup at €1.22, whereas ebuyer have it for €331.15 altogether, save the extra few bob

Grumpypants

degsie wrote: »

Put the original memory back in and see how it performs.

Seems to be a problem with internet explorer and windows 7 some googling came up with the same problem. Ive been using google chrome now all day and now problems at all. Just hooked up my new Dell 24" 1080p from the other thread nice set up now !!

eamon234

fletch wrote: »

Was thinking about getting this but then I noticed the other Revo R3600 which I think might be a better buy for me.

See here

It has a wireless keyboard and mouse, an extra 1GB RAM and Windows Vista. But it doesn't have a wireless network card(although I can get one for a few quid).

Is there anything else I am missing?

It does have a wireless network card - no HDMI though and it's running Vista so it will be slow as sh1te unless you upgrade to Windows 7 or install Ubuntu

The_Conductor

Rysinh wrote: »

Elara have Aspire Revo R3610 for €331.54 plus pickup at €1.22, whereas ebuyer have it for €331.15 altogether, save the extra few bob

Seems very expensive- particularly in comparison to the original 'bargain' posted in this thread? Also with the new Atoms out this week- its highly likely that a stock clearance will happen again in a month or two, akin to the original offer?

Raiser

Hi All!

I seriously considered buying one of these when this thread appeared last year! And am still on the fence as I am unsure on a few points.... Any help would be seriously appreciated.

- Anyone know if the R3600 is def. being phased out in favour of the Revo R3610 or will they be available for a while?

- Is there likely to be a replacement for the R3600 at a similar price-point in the short term?

- What's the best spec to go for with a view to future-proofing for a HTPC build allowing 2-3 years of general use? Is the 2GB option scrimping or adequate (On a budget)

- For a HTPC for most Folks out there I assume you would need to also budget for a wireless keyboard and mouse and a reasonable external Blu-ray drive? Any recommendations on these (Again, quality but budget!)

- Also nobody has mentioned the Ebuyer link in a while? Are they still shipping? Site currently says 300+ available - or are these now cheaper elsewhere???

Thanks Folks!!!

subway

the R3610 is now 199.99 from ebuyer

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182588

Rysinh

subway wrote: »

the R3610 is now 199.99 from ebuyer

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182588

I'd like to have windows 7 installed on it, is it worth going for this and installing a free* version or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172706

eamon234

Rysinh wrote: »

I'd like to have windows 7 installed on it, is it worth going for this and installing a free* version or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172706

I'd pay the extra for the second one with Windows 7 and the wireless keyboard and mouse it's well worth it. I picked up the cheaper R3600 and I'm having terrible problems trying to get Ubuntu to work properly with my monitor thanks to the sh1te Nvidia support.
Just make sure to get rid of all the crap bloatware included with it.

DonJose

Littlewoods are selling this for €189 with a 19in monitor, same model costs £499 on UK site, see link below.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055824200

Voodu Child

DonJose2 wrote: »

Littlewoods are selling this for €189 with a 19in monitor, same model costs £499 on UK site, see link below.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055824200

That doesnt include a monitor from what I can see.

Edit - Maybe it does ET.CP3WE.021 is kind of hidden in the description. Thats an Acer 19" model. Good price if true.

DonJose

Voodu Child wrote: »

That doesnt include a monitor from what I can see. Just some wishful thinking.

The order description states "Acer Revo Mini Desktop PC 19in M ONE COLOUR ONE SIZE "

I don't think the 19in M refers to the mouse

DonJose

Voodu Child wrote: »

Edit - Maybe it does ET.CP3WE.021 is kind of hidden in the description. Thats an Acer 19" model. Good price if true.

Where did you see this?

Voodu Child

DonJose2 wrote: »

Where did you see this?

Hover your cursor over the item description and you'll see it.

However, I don't see anywhere that it says 19in M, maybe im blind. I'd say you're taking a chance on this one, make sure you're happy with the Revo on its own for €190 before ordering (or of course make sure you're covered in regards to returning it or whatever).

DonJose

Voodu Child wrote: »

Hover your cursor over the item description and you'll see it.

However, I don't see anywhere that it says 19in M, maybe im blind. I'd say you're taking a chance on this one, make sure you're happy with the Revo on its own for €190 before ordering (or of course make sure you're covered in regards to returning it or whatever).

Cheers I found it.

DonJose

Voodu Child wrote: »

However, I don't see anywhere that it says 19in M.

The above appears when you place an order, it shows up in the order description.

Johner

Rysinh wrote: »

Elara have Aspire Revo R3610 for €331.54 plus pickup at €1.22, whereas ebuyer have it for €331.15 altogether, save the extra few bob

Is there anywhere cheaper to pick up this bundle?