[omnium]

It seems Anandtech is testing the Beebox:

AnandTech: ASRock Beebox Review: A Fanless Braswell UCFF PC

[oWarchild]

Finally, thanks!

The above screenshot shows that there is hardware acceleration available for MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 and HEVC. However, there is no HEVC Main10 support.

[...]can't decode HEVC Main10 profile videos even in hybrid decode mode.

Disappointing... then again I'm more interested in using Linux (even though it will take some time to support HEVC in the Braswell)...

Note that we have not tested out HEVC decoding and rendering - we still believe that, despite the 4K output capabilities, the core platform needs a more well-rounded set of features before it can be recommended for a 4K HTPC setup.

Odd, not very comprehensive of them... They also forget that it's likely people will start encoding 1080p with HEVC for the size benefits, so 1080p HEVC is an interesting scenario to test.

It remains to be seen if the Linux case is any different (the OpenELEC beta that I tried late last month didn't run on the Beebox).

It seems they missed @fritsch's build, even after my tweet

[Matt Devo]

that's a stunningly incomplete/poor review coming from Anandtech

[fritsch]

Yeah - not worth 10 cents ... the www.technikaffe.de review is far more superior. He contacted us from OE and got a working build ... he tested 4k@60p h264 decoding which was working fine - but on a single channel intel braswell nuc. So the dual channel is overrated a lot.

[oWarchild]

@fritsch, I take it you're referring to Neue Intel NUC5CPYH mit Braswell Prozessor im Test (translation). It's indeed better than Anandtech's...

[fritsch]

Exactly. Technikaffe asked us what to test and asked us to review ... which is very uncommon these days and highly appreciated within nowadays journalism, thumbs up here.

[Roby77]

It's true this user comment ?:

"The lack of bitstream audio is surprising .."!

[fritsch]

On my N3150 board that I have here ... TrueHD DTS-HD is working like a charm ... but yeah no idea what happens on windows. Last time they also got no bitstreaming while Linux users had it (Baytrail).

[Roby77]

Ah ok it's a problem only of windows

thank you

[fritsch]

No idea really, that test was soo bad - that we need someone else to review. You could write dennis of technikaffe and ask if he could explicitely test DTS-HD / TrueHD with an AVR on both OpenELEC and windows.

[oWarchild]

In regards to HEVC and 4K the dutch version of hardware.info also did a better review than Anandtech (using ASRock N3150/N3700 ITX).

the Celeron and the Pentium N3150 N3700 proved perfectly capable H.264 and H.265 video content in Full HD and Ultra HD resolution playback with virtually no dropped frames.

They even managed to find a working OpenELEC build:

From OpenELEC we had to use a beta version, because the operating system through a flaw in the kernel still does not work on the new Braswell CPUs. The following normal release of OpenELEC will have fixed it, but until then you can get the hotfix version here download.

Excellent post-processing

And to make the story even more beautiful: it's not just that the Braswell chips neatly decode both H.264 and H.265, also the post-processing turns out fine.

Deinterlacing does the embedded GPU excellent, even in HD. Both under Windows or OpenELEC we have done the HD HQV 2.0 deinterlacing tests and we must conclude that Braswell can compete with the result of wishing the best single GPU and nothing in this area leaves

They didn't mention main10 profile or bitstream audio though...

[fritsch]

Hehe - it seems now i am getting stalked :-)

Edit: They also blindly tested the EGL rewrite :-)

[Roby77]

No idea really, that test was soo bad - that we need someone else to review. You could write dennis of technikaffe and ask if he could explicitely test DTS-HD / TrueHD with an AVR on both OpenELEC and windows.

Dennis replied in one second (asked about hd-audio and if rc6 remote works)

Hi,

I can give you the answer without testing the beebox.

Both will be possible!

Best regards
Dennis

[fritsch]

I tested that functionality on my N3150 Asrock box - and I highly doubt that the Beebox has something "patched out" in comparison to my board here.

Taddddaaaaa: http://geizhals.de/asrock-beebox-a1296312.html

N3150(!)

[oWarchild]

Finally! The prices seem like direct conversion 1$ = 1€. Which given the current exchange rate and considering euro prices already include VAT, while the american prices don't include federal tax, is not too bad for Europeans, for a change!