Page: 3/3 (1870 total words in this text) (63214 Reads)
CONCLUSION/SUMMARY:
The M10000 is small, reasonably robust for the speed/processor it is (it’s not
going to win you any SETI@HOME
honors though), is full of cool built in features, is quiet, and cool (in both
senses of the word). When coupled with a hardware-based encoder it handles the
load of multimedia machine HTPC/PVR admirably. I really like the M10000 and
think it has a unique place in the DIY PVR world, and if it weren’t for some
slightly annoying driver/software glitches I would have rated it much higher.
Suffice to say I await VIA’s upcoming mini-itx (and nano-itx) offerings with
great anticipation (especially the recently
announcedEPIA
SP series with built in MPEG4
acceleration).
Final Score:7 out of 10
Pros:
· really small form factor · quiet
· cool running
· faster than expected for general computing
· lots of integrated goodies Take it or Leave it: · hardware MPEG acceleration helps DVD playback but was disappointing
(compared to a full/true mpeg decoding solution)
Cons: · some driver confusion
· a little pricey for performance
· TV out (or TV out driver/software) lacked granular adjustment for overscanning
Final Recommendation: The M10000 and it’s slower clock speed cousins
make for great quiet/thin media client PC’s by themselves, or work great when
paired with the crisp S-Video out of a PVR350 and SageTV2.0 - Review
(or MythTV for the linux faithful). Using the VIA M10000 with a PVR350 helps
overcome the few limitations noted in the review.
Special thanks to VIA and VIA Embedded for providing the M10000 review unit for our evaluation.
GENERIC REVIEW BOILERPLATE:
We would certainly love to evaluate any HTPC / PVR related products provided by
manufacturers, but BYOPVR is not in the business of “selling” favorable reviews
for free hardware (unless it was an ipod mini – we’d sell out for a couple of
those). Read
this article on how hardware payola works on “other” review sites.
If you would like your company’s product reviewed on Build Your Own PVR, send
an email to reviews AT byopvr.com for more information.
