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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/4212/tvix-slim-s1-bidding-adieu-to-the-realtek-rtd1283
TViX Slim S1 : Bidding Adieu to the Realtek RTD1283
by Ganesh T S on March 8, 2011 8:23 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- DVICO
- TVIX
DViCO is one of the leading multimedia product manufacturers in the European and Asia-Pacific markets. Their media streamer lineup comes under the TViX series. Historically, they have carried products based on both Realtek and Sigma chipsets, but, for 2010, they decided to go the Realtek-only route. For the non-US markets, PVR functionality is necessary, and the Realtek 1283 chipset provides support for a tuner and PVR combo. The TVIX PVR M-6640N Duo is the flagship 2010 PVR model with dual tuners and HD-PVR functionality. Note that the model which sells in the US has a ATSC tuner while the rest have a DVB-T one.
Today, however, we will be looking at the streamer-only model with the same industrial design, the TViX Slim S1.
The Slim S1 can be purchased in the US for around $199. For this price, you get a media streamer with the following features:
- Realtek RTD1283DD+ processor with a MIPS core running at 400 MHz.
- Slot for internal 3.5" hard drive (screwless installation supported)
- Wireless networking capable, but not bundled.
- Usage of unit as an external hard drive (USB 2.0 interface only), provided internal hard disk is installed.
There are a number of companies making Realtek 1283 based products and TViX is known pretty well for its custom firmware with good UI and ease of use. How much can TViX differentiate itself with the 1283 platform? We will try to find that out, but, first, let us take a look at the package contents and what is inside the Slim S1.
The TViX Slim S1 comes in a sleek package, and every aspect of the package as well as the bundled components screams 'premium'.
Inside the box, we have the following components:
- Slim S1 main unit
- 36W power adapter
- IR remote with batteries
- RCA Cable
- CD with manual and Netshare NFS server software
- USB 2.0 cable for external hard disk mode usage
- Glossy setup guide
The remote bundled with the unit is one of the better ones (but, not the best) that we have seen in a media streamer. The keys do not feel cheap, and have a certain solidity in them. That said, the remote was occasionally too sensitive, registering multiple key presses with a short duration.
The front of the main unit has a VFD display behind it (7 alpha-numeric characters and 5 digits), with a host of buttons on the top panel. These buttons include the ability to power on and off the unit, perform menu navigation and control playback. On one side of the unit is the hard drive slot, while the other side has the fan outlet and an eSATA host / USB 2.0 host. The rear side has the power adapter connector, optical & coaxial SPDIF, component and composite (along with stereo) connectors, HDMI 1.3 port, 100 Mbps RJ-45 port, USB 2.0 host and USB 2.0 slave ports.
The screwless hard disk installation is a welcome feature. The internal hard disk is quite easy to install, even for the novice users. The only simpler hard disk installation mechanism that I have seen is the one on the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD2. Some pictures of the main unit and the hard disk tray / screwless installation mechanism are given in the gallery below. We used a 7200rpm 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT for testing out the internal hard disk capabilities of the TViX Slim S1.
Let us wrap up this section with a table summarizing the A/V and data connectivity options of the TViX Slim S1
TViX Slim S1 | ||||
Feature | TViX Slim S1 Config | |||
HDMI | Yes (v1.3) | |||
Component | Yes | |||
Composite | Yes | |||
VGA | No | |||
SPDIF | Yes (Optical and Coaxial) | |||
Stereo | Yes | |||
Optical Disk Drive | No (Supported on USB) | |||
USB | Yes (2 x 2.0 Host, 1 x 2.0 Slave) | |||
eSATA | Yes (Host) | |||
LAN | Yes (100 Mbps) | |||
Internal HDD | Supported (3.5", Not Included) | |||
WiFi | No (Supported over USB Dongle, Not Included) | |||
Card Reader | No |
The TViX Slim S1 is undoubtedly one of the best looking media streamers we have seen. The brushed aluminium on top presents a very sophisticated look. There are some screws on the rear side of the unit to keep the SPDIF and the Component / Composite connectors in place. The underside of the unit has 6 screws, 4 of which are beneath the rubber pads.
Removing the 6 screws enables the underside of the unit to be taken out. The SATA HDD connector is screwed to the underside panel, and the full panel can be taken out by removing the connecting cables from the motherboard. The hard disk cage, held to the main board using two screws, was taken out to expose the motherboard.
Note that what we have on view here is the underside of the main board. On this side, we have:
- Holtek HT16511 VFD Driver IC
- Samsung K9F1G08U0B 1 Gb (128 MB) x8 SLC NAND Flash
The motherboard is soldered to the top panel. So, we weren't able to grab shots of the DRAM (supposedly, 256 MB) and the main chip (RTD 1283DD). However, this soldering enables the RTD1283 to be in close contact with the top aluminium panel. The panel can, thus, act as a big heat sink. This is innovative thermal design, unlike what we have seen in other media players.
The user interface is one of the strong points of the TViX Slim S1. The home screen presents a host of options (Movies, Music, Photos, Internet and Settings) in a 'Revolver' format.
The menu navigation is smooth and quick. The fonts are pleasing to the eye.
When selecting Movies, Music or Photos, one has the option to list content from an internal hard disk, network share, attached USB drive, uPnP media server or an optical drive connected to the USB port. One can shift between these using the left arrow.
The Internet option in the main screen lists the following Internet Services (Internet Channels, Internet TV, Podcasts, Weather and RSS).
YouTube comes under Internet Channels, and I found it to be much more reliable compared to the YouTube service found in other media streamers.
Some more screenshots (including the BD-Lite navigation methodology) from the user interface are found in the gallery below:
Blu-Ray ISOs and folder structures both play back in BD-Lite fashion. In the above gallery, there are pictures of a Blu-Ray ISO (2012) being played back with the BD-Lite menu. Playback of a Blu-Ray folder structure of Spider-Man 3 is also shown in the above gallery. Folder structure playback is initiated by selecting the index.bdmv inside the BDMV folder. The same BD-Lite navigation used with ISOs is available here also. Unfortunately, the BD-Lite methodology doesn't shed light on the names of the special features or the scene presented in the menu. It also fails miserably with structures having multiple M2TS files (such as the HQV 2.0 benchmark Blu-Ray). The vast majority of Blu-Ray ISOs / folder structures should play without issues, but don't be surprised if you find strange behavior with some titles. On the positive side, DVD ISOs play back with full menus.
One of the features of the TViX Slim S1 that I like a lot is the Web Remote. The unit runs a web server accessible over the browser (from another computer or mobile device). The web server provides a simplified interface to the menu available on the main display. It allows for full control of the media to be played back.
Some other streamers like the Netgear NTV550 also have a web remote, but the quality and simplicity of the TViX Slim S1's is miles ahead of the competition. The Web Remote feature is particularly useful for music playback (when you don't want your display to be switched on).
Network setup and shared folder access (both SMB and NFS) were quite straightforward and proceeded without a hitch. TViX also provides a Windows based NFS server called NetShare which can be used to setup NFS shares on a Windows PC. These shares are automatically configured for easy access from the Slim S1. For the movie jukebox lovers who want nice cover art and all those bells and whistles, TViXiE is a well known and frequently updated option.
A detailed look at all the available options indicate that the unit is geared towards the discerning consumer. Though there is no source-direct option, we have native frame rate support. Depending on your display, various frame rates can be passed on as-is, or pulled down to the appropriate refresh rate. For example, if you have a NTSC display also capable of 24 Hz, you should leave Native Frame Rate off for 1080p25. However, you can set Native Frame Rate on for 1080p24.
Another downer for the TViX Slim S1 is the fact that the unit doesn't advertise having a license for the DTS codecs. However, passthrough and decode seem to be officially supported for vanilla DTS in the setup options. There is no mention of HD audio anywhere in the menus, except for the 'Force Audio Passthrough' option. TrueHD passthrough is advertised, but DTS-HD is not. All this makes for a very confusing scenario. To complicate the situation further, there are some hacks for the firmware available online which enable DTS-HD passthrough. These are not officially sanctioned, but we went ahead with the hack for our testing purpose. In the next section, we will see how the TViX Slim S1 fares in our test suite.
We recently updated our streamer test suite to v1.1 and started using it in the Nixeus Fusion HD review posted last week. The TViX Slim S1 scored 262 out of a possible 368, earning a normalized score of 71.2%. This is only slightly lesser than the Nixeus Fusion HD's 72.3%, by far the best SMP 865x based media streamer we have tested. Considering that we used the firmware hack to enable DTS-HD bitstreaming and also the fact that the TViX Slim S1 is able to play back Real Media files (which the Nixeus Fusion HD doesn't), its score is very disappointing.
The TViX Slim S1 lost points in test streams for the following aspects:
- DVR-MS, OGG (for Theora / Vorbis streams), WTV, WebM containers
- PGS subtitles (both forced and unforced) in MKVs (Completely unsupported)
- MPEG-4 clips with more than 2 warp points
- VP6 encoded video
- 1080p60 H.264 compatibility (Some streams play back correctly, some have stutters -- including some HD camcorder clips)
- 1080p H.264 content with more than 4 reference frames (Admittedly, this type of content is fairly uncommon, but the aim of our test suite is to evaluate streamers on the basis of their codec compatibility)
- ASS stylized subtitles
- Hindi and Chinese SRT subtitles
- Sub-par deinterlacing
- M2TS splitter issue with certain streams
- Blu-Ray ISO / folder structure navigation
- DTS-HD bitstreaming from MKVs (Only core soundtrack is bitstreamed)
MKV chapters are a hit or miss. Some files would be recognized as having chapters, while others had to remuxed a couple of times to enable the unit to detect them. In any case, chapter names aren't provided in the Goto menu, and you have to rely on the chapter numbers.
In addition to the above issues, playing back standard video streams (such as one of the M2TS streams from the HQV Benchmark Blu-Ray) in a loop sometimes caused the unit to misbehave. The playback stopped after some time, and the unit refused to play any other stream till it was power cycled. On other occasions, the unit would randomly power off when navigating through the folders. Admittedly, this was pretty rare (happened only 2 or 3 times during my entire testing).
If any of the above aspects are deal breakers for you, then, the TViX Slim S1 is not the streamer you want.
The TViX Slim S1 is the first Realtek 1283 based media player that we are evaluating, and one of the first Realtek based products to grace our labs since we started HQV benchmarking. Being a premium multimedia player, the TViX Slim S1 has various options for contrast enhancement and hue control. Does this give a respectable score in the HQV benchmark?
TViX Slim S1 : HQV 2.0 Benchmark | ||||
Test Class | Chapter | Tests | Max. Score | TViX Slim S1 |
Video Conversion | Video Resolution | Dial | 5 | 5 |
Dial with Static Pattern | 5 | 5 | ||
Gray Bars | 5 | 1 | ||
Violin | 5 | 5 | ||
Film Resolution | Stadium 2:2 | 5 | 0 | |
Stadium 3:2 | 5 | 0 | ||
Overlay On Film | Horizontal Text Scroll | 5 | 0 | |
Vertical Text Scroll | 5 | 0 | ||
Cadence Response Time | Transition to 3:2 Lock | 5 | 0 | |
Transition to 2:2 Lock | 5 | 0 | ||
Multi-Cadence | 2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCam Video | 5 | 0 | |
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video | 5 | 0 | ||
3:2:3:2:2 24 FPS Vari-Speed | 5 | 0 | ||
5:5 12 FPS Animation | 5 | 3 | ||
6:4 12 FPS Animation | 5 | 3 | ||
8:7 8 FPS Animation | 5 | 3 | ||
Color Upsampling Errors | Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP) | 5 | 2 | |
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE) | 5 | 2 | ||
Noise and Artifact Reduction | Random Noise | SailBoat | 5 | 0 |
Flower | 5 | 0 | ||
Sunrise | 5 | 0 | ||
Harbour Night | 5 | 0 | ||
Compression Artifacts | Scrolling Text | 5 | 0 | |
Roller Coaster | 5 | 0 | ||
Ferris Wheel | 5 | 0 | ||
Bridge Traffic | 5 | 0 | ||
Upscaled Compression Artifacts | Text Pattern | 5 | 0 | |
Roller Coaster | 5 | 0 | ||
Ferris Wheel | 5 | 0 | ||
Bridge Traffic | 5 | 0 | ||
Image Scaling and Enhancements | Scaling and Filtering | Luminance Frequency Bands | 5 | 5 |
Chrominance Frequency Bands | 5 | 5 | ||
Vanishing Text | 5 | 5 | ||
Resolution Enhancement | Brook, Mountain, Flower, Hair, Wood | 15 | 15 | |
Video Conversion | Contrast Enhancement | Theme Park | 5 | 2 |
Driftwood | 5 | 2 | ||
Beach at Dusk | 5 | 2 | ||
White and Black Cats | 5 | 2 | ||
Skin Tone Correction | Skin Tones | 10 | 7 | |
Total Score | 210 | 74 |
We were quite surprised to see the Slim S1 score well in some of the cadence detection tests. However, content requiring those cadence detection schemes are very rare. The score of 74 on 210 is more than what the Sigma based players obtained in our benchmarks. Does this mean that the Realtek streamers are better than their Sigma counterparts? I would heavily stress the fact that this isn't so. The HQV benchmark doesn't reflect real world deinterlacing performance. Also, the knobs required to test and process various HQV benchmark streams are not present in the Sigma streamers we reviewed earlier.
The TViX Slim S1 lives up to its premium tag by offering the right knobs for picture adjustment, but nothing much should be read into this score.
We took a look at DViCO's premium TViX streamer, the Slim S1. It would be an understatement to say that we are disappointed with its codec compatibility. The firmware updates have been few and core complaints haven't been addressed fully. The saving grace for the product is its premium nature (stylish look, good user interface and the Web Remote).
The fan on the side of the unit is not of the small diameter high pitched variety. It is barely audible in a typical home theater setting. For those with sensitive ears, a fan-less media streamer is always recommended irrespective of the fan used in the unit under consideration. Connected to the wired network, and with no hard disk installed, the TViX Slim S1 consumed 8.9W to 9.1W while streaming 1080p video over the network. With an internal hard disk (the 7200rpm 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT), the power consumption hovered around 19W.
The absence of any premium services such as Netflix in the US market / AceTrax in EU is also a downer for the price. All in all, the TViX Slim S1 will appeal only to the diehard DViCO / TViX fans. After reading about DViCO's excellent TViX series on many other websites, the TViX Slim S1 was a letdown of sorts for me. Hopefully, DViCO's future products will have a better platform to build their firmware upon and impress us. In this market, the ideal media streamer is one which combines the low power consumption of the Sigma / Realtek chipsets, nice build, UI and Web remote functionality of the TViX Slim S1 and the codec and online streaming compatibility of the Boxee Box, Nixeus Fusion HD and the Netgear NeoTV 550. Are we asking for too much?
Note: Thanks to Digital Connection for providing us with the review sample of the TViX Slim S1.