Zotac ZBOX-AD03BR-PLUS-U AMD E-350 APU 1.6 GHz Dual Core AMD Hudson M1 w/ 2GB RAM, 250G HDD Blu-ray All-in-One Mini PC

Pros: Quiet Optical disk drive
Xubuntu compatible
Region free DVD playback
excellent MythTV box
some usb jacks are powered when system off

Cons: Long setup
Mildly complicated configuration
No built-in bluetooth

Other Thoughts: An excellent ultra-thin mini-pc that fits in perfectly into a home theater. I loaded mythbuntu on mine, added the xubuntu desktop and multiple emulators to play old game disks all in one box. Region free DVD playback is super smooth. Installing QJoypad let me configure a PS3 gamepad to control the whole thing.

At first I thought the HDMI was broken, but the connector just wasn't in all the way and had to be pushed in with a little more force. I also had to install the PulseAudio volume control to get HDMI audio correctly configured. Video playback was slow & stuttered initially, but enabling/updating proprietary drivers fixed that.

Pros: Very Fast HTPC, Very low power consumption, Incredible video and image quality, delivers on almost all fronts, USB 3.0 ports, and all of the different I/O options.

Cons: Cannot play videos that have been encoded using Hi10p x.264 codec.

Other Thoughts: Purchased this to act as an HTPC in my living room, I wanted an HTPC that would be able to stream from my 4 TB NAS, over my Gigabit network, full 1080p video files and extremely large photos. This computer delivers that except for the a fore mentioned codec. Really kinda sucks as almost all fan-subbed anime in hi-def is being released with this codec, however, it's very simple to reencode with an 8-bit version of the same codec and then the files play easily and look, INCREDIBLE! Great option for an HTPC, I would definatly buy it again, and the blu-ray player is a must have if you're replacing your PS3 as your main media center.

Pros: Small, light, NOT MADE OF PLASTIC, cool running (w/ SSD), BluRAY.

THANK YOU ZOTAC for not wussing out and making the unit out of cheap plastic. This was actually a very pleasant surprise, and actually will make me consider Zotac in the future if they have what I need.

Cons: Not the Best GPU, but its solid.

This needs a beefier CPU, this is the only thing holding back this machine. It is running @ 1.6 GHz so keep that in mind before you hate on it.

That 1.6 GHz will save you a ton of energy in the long run and is adequate for what I need, but I want more.

Other Thoughts: I bought 2 of these bad boys for a small office solution. Took out the HDD and the RAM, replaced them with a 60GB Mushkin Chronos and 8 GB of RAM (the customer wanted nothing to hold them back). Mounted them both to the back of the monitors. Got two wireless keyboards and mice.

OS Load time could be faster, but is certainly faster than my beefy gaming laptop. Some things are not instant to load like they should be, this is definitely a CPU problem.

Over all, this is the perfect solution to light and medium office tasks, along with viewing high quality images and even 1080p video stream from YT.

This does exactly what I expected it to do. Stays cool, runs faster that a normal big box build, and can take small beating if it has to.

One, Solid, Machine.

P.S. I'm going to buy one for my Home Theater very soon.

Pros: quiet
cool
small
usb 3.0
looks nice

Cons: weak cpu

CANNOT HANDLE HIGH BIT RATE 1080P VIDEO - this is a HUGE sore spot for me. how can you have a device that's basically designed to be a home theater pc and have it not handle that?

i put an extra 2 gb of memory in because another reviewer said it helps and it did help - but it went from completely and totally distorted video to just totally unwatchable. video was playing at about 1/2 speed without being filled with video artifacts.

the improvement with the 2gb of memory tells me it's the CPU that's dragging the system down because the radeon 6310 is more than capable. there are many htpc's with the 4250 and have no problem.

Other Thoughts: i specifically spoke with Zotac customer support BEFORE purchasing this item as i was worried this may be a problem. i was assured that it would not and that it could handle blu-ray videos as well as 1080p x264 videos. Zotac support suggested that i get this model over the ID34 which i was originally going to purchase because this one has the best hardware. so, to be safe, i did just that. but sure enough, it couldn't even play the first 1080p x264 file i gave it, which plays fine on my regular pc so i know the file is fine. i tried other files too - same thing. and i wasn't streaming it or anything - was playing directly off the hard drive. tried off a usb 2.0 stick too kicks. no difference.

i can't bring myself to give it anything above 2 stars because, to me, this is a MAJOR issue. an htpc that can't play blu-ray quality video? please.

i have purchased zotac products in the past and they have all been great. but this was a big let down.

sent it back for a refund

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Turc1656,
I'm sorry to hear that you have experienced issues with one of our media PCs. If you haven't received your refund yet, I recommend that you contact our RMA department at rma@zotacusa.com. Again, I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Pros: Plays 720p off my network attached storage flawlessly.
Streams 1080p flash video with only a few hiccups.
Plays blueray flawlessly on windows.
Low power consumption.
Slim form factor.
Great for retro/indie gaming.
Can be left always on, wakes up instantly.

Cons: No working video driver for linux at time of purchase.
Doesn't have built in bluetooth.
Not enough cpu to play most un-accelerated 1080p content.
100$ more than I wanted to pay for an HTPC.

Other Thoughts: I am running windows XP 32bit(no page file).
Added 2gb of ram that newegg bundled cheap as free.
I might try adding a x264 decoder.

Pros: Small form factor, low power usage, blue ray slot load, nice output on screen, easy to install ram and hard disk into.

Cons: Need to install windows7 with only 4gb, dolby truehd doesn't work with totalmedia (I got an answer from totalmedia, and their software doesn't support the dolby truehd stuff yet.). It may in the future.

Other Thoughts: Zotac technical support needs to be commended on their response to my problem. While they didn't have the ability to fix it, they at least verified it, and authorized a return. This product probably will be fine for most folks, just that I needed the dolby truehd.

Pros: Nice form factor, low power drain. The device does have a very astetically pleasing design, and getting it installed was easy.

Cons: Windows 7 64 bit installations don't work unless you use 4gb. Even then, the system seems to randomly lock up, destroy itself, or just act wonky. HDMI TRUEHD never works, blue rays only work with dolby digital. I did get Total media theatre 5, and my friend with the intel got truehd working in 5 minutes. I suffered through 6 installs of windows7, and tried verything (including new bios and new ati drivers! use the unified, or you don't get proper hdmi output on audio!).

Other Thoughts: I really, really, really, want to make this work, but I am going to return now. Alas, I didn't buy from newegg, might donate it to a needy organizaton and get a tax write off.

Pros: Easy to install the OS on it and comes with a handy driver disc for everything you need to get started. Had my media center up and running in about an hour! Installed XBMC on it and runs like a champ!

Cons: NONE!

Other Thoughts: If your in the market for a media machine this is hands down the best one you can purchase

Pros: Fast. Looks great. Bitstreaming via HDMI. Runs cool.

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: I am happy to report that I am able to bitstream via HDMI (DTS-MA and Dolby True HD) with all m2ts and MKV files. I am currently using MediaBrowser with Windows Media Center. I am using MPC-HC and ffdshow to bitstream to my AVR. Seeing my AVR lights up with DTS-MA and Dolby True HD is just awesome. Goodbye Intel Atoms, none of you can bitstream. Very happy with the purchase.