Dell Inspiron Micro Desktop €149 @ DELL Ireland

54and56

Furzy wrote: »

Similar for €45 from MemoryC:

https://www.memoryc.com/lp/bf_cards.html

Thanks, that's a great deal. Just ordered one. Here's the same link in Euro - https://www.memoryc.com/flash-memory-cards/microsd/128gb-team-microsdxc-cl10-uhs1-400x-mobile-phone-memory.html

maik3n

Bargain SSD for this little PC?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/128GB-ZTC-Armor-Solid-ZTC-SM201-128G/dp/B00IZNYDBG/

Slightly cheaper Direct from memoryc, if paying in sterling.
http://www.memoryc.ie/storage/ssd/128gb-ztc-armor-42mm-m2-ngff-6g-ssd-solid-state-disk.html

54and56

mossym wrote: »

get a displayport to hdmi adapter, use the displayport out and i bet will be fine. its a hdcp/hdmi handshake issue

Check out the big brains on Mossy

Got a Displayport to HDMI cable and now when I use the HDMI switcher to re-select the Dell box it pops up correctly, no flashing green and grey screens.

So what's the advantage of Displayport over HDMI? Why is HDMI so much more popular??

phill106

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Check out the big brains on Mossy

Got a Displayport to HDMI cable and now when I use the HDMI switcher to re-select the Dell box it pops up correctly, no flashing green and grey screens.

So what's the advantage of Displayport over HDMI? Why is HDMI so much more popular??

just a licensing issue, computer companies would have had to pay to use the hdmi, so they designed displayport..i think....

mossym

HDMI was designed for the consumer market, namely tv equipment. it was meant to ensure that you could take a source and a display and be sure they worked. to do this, it had strictly specified resolutions and timing that it allowed. DVI was the video only no audio version. at the time displayport came out, the max video resolution allowed on HDMI was 1920*1080, and it was going to be extremely difficult and time consuming to get higher allowed. also, the pc manufacturers didn't like the licensing fee they had to pay for every unit.

in order to get
1) higher resolutions
2) wide variety of timings
3) wider allowed range of resolutions
4) royalty free interface

displayport was born.

it was a wise move. I was,for a year, in the group defining the new version of HDMI to version 2.0 . it was never going to happen quickly.

because dp allows much wider timing and resolution, and is less stringent on handshaking, it can sometimes work better than HDMI. as is the case here

quarryman

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Check out the big brains on Mossy

Got a Displayport to HDMI cable and now when I use the HDMI switcher to re-select the Dell box it pops up correctly, no flashing green and grey screens.

So what's the advantage of Displayport over HDMI? Why is HDMI so much more popular??

Glad I still check in on this thread. I also have a switcher and it can mi-behave at times.

Where did you buy the adapter?

Also, did you have trouble ensuring the display was output from the DP rather than the HDMI? I'm using Linux so expecting pain on this...

54and56

quarryman wrote: »

Where did you buy the adapter?

I purchased a 2m Displayport to HDMI cable rather than just a converter as I figured the fewer connections between the box and the HDMI switch itself the better. This is what I got - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00R7CQ4AY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

quarryman wrote: »

Also, did you have trouble ensuring the display was output from the DP rather than the HDMI? I'm using Linux so expecting pain on this...

All I did was remove the HDMI cable I was using, replace it with the above and reboot the Dell box. After that all was hunky dory.

I do have an ongoing issue where the image being output is slightly greater than the size of my plasma screen. I have an 8 year old Samsung HD Ready Plasma which I just can't get to display correctly so I end up with a couple of workarounds as follows:-

1. I manually resize the Chrome tab to fit the full screen and then when streaming sports or other content via Chrome (including Netflix and YouTube) when I select "full screen" within the onscreen display it thankfully "full sizes" to the size of the Chrome tab.

2. Within KODI I manually set System -> Settings -> System -> Video Output -> Video Calibration to the size of the screen and that then acts to ensure all content played via KODI is the correct size and doesn't extend beyond the dimensions of the screen.

As 95% of all content watched on the box is via either KODI or Chrome and the box is left on more or less permanently this is an acceptable workaround until I eventually invest in a new TV but that will only happen when the existing one dies.

maik3n

4 GB Stick of Ram slightly cheaper on Amazon vs crucial.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DSGLM6E

Might be useful for anyone making a bulk purchase on amazon at the moment.

Chorus_suck

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Xcellor

Chorus_suck wrote: »

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but I thought someone using this Dell might have an suggestion or two for me.

I got this PC around the time of the original BA and I've been using it mainly for playing various shows/movies with VLC. I have the movies stored on a few different HDDs and even a class 10 sd card. I've noticed significant juddering/stuttering when I play anything 1080p. This even happens if I copy the movie to the PC and play it. Any suggestions as to how to stop the VLC juddering?

Also, can anyone suggest an alternative movie player that might be smoother than VLC? Btw, I've tried Windows Media Player in Win 10 and judders worse than VLC.

Cpu is ****e. If you have unnecessary software running close it down. Also check what space you have on hard drive. 32 gig maybe full.

Chorus_suck

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Oat23

Chorus_suck wrote: »

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On my windows machine, I find Kodi runs some things better than VLC. Whenever I'm using IPTV in VLC the cpu usage goes through the roof.

Kodi is really popular for HTPCs. I use it daily on my fire stick for tv shows & movies.

theShire

Chorus_suck wrote: »

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How did you get 13gb free space? - I'm down to 3gb free and its driving me nuts - constantly getting messages about failed updates.
Did you swap out the SSD drive or re-install windows, if so, what guide did u use?

SickBoy

If you're just using it for media playback you're better off going with OpenELEC. This is what I've being doing with it since I got it and it's flawless playing content (480, 720 and 1080P) from my NAS via powerline adapter.
Windows is just an unnecessary overhead if it's just being used as media player.

Chorus_suck

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Chorus_suck

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slave1

Chorus_suck wrote: »

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Try Kodi, it will also help dramatically with your folders and eliminate the need to be clicking on thumbs in Explorer and replace with a proper HTPC GUI.

High bit rate 1080p files will require more processing power, simple as that, I'm running TV epispodes here at 37.7Mbps, no way would that CPU have a hope.

Your other option is to source lower bitrate files for your TV/Movies...

54and56

slave1 wrote: »

High bit rate 1080p files will require more processing power, simple as that, I'm running TV epispodes here at 37.7Mbps, no way would that CPU have a hope.

What size file would a typical high bit rate (+/- 37.7Mbps) movie be? I recently streamed Star Wars Episode 1 which is 3.7GB from my NAS over WiFi to my Win 10 Inspiron Micro and played it through KODI without any buffering or stuttering of any sort. Would that have been a high bitrate file? I know it was 1080p BlueRay rip.

styron

Chorus_suck wrote: »

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Give Daum's Potplayer a try, it's a much lighter resource footprint than VLC on older and less speced systems for me. I regularly run Wise Disk or CCleaner too to clean out windows update gunk in particular as on a 32GB drive space is at a premium.

How much memory are you using - the 2GB it came with? You might consider upgrading to an 8GB module (particularly if Potplayer works) to take full advantage of the 64bit OS as the Dell only has a single slot. (Don't have one myself but the HP 260 equivalent which is quite snappy on 6GB over two slots and plays 16GB 1080P MKV's using VLC with ease).

quarryman

Sorry for calling up an old-ish thread. No they aren't on sale again!

But is anyone having an issue with the CPU fan? Mine is starting to make a bit of a rattle. I got the Part Number off the sticker inside but not sure where to go ordering a replacement...

sKeith

quarryman wrote: »

I got the Part Number off the sticker inside but not sure where to go ordering a replacement...

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/dellitems.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

styron

You're within warranty for a collect & return repair (2 weeks unfortunately). They might just send it out if you can confirm it's definitely the fan (ie. no noise when disconnected briefly, and that it still persists after a bios update.) There was a revision A06 at the end of Jan.

Xcellor

get it sorted with warranty.

Make sure its not your AC adaptor. I had a "fan" noise that I was sure was the unit, they ended up sending me a complete new unit and this one was making the same noise, I tried different AC adaptor and no more noise.

Seemed like the AC adaptor was sending too much current/voltage/amps (whatever) . With the old unit and new AC adaptor there was no more noise. Maybe the same in your case.