Performance

Powering on the RL100 and getting to the desktop takes approximately fifty seconds. Unfortunately, upon booting, we are presented with a plethora of programs that many will not need or want, but are taking up valuable resources in the background.

For those looking to playback 24p content at the proper refresh rate of 23.976 Hz into a display, the NVIDIA ION offers 23.971 Hz precision, so there will be an occasional frame drop unless time is taken to configure a custom resolution to achieve a more precise precision.

A common worry with lower-powered platforms like the Revo RL100 is whether it will be able to play back Netflix smoothly. With Silverlight 4, smooth performance has never been possible at the test location even on more powerful systems with Intel and NVIDIA graphics and the Revo RL100 seemed no worse though the system was taxed heavily and there was literally no headroom for any other processes that might need to be run in the background. Silverlight 5 RC performance on the higher-end Intel systems did clear up most judder, yet there still seems to be work to do on the ION platform because performance became unacceptably bad even for casual viewers on the Revo RL100 with video becoming a slideshow.

Checking out the Windows Experience Index (WEI) reveals a relatively modest system. Of course, the WEI only gives a rough estimation of how the system might perform, so more specific testing is needed to truly determine how useful the system is.

ShowAnalyzer (SA) is a tool often utilized by HTPC enthusiasts to analyze content and identify commercial breaks. It is also extremely system intensive. As we can see, the Revo is significantly slower than Intel parts that we have previously tested.

Next, we fired up Handbrake, a popular CPU-based transcoder. It’s not surprising to see the K325 behind the Intel parts, but what is interesting is the significant performance increase over AMD’s own E350 Zacate part.

Looking at power consumption, the Revo consumes only slightly more power while encoding than the E350.

Another way to transcode content on the Revo platform is to utilize the CUDA instruction set contained in the NVIDIA ION GPU. For our tests, we used ArcSoft’s Media Converter 7 with the HTC EVO 4G transcoding profile.

It is clear that ION’s CUDA woefully underperforms the competition in both raw speed and efficiency.

Raw power usage is the lowest on the Revo platform, however…

…it is not as efficient as some of the much more powerful parts.

Looking at the CPU utilization, it is clear that CUDA does offload the task enough so that the CPU could be used for some other task.

For HTPC use, connecting a USB CableCARD tuner such as the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 to the Revo RL100 is likely a common scenario. With two programs recording and viewing a recorded program, the CPU can barely keep up, but any other processes may destroy the experience. 

We did encounter one unfortunate incompatibility with the Revo RL100 connected to a Samsung display via a Denon AVR-2112 AVR. With some recorded TV content, display synchronization issues occurred. These issues disappeared when bypassing the Denon AVR. The same recorded TV content could also be played back successfully with another HTPC connected to the Denon AVR.

In trying to debug the issue, several of the standard NVIDIA drivers were tried, but all failed to install due to “incompatible hardware.” Only the drivers provided by Acer were allowed to be installed. This is definitely a weakness of the platform because it places users at the whims of Acer’s support for the product in the future.

Conclusion

The Acer Revo RL100 is an HTPC that we want to love. It sports an attractive aesthetic  and has a clever design featuring the innovative touchpad/keyboard. The small size and included stand provide a great degree of flexibility.

Depending on the expectation, the Revo RL100 can be a competent or a frustrating HTPC. The biggest potential issue with the system is the lack of CPU horsepower. It’s enough for most tasks, but depending on what executes in the background, the performance may fall to an unacceptable level. Videophiles and HD audio bitstreamers should probably look elsewhere, as the system is clearly behind other platforms in quality and capability.

While being loaded with unnecessary software is an annoyance, a bigger annoyance is the fact that standard NVIDIA drivers can’t be installed, so if improvements are to be had to the experience, they must first make their way through Acer.

If the occasional glitch can be tolerated and the use-case is for a system that only plays back one video at a time, the RL100 could be just the right match. Considering that the Revo RL100 includes Windows 7 Home Premium, Blu-ray playback capability and retails for less than $600, the value proposition seems favorable.

Pros

• Attractive and slim
• Power-efficient
• Innovative touchpad/keyboard
• Price

Cons

• CPU performance walks a tightrope
• Video performance not acceptable for videophiles
• Can’t bitsream HD audio
• Incompatibility with Denon AVR-2112
• Can’t install standard NVIDIA drivers
• Included Blu-ray software not integrated with WMC
• Loaded with unnecessary “adware”

The Acer Revo RL100-UR20P can be purchased from Amazon.

Thanks to Acer for allowing us to evaluate the Acer Revo RL100-UR20P.