As one of my lecturers once remarked on a fellow student's coursework: "Is this just the abstract?"
How does this thing perform sonically, as I guess it's the product's unique selling point. What's it like with cheap speakers, good speakers? Does it get anywhere near the performance level of an entry-level separates system or even one of those DVD all-in-one jobbies? Any interference from all those PC electronics?...
Since the Amp is the major selling point of this motherboard (similar spec'd boards without the Amp features are under £100) would it be possible for you to do a proper review comparing the board sonically with some of the AV amps you have reviewed?
The chipset for this board has been around for ages now and benchmarks are of little importance to anyone interested in this board.
The key features you should have looked at is how well it does Blu-Ray playback in TMT2/3 and PowerDVD and is the Amp up to the job of substituting the cheaper end of the AV Amp market - Onkyo, Yamaha, Sony amps under £350
Instead the review is basically an opinion of the specification sheet! With no mention of how the thing sounds.
I was looking forward to reading the review and am left feeling very disappointed and non the wiser about the product.
@Unfortunately MSI doesn't include an HDMI-to-DVI adapter which is a shame as that would cover every significant option under the sun.
Apart from Scart :), but maybe they could have also included a Component to Scart adapter too,.. I've still not updated my CRT TV, but was thinking of building another Media PC you see.
Ditto to Chrism's comments. Despite the interesting product at hand, this was dissapointing rehash of spec sheet/press release and not a review at all.
I've noticed this a lot with reviews of HTPC equipment, particularly in PC magazines like PC Pro - the item gets reviewed as if they were "just" PCs. This item should be reviewed as you would review a) an amp and b) a blu-ray or DVD player - i.e. it should be reviewed with respect to the audio and video quality it produces.
I've mucked about with HTPCs a lot, and never been able to get an image out of them that looks (to my eye) as good as can be had from a DVD player or a Sky dodgybox. And if you can get audio quality comparable to a decent amp / A/V receiver out of that card, how come most A/V receivers are the size of a small tank (and about as attractive)?
It is clear that the MSI is aimed at the HDTV market so I couldn't get too exercised about the lack of SCART support, particularly as it is clear that this is a global product so it has Component but not that funny European SCART.
As for the Audio, well where do I begin? My expectations of HTPC audio is rock bottom because the simple approach is to use the speakers in the TV. The alternative is to run a digital audio connection to your Hi-Fi-amplifier/receiver.
The MSI Diva offers a third choice which is to switch the focus away from your Hi-Fi towards the HTPC and use it as the amplifier instead. It is nigh-on impossible for me to make any meaningful comments about the audio quality as there are so many permutations of movie/audio format, input sources and speaker set-up but I liked it and was impressed. Oh yes, and I didn't get into the subject of TV tuners either.
There are times when 1,000 words seems too long for a motherboard but on this occasion the Diva easily merited 2,000 or more.
With the audio there was a childish sense of wonder seeing speaker cables running directly from a PC case but mainly I was impressed by the simplicity of the set-up. Once I got past that the audio quality was certainly up to the job of watching movies and listening to music. No question about it. But would you ChrisM really buy a Blu-ray drive and software or do you watch movies in your PS3?
As for running benchmarks on the MSI, well I did it 'cos that's what we do with motherboards but you'll note that I used a low power CPU, did not overclock and made no attempt to play Crysis.
I didn't have the time to run Windows 7 on the Diva and that is a source of regret as there is no way I'd build a new Vista PC in mid-2009 but there are only so many hours in the day.
If you're about to build an HTPC or want to upgrade your existing box the Diva may well be the best decision you'll make all year but you'd be missing a trick if you merely swap out the old to be replaced by the new.
@I couldn't get too exercised about the lack of SCART support
Well, I was hoping to upgrade my HTPC before my TV, there are Component To Scart Adapters that might help, but from what I can gather this board will only do HD component and not SD. :( So from a global perspective this means anyone who wishes to use this to make a HTPC will need to upgrade the TV first, why on earth they can't enable SD resolutions is beyond me.
"But would you ChrisM really buy a Blu-ray drive and software or do you watch movies in your PS3?"
I've had a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive in my HTPC working with TMT2 for over a year ....I don't own a PS3.
While audio quality is subjective and I'm sure everyone accepts this, What I would have liked to have seen is an AV amp connected up to the PC via optical compared against the built in amp directly powering the speakers, for this you could have used a couple of different 5.1 movie soundtracks and with keeping the same speakers you would have a fair comparison.
It would have also been cool to know if the 'high-def' Blu ray soundtracks sound much better through the amp than the plain DTS or Dolby Digital tracks as the onboard video cannot pass out LCPM or Bitstream High def audio.
All my criticism is meant to be constructive and I hope it is taken as such, The quality/depth of the reviews on the site seem to vary wildly in quality of content - for example the Camera reviews are excellent and go in to loads of detail yet reviews like this one seem to lack a basic understanding of who the product is aimed at and what makes it special.
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