Prif Streambox Kit

 So, this was overdue and especially for futures plans and even the chance to really be able to see how this would work out, the Prif streambox kit. Now this I've had word from the owner and did help with the manual creation. But in the end I did purchase online for about £120 somewhere now. But this has a lot of things going for it which I was shocked and amazed at. Now most places sell it for £129 or some too good to be true at £19.99 . But we will look into this and see how it can perform. 

The Packaging: 

One good thing here is that the packaging is actually decent and easy to see, with it being clear on what it does and the colour scheme does fit Prif in their own regard with the Dark blue and the Black and 
White. The image of each part of the kit is a bonus as well. 

The front of the box 

The bottom of the box 

The left side of the box 

The right side of the box 

The back of the box 

The Top of the box 

But its when you look inside, the layout is really organised with each box named inside which is really cool, you don't get that normally with other cards or packaging too. But each box was named for each part. 

• HD Microphone
• Webcam
• Streambox
• Underneath that is the cables and CD

The layout of the box 

Then it was time to have a look at each Box. 

HD Microphone. 

The front of the box 

Now this has a bit of the case of the little packet then it has in 

• 1 x Tripod that folds
• 1 x Microphone with single 3.5mm jack
  
• 1 x 3.5mm Splitter
  

Now the Mic does fit in a certain way which makes it somewhat easy to use on the stand, but the stand is rigid as well. This does make it stable for it to stand. 

The bottom

The 3.5mm Splitter

A side view of the stand

The holder for the mic

A Side view for the mic

The 3.5mm jack end of the mic

Which this is pretty much the part of the mic done. which then it was for the next box to be seen. 

The HD Webcam: 

Now for this, there was a suprise which made some sense when you read other reviews. But the box had its own little mansual inside it as well as a webcam lens cover. 

The box for the webcam

The webcam lens cover

The front of the manual

The setup of the camera

More of how the camera can work in the manaul

Then it comes to the webcam, this looks like a knockoff of a Logitech C920 but it has some unique features such as the screwhole for the tripod and also it uses a Mircro USB connection. Now this is unqiue and can explain why some people say about the issues with the webcam not working after a while due to the loose micro usb port. My only thing I can see is that the cable should have been a right angled micro USB cable, which would have helped with the connections issues. 

This is the front of the camera

 

 

The bottom of the camera with the tripod

 

 

The camera from the side

The camera with the lens cover but open

The Camera with the lens cover but closed

The good feature is that the cable can be changed but of course with the reputation of the cheap cables, the connection could break. There is also a good mention that this works on Android as well as even Smart TVs with the skype calling features. This wont be tested since well its not really a requirement due to so many more devices such as Portal and even Echo with the screen. This then lead to the star of the show. 

The Streambox: 

Now this is actually the simplest of the Boxes, since it only had the streambox inside it. 

 

The Front of the Box for the streambox inside

 

 

 Then it comes to the box itself, a curved box with a fair amount of inputs and outputs such as 2 3.5mm jacks, both HDMI in and out a component cable in (with a special connector that is acutally supposed to be sold from the prif website) . The box uses USB Type C for the connection which is actually a good point since Micro USB is a eadly pain (RIP the usb port on the TBOX Mini and even soldering it back on did not work.

 

The LED indicators on the front of the box

 

 

The Bottom of the box with the Batch number

Then it was the back outputs. 

The front jacks of the streambox

 

I mean this has the potential to do more than I was expecting. But we were not done yet. 

The bottom of the box: 

This is where we finally look at the other bits, so we get inside: 

• 1 x Dual USB Cable to Type C
• 1 x HDMI to HDMI Cable
• 1 x Driver DVD (We do not look into this actually) 
• 1 x Manual

A look in the box before we open it

Showing underneath the flap

 

 Now for this bit, the Dual USB cable is acutally surprising on this, since most cases laptops now support USB 3.0

The Dual USB to usb type C

The Manual is one of the things i've seen and helped written,  Now it is detailed and also gives screenshots on how to do things, this is always a good shout. Even with how to use and install the Software from the CD. That and the table of troubleshooting is good. 

A Blurred look at the manual

When it comes to the CD/DVD, it does mention that Cyberlink Power Director and also SysCap is put on there. Most of the Drivers you will find out are what we call UVC which really applies to 8.1 and 10 more than 7. This means plug and play which means you do not need the disc to set this up.

The blurred look at the CD

Also the HDMI Cable and the 3.5mm Jack cable is added in. This is useful since of the issue that PS4 can not allow multi output (But the PS3 can even if it reduces the audio channels to stereo), so you can plug in the Dualshock 4 into the box.

Also a jack to jack cable is added in

 

With that all done, it was time to test and setup: 

Setting up the Kit: 

The microphone: 

Getting this instaled was easy for most devices, but with the Xiaomai 6 Pro, there was a problem where the realtek drives did not pick it up, but actually that was to the laptops fault. Using modded drivers fixed that issue and it worked fine when selecting Mic in using the Pop up on plugin option in Realtek Audio console . The quality is not too bad from a distance, not mich of a boom unless your lips are closer, this is not omni directional from what i can make of it.

 

The Webcam: 

Now this is where things really make a difference, since the bezel on the Maibenben is quite thin, it can make it tricky for it to grip on, but with normal monitors, the grip is much much better.  Which OBS just picked it up no problem and I really even managed to do a comparison of the 2 cameras on the laptop (one built in and one of the Prif camera).

The 2 camera on OBS from my view

The camera look from OBS on its own

This allows me to then change any settings such as brightness or even  the contrast just inc ase. 

The Camera settings

Both cameras shown sort of PiP

But that means its good for the 720p which can only record at 30 FPS but bundled woth this kit, the quality is quite good.  More realism on the light compared to the camera built in.  

But then it was time to have a look at the big part. 

The Streambox: 

Now for this bit, since the box is supposed to also be plug and play aka UVC compatible. But we check that in Device manage when its plugged in. I also used a cheap USB type C cable to USB A and not the cable it was provided with. Device manager tells us its a camera, not a video device. The cheap cable does not work with quality but a Morphie or braided USB to C to USB A cable works nicely 

The Device general tab

The Driver tab

The Driver details

The Look at the Hardware ID

The Device description

Now that name is somewhat dejavu in a way, I will tell you why, its Velocap U3 Pro in a cut down version, I kid you not. By that regard it means I have a feeling about the quality and well, its GOOOD. Now it made no issues on response times if playing directly in OBS preview, well maybe some minor input lag but only some games will notice that. If you look at the properties as well, it does mention there is a separate audio device for that box as well.

The properties of the U3 in OBS

 

 

 But when I was previewing it, it worked on PS4 no problems, with non HDCP on the box no problem. Even 1080p 60fps works fine. But if HDCP is turned on or use a PS3, then sadly its a blank screen.

The PS4 working Fine without HDCP (Resolution is at 720p due to the Acer monitor not supporting 1080p)

The HDCP makes it like this or if resolution is changed

HDCP turned on makes this happen

The PS3 CAN work if you use a HDCP Splitter or in this case the TBOX Mini as a passthrough

Testing: 

Now what can I say, it was smooth as butter and the laptop managed to record using all 3, even at 1080p 60fps with no lag. But the sound I did need to tweak since the Turtle Beach headset I used and plugged into the Streambox did cause it to do a double echo since it was used along with the Mic in, Also there is a chance t could have echoed using the microphone using the HD Webcam. 

Remember the laptop or PC must be powerful enough to record or stream 1080p 60fps, 4K will downscale but I don't have 4k so cannot test this. In the case of the Maibenben, the quality worked fine with very little issues. The Camera worked fine and looked good, perfect for lets plays, green screen would work but the light will need to be a bit brighter in my opinion. 

Conclusion: 

Now this is a great bit of kit for the Price, yes I might of purchased overpriced compared to prices I've seen but they might be used or refurbished. But for what i want, its got everything I want and ease of use, well its there and that is what matters. The U3 being UVC or plug and play, its really the best feature since drivers for capture cards or boxes can be a nightmare to sort, the Velocap u2. 

That was a clear example of messed up drivers being the problem and boy it killed the review rating ( I need to review that) . The camera works fine even if it can be a bit problematic for some uses who do not look after cables properly. The Mic is clear if spoken close to it. 

With all this in mind. 

omracer's Rating: 8/10

The Good Points: 

• Bundle of 3 items
• Amazing Value for that bundle 
• Decent Looking of each item
• Works with OBS Studio or any App for streaming
• Both the Streambox and the Camera being UVC aka plug and play
  
• Records 1080p 60fps no problem if the laptop or desktop can handle it
• The Camera can fit onto a tripod
  

 

 The Bad Points: 

• Can be hard to find brand new, be wary if the price is £19.99
  
• The Camera uses a Micro USB Connection so can be easily damaged
• Make sure you have Audio drivers if you use the Mic on laptop (Windows default Drivers will not work) 
• Some slight glitches on the recording on loading screens or resolution changes in game
  

 

 

And there you have it, now that for me will be eased off for 2 weeks or so. Plans to accerlate and Future with special to be chosen and questions to be asked (the normal blog might clear that up one day). But this will be used for things like Fallguys and even other games in the later of this year. 

all the best

omracer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maibenben Xiaomai 6 Pro E5100

 Well, this was the other item reviewed with the Zimai Bluetooth headphones, we now deal with the man pat of that same aliexpress order which is the maibenben Xiaomai 6 Pro E5100. The upgraded Xiaomai 6A but with a 6405u Pentium and an Nvidia Mx350 which actually sounds too good to be the dream budget laptop discrete GPU but sadly our dreams will be broken for one reason alone, NVENC is disabled when Nvidia made the chip. But well we can see how it copes for video editing and streaming later on.
Costing me £377.03 including the half of customs charge this is actually got more than i was expecting in terms of other results. 

The Video is below:

The Packaging and Goodies: 

Now, this is something to consider that the seller (the company themselves aka Maibenben) did provide with it, it shows how the value with the extras can prove to be effective yet charming in its regard, Which the extras were: 

• 15.6" Screen protector
• Zimai Earphones (wired) 
• Maibenben USB Wired Mouse 
• Maibenben Neoprene mouse mat with their slogan #onlyforbetter
• UK Cloverleaf Power cable

The outer Box: 

But this was in the style of double box protection for the laptop which then had the bigger box for the inner box to be in and also the goodies to go in the box.

The front of the outer box 

The back of the outer box 

Then it is time to have a look at the goodies we were given, well in the packaging for each of them anyway. Now they are quite simple to understand for 2 of them, the smaller boxes are rather basic for it to make it easier to read for the most part. 

The Mousemat with the slogan

The fun times of the screen protector 

The back of the screen guard 

the bottom of the mouse mat 

The front of the mouse (which has not been reliable ) 

The back details of the mouse 

The front of the box for the wired Earphones 

The back of the packaging for the wired earphones 

The 2m Cloverleaf Cable 

The Inner Boxes

Then it comes to the inner box which protects the actual laptop box. This is somewhat basic but it is better to be safe than sorry.  This had the warning for the battery as well as the face there is a HDMI port on the laptop as well as specs in Chinese listed too. 

The front bottom corner of the box 

The bottom label of the box which includes 

The back of the box with the Battery warning as well as the HDMI

Then it was time to open the laptop actual box up, with the white background as well as an image of a laptop and the maibenben slogan, this, was much more in the case with the branding as well as some of the specs and Energy rating as well. 

The front of the box 

The warnings and the energy rating 

Specifications on the side 

The back of the box with the battery warning at the bottom

Then it was time to dive into the box and look at the bits.

The box and the goodies in front of it 

We first start with the Charger, its the same Delta 19v 3.24A charger used from the 6A and also used from Asus with the 5.5x2.5mm jack. 

The cloverleaf cable wit the Asian plug

The Delta 19v 3.24a Charger transformer 

The 5.5x2.5mm tip

Then we finally have a look at the laptop, with the same design as the 6a in almost every way, from the 2 lines on the back panel to the size of the touchpad and even the silicone keyboard cover. Like this is one of the things that has been the staple from the last review is the simplistic but sleek design. The USB Ports of 3.1 on the left, along with type c, USB 2.0 and card reader on the right, the HDMI and the powerjack on the left as well. 

The top of the laptop 

The lines are back again 

Underneath has only one difference with the Nivisa and the intel stickers not placed here 

The Left side of the laptop 

The right side of the laptop 

The thickness of it when the lid is closed down 

The keyboard and trackpad, with the addition of the 3 stickers 

A better look at the trackpad 

One of those closeup shots of the keyboard and the bezel 

A better look at how the lid goes down

Which after that we notice some nice little extras to add your own hard drive of 2.5" or even another SSD as well as spare screws to help you on the journey with making the most of the laptop.

The bubble wrap

More of the bag an whats inside 

The part number label 

Screws and caps in a bag too 

A better look at the brackets 

Then you have not 1 but actually 2 manuals, one is the Chinese original manual and that had a fair amount of advice and even how to use windows in some cases. It's not a thin manual either.

The front of the Chinese manual 

A peek at the gestures 

That makes it good but there was also a universal manual on the maibenben laptops that was in English and was included as well, This was even thicker again. #

The Front of the universal English manual 

Notice is not the same look as the Xiaomai 6 Pro in this manual 

But that and the warranty card was the last part left to look at before we can finally start on this of getting it booted up. 

The warranty card

Time to Setup: 

The Screen Protector: 

This is always the fiddly bit and really it made things more difficult than it already was on the concept of making sure the screen did not scratch or smash, now lets be clear,. things like this you need to be precise with your finger and actually its a good idea to even use gloves to see if this helps better, which in my case it did in a slight way. 

 

But the way it peels off is the same way as other proectors for phones, peel side 1 off first, then apply it to the screen then peel side 2 off so it gives it the protection as best as it can, this is fiddly and especially with how thin the bezel is, i did not apply too much pressure to risk the screen being cracked and that well is not good. 

 

 

 

The screen protector side 1

 

 

 

The screen protector side 2

 

 

Whjen side 1 is fitted

 

 

The screen protector is on

 

 

Which then it was time to press that button and turn it on, now be aware this does have windows included where as the 6a did not (but activated anyway ????). But this was where we find out the UK language was not installed, so i wont be able to use the custom background used in the maibenben adverts but ah well, its also good from the whole tracking of windows and national security confusion which has changed since last year.

The loading of the installed copy of windows

Setting up Windows: 

So, it was time to find out on installing windows 10 2004 the UK language pack, yes i could have just added int after setup but a clean install is better in the long run. So it was time for the trusted USB type C dual drive. 

 

 

The trusty sandisk dual usb type C

The BIOS: 

So, we have to use the bios here, F2 was the same key for the 6A and well this is no exepction here, and the layout is the same, but you can  have a look at the revisooons from this screenshot, funny fact though is the bios update on the website is older than the version that is shipped from the laptop. You can see that below: 

 

So, after checking secure boot was turned off (it was disabled from default), then making the usb the default. Which actually there is not much optiuons and the bios is locked. So its time to save the changes.

Saving the changes and reset

But then, it was time to see the windows installing. Now i did actually do a thing of extracting the product key since i rememvber Produkey works in Command Prompt which if you use the x64 bit  version. 

 

So after  that was done, it was time to follow the trusted guide of my heart

and delete the partitions included on the laptop. There were more and they did a built in recovery partition after as well. 

The list of partitons

Then it wqas tiome for it to install and extract, no ossies and within about 15 minutes, it was up and running, Windows was nearly finished installing. 

 

 

Extracting files part 1

Extracitng files part 2

Getting things ready

 

 Then it was time for the drivers. 

The Drivers: 

Now, this was not as easy as i was expecting, thios is due to the very slow servers from maibenben (not the drivers not being available) but i was being picky to make sure the second latest nvidia mx350 drivers works. That and the intel UHD 620 drivers are for the 6405u as well as the 5405u , but the exe might not be compatible so i used the Zip installation which did install the Intel command centre as well. 

The installation of the intel drivers

Once that was done, it was time to install the nvidia ones and that worked no problem at all. 

 

Installing Nividia Drivers

 

 

 

 

Then after a restart, it was time to connect to wifi to see if it would activate, it did, and then the other drivers, worked from windows update with no hitch, well minus the sound didnt update. But the Intel wifi drivers had to be updated which fixed some dropout issues. 

Then the rest of them were all set and it was ready to test.

I also uploaded some drivers like the PEGA Hotkey and the Realtek Audio drives here. 

The Tests: 

The introduction: 

These tests will be separated into some of the things I would use this for, the video might feel messy on how I explain it so I will try my best to get it listed here. 

We will seperate them into a few sections: 

• Benchmarks
• Display brightness
• Camera
• Upgrading
  
• Weight
• Gaming + Sound
  
• Video Editing
• Streaming
  

Benchmarks: 

Userbenchmark: 

So, this was the first and most important thing i've wanted to do, Now this was a suprise for some of them but i will embed the results below. 

 

The first is the Intel UHD Graphics only. 

 

 

UserBenchmarks: Game 5%, Desk 48%, Work 5%
CPU: Intel Pentium 6405U - 48.5%
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics - 2.7%
SSD: WDC WDS240G2G0B-00EPW0 240GB - 47.8%
RAM: Unknown 1x8GB - 39.2%
MBD: Maibenben E5100




This one below is with the MX350:


UserBenchmarks: Game 13%, Desk 58%, Work 11%
CPU: Intel Pentium 6405U - 49.3%
GPU: Nvidia GeForce MX350 - 20.1%
SSD: WDC WDS240G2G0B-00EPW0 240GB - 48.5%
RAM: Unknown 1x8GB - 38.4%
MBD: Maibenben E5100

This then leads us to the next benchmarks of Cinebench,

Cinebench

This one was surprising a later on approach but I would not expect the score to be good here so well jsut take it what you see. 

The results from the Cinebench test

Display and Camera: 

This is how the daily  life of screens and that go. It can be quite bright inside if on full brigutness in daylight, but when it comes to the outside, i could just about see it, especially with things like Microsoft Edge. 

 

Outside with its lowest brightness

The maximum  brightness on the maibenben outside

When it comes to the camera, the low angle well does make it a unquie way, but the qualty is not too bad minus a bit dull when it comes to the light quality, its perfectr for basic video calling, but looking posh for streaming this is not the best, even if you want to use a green screen. Its not happy in low light is what i can say too. 

The selfie outside with the laptop's camera

The inside selfie

When it comes to video recording, it's a bit of an odd one, well the quality is there but the sound is very sketchy at best, especially when outside, but it feels like my old 2010 vlogs of recording with a laptop, But this could be easier to do it now with the right headset (most with built-in microphones these days). Especially with the lightweight of the laptop compared to the Vaio and the Acer I had back those 10 years ago. But this will be important and compared in another review coming soon. 

 

 

 

Upgrading: 

Actually, this is one of those things that I managed to get in a clean way and upgrading without any major hassle, screws came out correctly, very little scratch damage to the casing. We start for this to happen by flipping the laptop upside down and then unscrewing those holes. 

 

The insides of the laptop

  

Then we get to really see how it feels and how it looks, like it can really show the layout of the parts and actually is a simple board takes up most of the top halfe and the bottom half is the battery and SATA 2.5" space for upgrading or adding extra storage, which hence is why they give you the brackets and the screws in the seperate bag earlier on and actually that wasnt too bad.

But for me, it was to fit some extra RAM, yes ram and ok about £18 odd for DDR4 kingston, but it fitted and then time to put it back together. 

The 4GB Kingston ram used

The laptp with the new ram fitted into slot A of all things but the ADATA is pretty good in this

Then it was time to put the laptop back together and the screws went in with no problem at all, like really, just went smoothly in and minus some not clipped in parts by the trackpad, it felt like nothing was taken apart at all, lets hope it feels the same when i replace either the WD green 240GB in there with either a cheap knockoff sunbow NVME ssd or even just add a 1TB ssd to it, since well i might be a karen and get faster for what i need and all.Then it was time to test the weight and then for the bigger tests this laptop has to offer us all. 

The Weight: 

This actually is one of those situations of the laptop is heavier than I realised even though it is a 15.6" laptop's weight, so many be im feeling a bit of a issue of the weight between a 12.5" workstation and a slimlime 15.6" laptop. But the Maibenben was ctually 0.10 kg heavier than the Dell latitute E6230 which is being replaced eventually. This was weight on the Mi Smart Scale 2

The weight of the maibenben

The weight of the dell latitude E6230

This means it is actually not that heavy to take with me if i want to video edit vlogs on the go, I've not tested compatiblity with MacOS and due to the way with nvidia optimus, there is no chance it will work. But oh well, for now that doesnt matter and its time to really put it to the Test. 

Gaming: 

Now, this will be the case of having to deal with alot of downloads and also trying to fit in those titles, We will cover 4 games to see how they can cope with this budget laptop. The games covered are below. I wanted to try more but well sadly time did not be on my side for filming.

• Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition  - Microsoft Store
  
• Fortnite  - Epic Games Store
  
• GTA V - Epic Games Store + Rockstar Launcher
  
• Untitled Goose Game - Epic Games Store
  

Now, this was only tested with the MX350 enabled sinnce none of these games would run using the Built in UHD graphics and that would be a big mistake if I tried. Now this is not going to be a easy way to explain it and settings are going to be varied. Now the sound when played was not actually tinny at all and the voices was really nice in terms of clear and not distorted due to the speaker's position. 

Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition: 

We will be honest and say, you will get 1080p 60FPS performance here. You will really not see any much dips unless you were using a high-end texture pack. The main thing is that it could easily play and stream Minecraft using this laptop, not tested myself but well maybe one day. 

The settings for Minecraft

Snow in this case for the level

To prove that this is actually playing on the laptop and not just a random screenshot

Fortnite: 

Now this is where I would say the laptop was struggling to play it actually smoothly, the menus were 1080p 60fps but sadly when it came to In-game, it would struggle between 40 to 50 fps and thats even on low settings. It can make some tweaks to try to get this optimised, but well maybe the requirements have upped since the end of Chapter 1. 

The collection screen

Now when i started the game and let it auto set settings, a low FPS

But when it comes down to tweaking, its near 60fps

But the plain lobby is a 60fps

Maybe the Direct X 12 beta might beat it, but remember even an i5-7400 with a GTX 1050 will not get 1080p 60 on high settings so this is not a shock that this laptop (with a tuned down but GPU chip same as the GTX1050 aka the GP107) will struggle to reach 1080p but 720p 60fps was a harder goal I will admit for this one, All I thought, it was that bad BUT a nice update is that if you put it in Fullscreen you can reach 45-50fps 1080p on high settings. 

The settings for fullscreen

The menu for the marvel 

Diving time 

An item blew me up but still got some FPS 

GTA V: 

So, this instal required me to make a rockstar account and even my original name was taken but either way, I signed up and did a benchmark first, even on the standard settings it was mostly around 40fps. Even on an SSD, there were some long loading times.

The loading screens

But then it was time to go into the story mode and well, try the game for me for the first proper time of more than 5 minutes, I mean I struggled to even aim properly, but on default settings, it was toggling around 40 to 50 fps. Which actually shocked me a bit. 

Seems better than I expected

The Settings

Then i changed and lowered the post-processing settings from high to normal and it was getting high 40s to 60fps which was good. 

The changed settings

A clear showing this is near 1080p 60fps

Blurry cutscenes

Lower FPS when driving

But all in all, this is playable, which means yes the biggest main known games will run, Okay, the performance will dip if it was related to using the battery but well that is to be expected, the battery is weaker on the 6 Pro than the 6A from what I have experienced so far. 

But now we get to try an indie title that gave me a shock. The Game of geese. 

Untitled Goose Game: 

This was something i've purchased on the like 1st week of its release since it's mega cute and only £14.99 back then, but well this was to see how the game would perform. Actually, it was mostly solid 1080p 60fps BUT there was a drop, now that I was not expecting whatsoever. But it was only a minus 5fps drop. 

No lag for the menu or title screen

The geese has its fun

The Geese in the water

Blogpost only Exclusive: Rocket League

There is actually a lot of potential in this and I actually managed to knock out about 110 FPS on 1080p, which that is incredibly impressive Like the GPU usage was 100% and the CPU was around the 70 to 80% usage too. Smooth as a button for playing online matches and in some cases being able to record it as well. 

The settings used 

Online matches I'm just dropped into 

XP won from that match

Better FPS 

The last play to cause a dip 

small settings tweak

So then it was time to test the last 2 important things I would use this laptop for. Video editing and streaming, which well have some shocks to give. 

Dolphin 5.0.16303 - Blogpost Exclusive

Now actually this is very very sooth and can easily play Wii Games at 1080p resolution (3x native). Plus using the tutorial for bluetooth passthrough works on the Intel AC-9462.

The Settings 

The Resolutions 

Also for the fun of trying to exercise during lockdown, it might be some new streams coming up pic.twitter.com/JeitWhLypi

— Mattie LT Marker (@omracer) February 14, 2021

Video Editing - Vegas Pro 15: 

This is when I learn about the codecs can make a difference, now first off. I've tested with both the Mx350 used for video processing and the Intel UHD graphics for video processing, I will conclude that the mx350 has no benefit in this regard, since well Nvidia blocked Cuda rendering and since the disabled NVENC. Which is unofficially confirmed so hopefully one day some decision-maker at Nvidia needs a word and hopefully just a Vbios fix. But that can hinder some of the power. Rendering was very slow for 1080p 30fp (29.97fps actually) for the clips i recorded with the camera using the Magix Codec. The MainConcept AVC and the Sony AVC made no speed difference at all, even with quick sync.  N

 

But I did then notice one codec which actually was giving good results. The Intel HEVC codec. 

 

The intel HEVC

 

Now using this codec, it was rendering 1080p 30fps about slightly more than the actual time of the clip itself, so it was a little bit slower than realtime rendering. And the video did have some delay in it with regard to the issue with the image stabilization playing up in one of the recorded camera clips. 

The time to render, notice it was actually 15 seconds longer than the length of the project.

That tells me I still have some tweaking to sort out, but its a good baseline for it. Now, this also was an improvement compared to the rendering using the Celeron N4100 which is much weaker. For vloggers on a budget, this could be a bit of a weaker laptop, maybe the ryzen 5 series like the Damai E527 would be your strong point, (it could have been mine too but the AMD encoder for OBS is known to be complete of some word). But that leads us to the big and final test. 

Video Editing: OpenShot - Blogpost Exclusive 

Now, this was a request and learning due to work needing me to do video editing lessons. Openshot is a free reasonably way to video edit without having to worry about paying for a massive amount of the cost to get the software. The basics are there and it does support some hardware acceleration, So how did it perform. 

The editing of a quick clip 

Well, then it came to the rendering to find out what the best codec is and well, the handy thing with quickShot, it tells you the FPS as it rendering. Which below are different, settings with the results and the codecs. The h.264 quicksync rendering did seem to be faster than Vegas Pro 15. 

The preview settings 

The list of codecs and profiles and notice the QSV 

You can tell 720p on QSV is fast

Like if it's it less the length of the clip, it's fast 

But 1080p does push it a bit much though 

Eventually, it does it 

Streaming: Open Broadcaster Software. 

From here on out, this can be a mix of 2 reviews but actually, we will focus on the encoding side and the settings side (the prif streambox kit review was filmed alongside this and timing for filming caused movement of location, I aplogise for that). But well this is where the good bits happen. 

So going into the Nvidia Control Panel and making sure OBS uses the Nividia graphics is the first key point, since even if the NVENC will not work (but is listed in the output settings for encoder). The graphics is handled by the Mx350 and that leaves the CPU usage for x264 which if I use the Low preset high quality, medium file size option, in OBS. Yes, i can actually record at 1080p 60fps using a capture card plugged into a PS4, there were very tiny frame drops as well.

The laptop plugged into the capture card

Now with this in mind, it means that streaming and record 1080p 60fps is not going to be possible, I know i can stretch it with 720p 60fps which i would say is better on a 10 mbps up connection via wired. But with anything, tweaks can be useful and if there was the NVENC then it would be no issue with this part at all. But there is a yes it can exist feature for the laptop. 

Conclusion: 

Now, we can make this clear, this laptop has alot more going for it than I was expecting after learning NVENC was removed from the MX350, but you can also tell that the power is a half cut from the GTX1050 which would have had the NVENC and the higher memory bandwidth. 

The video playback is smooth as well so i know its not a problem there, sure 4K might struggle and casting video higher than 1080p will be that little bit of lag with the wireless Display if not connected to a 5ghz 802.11ac access point. 

There also has been some lag with the WD Green SSD in some things, but one maybe irritation is that chrome and blogger are slowed right now, BUT that is not related to this laptop since it feels just as slow on chrome on the desktop (but with game WD green SSD though) 

But one downside is the repsonsiveness from the silicone keyboard cover, but that does protect the laptop from alot of busy kids around wanting X or wanting Y as well. When typing with it, there are some spelling mistakes more than usual like keys being missed when pressed. But that speed in blogger issue is happpeing on my Steambox, even with the 7400 and the WD Green m.2 SSD from the Xiaomai 6a .I swapped it with my dads old laptop SSD and that as smooth to acitvate and get setup. 

All in all, this is a decent teenage laptop actually, for schoolwork its got potential, for those art students the MX350 does kick in, for playing games it can do that smoothly if turned down settings but not too low. Content creation i would say is there with smooth recording from the cpature kit but rendering video will be a bit of a push to the CPU. 

All in all.

omracer's Rating: 7/10

The Good Points: 

• Good value for money when on offer, normal price is a bit too steep.
• Windows 10 included if you purchase the windows version
• Feels casually fast for general use
• Games can play at least 1080p 30fps on medium to high settings, maybe pushing near 60fps on older titles
• Intel HEVC rendering is actually  not too slow using Vega Pro 15 Edit
• This card record 1080p 60fps from a PS4 using a capture card or box via OBS Studio if running with nvidia graphics and x264 low preset for recoder 
• Type C port
• Easy to upgrade parts inside 

 

The Bad Points: 

• The laptop is an import
• The windows 10 Preinstalled on the computer is not got a UK keyboard layout, but product key works on reinstall of Windows 10 home UK english aka English international via usb drive. 
• Nivida wanted to make money and life a misery due to no NVENC not being in the MX350 which is the GP107 cchip. 
• HMRC customs fees might start to fe abused de to high import duties as of the time of this writing, 
• The Bios is locked (stadnard) so the heating that goes along the bag might not vent properly. 

 

And there we have it, one review of a tool I've been using and will use alot more in the future, which another review i'm sorting uses this laptop for the testing and sorting out of Accounts for work which needs to be comfortable if i'm doing some caning from the week of this post ofhe tht time and holiday.

 

See you soon for some more posts of different things, reviews might not be until later on in Septemi ber after the streambox kit is done, Goose fair is cancelled so no reviews to appear from that this year. 

 

omracer