A few days ago, I brought you a review of the ASUS EP 121 Windows 7 tablet. I have a few updates to bring to you so read on to see how I did driving my 1080p TV!
Working With My 1080p TV
When I initially connected the EP121 to my Sony 1080p TV, I was unable to drive the signal on the TV at other than the native 1280 by 800 resolution. Needless to say, it looked terrible. After a brief discussion with Damian at MediaSmartServer.Net, I decided to update the display driver and see what happened. Therefore, I went to Intel’s support site and ran the automatic detection for drivers update process. Lo and behold, a new version was available for the Intel HD Graphics solution that is onboard, 8.15.10.2321. I went ahead and ran the update process and connected to my TV. When I selected the option to drive the display only on the TV, turning off the tablet display screen, presto! 1080p signal automatically appeared on the TV. I can use this as a light duty HTPC in addition to a mobile tablet device. Yippeee! And a hat tip to Damian for reminding me to check the driver version.
Issues That Remain
When I launch Media Center, the menus update a little slowly. And when tuning the channel on live TV from my HDHomeRun pulling in OTA signals, there is a jitter and stutter until the PC catches up with the signal. I’m not sure if that is due to the 2.4 GHz wireless connection or if the integrated graphics is being overtaxed. I’ll pick up a USB to Ethernet connector to allow me to test the unit on a wired connection to isolate the problem.
I also need to fiddle with the settings to ensure that the picture quality is up to snuff. I expect that to be a set of tweaks to make to improve performance. That should not be a big deal.
I am more hopeful now that I can use this to drive Media Center recordings and DVD rips to my TV as a part time HTPC device. I’ll update as I make progress on the remaining issues.
Original Review Intel Support Site
Hey Jim,
Great writeup and glad to hear you got the 1080p issue worked out. I am still tempted to bite on the EP 121, but gotta make myself what until the Sandy Bridge version comes out!
Cheers
Damian
Damian–
Thanks again for the driver suggestion.
Waiting will give you better battery life, but I expect ASUS to skip Windows 7 and just issue a Windows 8 ARM based product. That’s 18 months out! I could not wait.
Glad that you liked the writeup…
Jim
Jim,
what is your wireless architecture that allows you to connect your EP121 to your TV wirelessly?
Again great write up.
Phuong–
I am connected to the TV via HDMI cabling. For watching live TV I use a HD HomeRun networked tuner connected to my router via a gigabit switch. I stream the signal from the HD HomeRun to my laptop over the wireless N connection. The EP 121 has built in N on the 2.4GHz band and it streams the Media Center TV signal from the HD HomeRun and the OTA antenna well. I was watching the NCAA basketball tournament the other day while sitting with my family watching home decoration shows. Worked great!
Glad that you liked the article!
Jim