If you want to be able to watch HD videos on your netbook, including 1080p HD video, you currently really only have two choices. You netbook must either feature the Nvidia Ion platform, or the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator.
Just a few days ago, the HP Mini 110 was made available with the option to include the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator card for an extra $30.
Anybody who has tried to play a 1080p video on their netbook, with the typical Intel Aton N270 / N280 CPU will know that it struggles, and skips, while also maxing out the CPU.
In this video demo you can see that the netbook with the same CPU, but with the Broadcom Crystal HD card can playback 1080p videos perfectly, while using less than 25% of the CPU.
Broadcom also say that it integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP and Linux environments, enabling HD playback in the same form factor, without affecting the battery life. They also said, “Integration into popular media player software including Adobe Flash Player allows the delivery of a wide range of content to the netbook and nettop”.
If you’re thinking of adding the Broadcom Crystal HD card to your exsisting netbook, I belive it is possiable if you have a spare Mini PCI-e slot.
Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 12:32 pm
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