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How To Play HD Video On a Netbook
Barence writes with some news to interest those with netbooks running Windows: "Netbooks aren't famed for their high-definition video playing prowess, but if you've got about $10 and a few minutes going spare, there is a way to enjoy high-definition trailers and videos on your Atom-powered portable. You need three things: a copy of Media Player Classic Home Cinema, CoreCodec's CoreAVC codec, and some HD videos encoded in AVC or h.264 formats. This blog takes you through the process."
Or I can just get an ION powered netbook, install Linux and use VDPAU, and play any HD without any issue. Why is this news?
An external HD monitor. If you've got an external HD monitor, you're no longer portable, like a netbook should be. Why not just get a complete desktop computer?
I have a Celeron 900 you insensitve clod!
Shame the article doesn't do any actual comparisons between any two codecs. Nope, the TFA just has one codec, and so the sum of the article is "look, this codec plays videos!" Way to prove you're not just an advertisement.
It's no more than an ad for a codec.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
going to need a netbook with a graphics chip that support DXVA 2.0
If you have a GMA950 you're SOL.
So. How do I do this on Linux, which is the OS I actually use on my netbook?
This works for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD... Step 1. Install VLC. Step 2. Done. I use Hulu Desktop on my Aspire One under Ubuntu NBR, and there is no magic to it. How did this shit make the main page?
I use a PS2 to watch 720p and 1080i video and it can do AC3. I can play from DVD or USB stick. I can buy those for, what $50 on eBay?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Resolution is merely one factor, and is relatively unimportant compared to the others.
My netbook (Atom N280) can decode 720p, but the bitrate needs to be pretty low (think less than 4mbit -- which is fine for a lot of movies, but really bad for others). If CAVLC (as opposed to CABAC) is used I can get away with a little higher bitrate.
I expected some homebrew usb2.0 or somesuch gadget with a hardware decoder ... That would have been slashdot-worthy, but hey, it would have been old news ...
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Come on.. an advertisement for a commercial codec to use in a Windows system / application?
How did this make it as a story?
I could maybe understand a story about doing this on an OSS system. But, that would not have been news because many of us have been doing that for years.
When the OSS Nvidia or Radeon driver gets full VDPAU support, that merits a front page story.
They're a pain in the ass. Most of us don't have screens that can make them look any better (especially if those screens are on a netbook!) and don't care if we did. I prefer to convert my HD videos to a lower bitrate so they can display on a generic video adapter without any fancy software. Not always convenient, of course.
But this post is really an excuse to make a cute observation about netbooks: they seem to be marketed as less powerful than they are! This is mainly in the way netbooks are described to consumers ("if you want to watch videos, you probably want a more powerful machine"), but there are two technical features that seem to be designed to identify netbooks as underpowered.
The first feature is that the default config typically underclocks the CPU. OK, this makes the battery last longer, but not a lot longer. By accident or by design (I suspect it's by design) most users are going to attempt to play a Netflix stream on their netbooks, watch the video stutter hopelessly and say, "Oh well, they did tell me that the netbook is not a multimedia machine." Little knowing that a few power mode setting changes will fix the problem.
Maybe your dubious about this first feature being anything but a power-saving thing, but explain this: why do netbooks have really cruddy speakers? Even cheapo zero-legacy computers meant for office workers have decent speakers. Not great, but at least you can make out what somebody in a video is saying, which you can't on a typical netbook speaker. Those are tiny and have the volume of a cracked teaspoon.
My theory is that the manufacturers deliberately sabotage netbooks' video and audio so they won't be perceived as a cheaper alternative to laptops — those being what a lot of college students have instead of a TV set.
And connecting an external monitor defeats the point.
There was kind of a big splash back in December about this Broadcom chip... Crystal HD or something. Basically, it's a $2 (or some other absurdly low price) video decoder chip that'll take pretty much the full load for decoding most common codecs in use today. It was certified by Intel as well. Wonder why we aren't seeing more netbooks out there being announced with this bugger. I mean, it'll cost next to nothing, and put plain-ass Atoms at par with Ion powered netbooks (well, for 90% of users who only needed/wanted Ion for the video to begin with).
...any netbook with an ARM chip has hardware video acceleration, and can play HD video in fullscreen without problems.
Oh, you were talking about an Atom mini-laptop? That’s no a real netbook with that platform power profile, now is it? ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
As long as the screen resolution is high enough view HD why would HD video take any time or money to get? and if you do not have a screen capable of it then it is going to be impossible.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
What good is 720p video on my 1024x600 monitor? Too bad they don't make 600p videos.
Seriously, this is looks like any of the rest of the spam, especially with the opening statement.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Just buy the right netbook the Asus 1201N plays High def video perfectly well because it has an Nvidia 9400M graphics processors with Cuda and hardware video decoding. It will even output 1080P via it's HDMI port. It also has a dual core Atom 330 running at 1.6 ghz. All together it's a hell of a gadget for the money.
I will just use my Athlon Neo MV-40 powered 12.1" "netbook" instead. It can play all the Windows games too.
My first-generation MSI Wind has no problems playing HD video when running Windows 7. I can even multitask to some extent.
What's the point of this story? Next are you going to post a summary of how to view webpages on a netbook? Or maybe some special $10 solution to connect your netbook to wifi?
What a waste of bits.
Comment of the year
As long as the screen resolution is high enough view HD why would HD video take any time or money to get?
The video itself is copyrighted and DRM'd, and the most common codec used to store it is patented and compute-intensive.
Or... you could download CCCP, and just use that. With a bit of tweaking and just the stock codecs supplied one can easily get a 720p/1080p video playing on a standard retail netbook. However with an uncompressed bluray rip or something of that nature I'd imagine you're out of luck, I've never tried myself. The ability to play HD video on a netbook is easily obtainable free if you are using the right file format/player and have the proper codecs. As I said though for the average person just download CCCP, it's a free cure-all for your media playing woes with few exceptions. I'm not sure why this is even posted here. Anyone buying a netbook at a retail store isn't getting anything above a 600p monitor and those of who take the time to shop online for a 1366x768 netbook are more than savvy enough to get it working, not to mention the typical Slashdot posters. Even then I can't imagine a Slashdotter buying netbooks this day and age what with similarly priced ultraportable laptops at the same size that are thinner, more powerful and feature 8-12 hours of battery life standard (Timeline series from Acer for example). I suppose some of us have kids and family members we'd buy netbooks for though. For a standard 600p netbook though why even bother with this? You want that 400i/p video you got off the internet or from your digital recorder to look nice? Use some nice upconversion software and play it like that to save resources. No way in hell you'll be able to run a real-time quality up-conversion player on a netbook though.
4. Why is this a story?
captcha: decoders
I'm buying a 17" netbook later this year.
The name just feels lighter!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And actually MPC-HC is capable of decoding videos using the hardware h264 decoder the laptop probably already has built in. CoreAVC would just decode the video in software.
The secret to CoreAVC's speed is that it cheats... If you compare the frames output, with any other codec, you'll see that the results are not the same. People have commented on how CoreAVC looks different, sometimes "fuzzy". Again, it's going for lower-precision in exchange for speed. This is particularly galling in the case of H.264/AVC, since it has lossless modes, which are supposed to be bit-exact, not "close enough".
Honestly, if you want slightly faster + blurry video, why don't you just grab a lower-resolution copy of the same video, and save yourself the disk space, and money on the software license.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
it has h.264 support and is free
there are 10 types of people in this world, those who read binary and those who don't. which are you!
I have a 2.2ghz Core2Duo MBP from Early '08 with 4GB of RAM that is incapable of playing back 1080p x264 without stuttering. I've tried everything - MPlayer, VLC, numerous Boxee release. I can get close to normal playback if there are absolutely no other applications running, but the CPU still maxes out and stutters during rapid-motion scenes. It seems there is absolutely no hardware acceleration available for the mac, unless you have a new MBP with a 9400m and are playing back in Quicktime. Even more frustrating, if I boot into Windows with BootCamp I can play back 1080p video flawlessly with no stuttering as the Windows side supports GPU acceleration. So much for the wonders of OpenCL in Snow Leopard.
All you need are 2 things.
Download K-Lite Codec Pack:
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
It includes Media Player Classic...
AND some HD videos in almost ANY codec.
Enjoy!
----------------------
This is nothing more than an advert for a $10 codec!
And to get rid of those unsightly stutters, free up a slot and install a dedicated co-processor.
http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2009/11/16/the-little-pcie-card-that-could/
Supported by XBMC under Windows, Linux and OS X. Cost $49 at that site, under "accessories, adapters". I just ordered one and will put it thru its paces on my Asus EEE 901 soon.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
If you want to play HD on a netbook, just don't encode it in h.264. It may be great for file size, but the hardware requirements are ridiculous.
K-lite just uses ffmpeg. Di-AVC also seems to beat CoreAVC but it's going to be payware too. DivX is free; just make sure you don't install any other crap from their installer. You only want their AVC filter, not the divx codec and certainly not their media player, etc.
That so-called "NetBook" is running Windows 7, hence it can't be a cheap, low-powered, ultra-portable device.
I am waiting for Notion inks ADAM
Its look like a great device than i pad, i have seen Adam at cwc2k10 and its fabulous.
cant wait adam.
-Eve
I don't know about you all, but struggling to watch a 1080p video on a 10 inch, 1024x600 screen is not exactly a priority, nor it seems to make much sense to me. SD is just fine for netbooks.
I've had a Dell Mini 9 for over a year and it is able to play 1080p video out of the box (Ubuntu).
transcoded DVD's
In what country? Slashdot's home country has a law called the DMCA prohibiting private citizens from backing up DVDs or distributing tools designed to back up DVDs. It also has something called "patents" that allow MPEG-LA to prohibit the use of H.264 video compression in software distributed under a free software license.
I'd check your homepage for your country, but it appears to be a nonexistent domain.
Running Win7 on Netbooks for over a year now, and they all play HD video content just fine.
Plaing WMV/VC1/h.264 via Media Player or Media Center (yes even Media Center) plays 720p just fine without frame drops.
The only exceptions is using a Flash HD player, then the player shoots the HT Atom CPU to 100% for no real reason. The other exception is Silverlight streaming 1080, you only get about 22-24fps (which is not a large drop in FPS), and a bit of overkill on a 1024x600 screen.
Wow, articles like this are disburbing, as it will have people ripping out the default H.264 codecs from Win7 and then later on have problems.
To playback 1080p you have to decode it first which will cause stuttering on slow hardware regardless of the display size.
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/
My guess is this is too much moola to add to the BOM for most netbooks, so don't expect CoreAVC to ship preinstalled. Unless CoreAVC will do a massive bulk discount to OEMs.