Video playback on a netbook

[lapa321]

I'm currently canvassing for a new netbook and choosing between the ASUS 1201n and MSI u230.

After weighing the price (1201n=$565; u230=$478) and features, i'm leaning heavily towards msi. I have a powerful main rig so games are a non-issue and the MSI leads on the processing power.

Now the real deal breaker for me is how the two will perform on playing back videos. Specifically, the ones from bakabt.

The codecs we use aren't exactly commercial standard and i've read that video acceleration doesn't work on all codecs. Is there anyone here that has them and can tell if it can run bakabt videos?


And please don't bother posting where to get them cheaper, those are the best i can come up with locally. Getting them online would raise them to $700.00+

[mgz]

why are you getting a netbook for those prices you can get a more powerful notebook

[vuzedome]

Netbook? Video playback? You fell for the ads. This is impossible, not with the current quality standards we have here.
1080p? Sure it can do it, with youtube bitrate quality @ 1-2mbps, and it'll look very....... It leaves you speechless.
1080p will be like ~~13mbps, but depending on the show and the quality it deserves.
Get a notebook/laptop with a Core i3 or i5, 2GB RAM, don't worry about Intel's GMA HD if you're not gaming on it, you have one rig already anyway.

[lapa321]

why are you getting a netbook for those prices you can get a more powerful notebook

Weight, power usage and price.

Weight:
I've been carrying my parents laptop and the thing is so big, it has its own bag, when i carry it in my backpack, it actually gives me shoulder aches. I have an acer aspire one and the weight is insignificant.

Power Usage:
The vampire load of your desktop is enough to power a netbook. I've connected it to my 22" monitor and kb/m, do light browsing, programming, photoshop, video playing and run it 24/7 for torrents. 24/7 and our electric bill still went down 25%! That's pretty big. Big enough that you'll save enough to buy a netbook within the year.

We currently have the 2nd highest electric rates in southeast asia.

Price:
You might say that these netbooks are priced high enough for a notebook where you are, but full sized laptops start at $700.00 over here.





BTW, i'm not neglecting my main rig. I still use it a lot for gaming, 3D modeling, video editing/encoding, massive photoshopping, program debugging, etc. The netbook has the SQL Server, localhost for my web sites, uTorrent, TV Tuner, Video player, web browsing, eBooks, Flash IDE, Word Processors, etc. I'm hoping for a netbook that can run 1080p so i can play bakabt videos on it too.

[lapa321]

Netbook? Video playback? You fell for the ads. This is impossible, not with the current quality standards we have here.
1080p? Sure it can do it, with youtube bitrate quality @ 1-2mbps, and it'll look very....... It leaves you speechless.
1080p will be like ~~13mbps, but depending on the show and the quality it deserves.
Get a notebook/laptop with a Core i3 or i5, 2GB RAM, don't worry about Intel's GMA HD if you're not gaming on it, you have one rig already anyway.

U230 and 1201N aren't normal netbooks, i'm hoping they'll be able to handle it and finally relegate video playback to them.

The Acer Aspire One can handle 720p if it's done in DivX and taken from piratebay, but bakabt's 720p animes are a slideshow.

[Lumiinous]

Just speaking from experience, I have an ASUS EEEPC 1000H or some crap like that. Single core atom.

576p and below will play fine, but 720 is really iffy, and 1080 does not happen.

[fohfoh]

Agreed. 720 is iffy on netbooks and 1080 will not happen.

Personally, I use a Sony Vaio Sz 400 series business laptop. It's extremely light for its size (barely heaver than a netbook, heavier for sure, but when you compare 13.3" vs 10.1" there's bound to be differences).

Gives me a C2D to work with T7200 @ 2.0Ghz
Ram I upgraded
HDD I upgraded
Turbo Cache video card, but gpu isn't really the issue. It's processing power.

I paid 1 grand CDN 1 year ago. So I'm pretty sure other SZ series go for around that price if not less (though might be hard to find). Battery life on the standard battery ranges around 2 hours - 4 depending on which setting you use. Which... is less than a netbook, but you can do so much more on this laptop than a netbook.

But beyond my laptop, there are other laptops out there that can do the same thing for maybe 40-60% more in price. And we're talking more than 40-50% more useful than a netbook too.

Not sure what other ones are not weighty (probably not Toshiba) but they're out there. You just have to be a little more careful since they're usually made with either flimsy aluminium or thin plastic instead of a strong plastic turtle shell.

[Mcgreag]

I don't know about the MSI one but the ASUS one can handle 1080p h264. It has Nvidia ION for graphics which means it can offload the video on the GPU using DXVA or CUDA.

Actually it seem to have very close specs to my HTPC (an ASRock ION 330) which can handle anything I throw at it video vice. Not so good for gaming of course but otherwise very nice.

[lapa321]

Just to clarify that these aren't normal netbooks.



The reviews demonstrated them playing back blueray so it's pretty much guaranteed that they can support a standardized codec. The question now is if it supports bakabt codecs (Which is everything out there set to insane bitrates).

[fohfoh]

Dual core 1.6Ghz in pretty much both. Should play 720 alright. 1080 is iffy by not impossible I guess.

But even then. 720/1080 on a 10 inch screen? Come on. There's really no need to care about quality, but playback capabilities.

You should be ok with 720.

[lapa321]

Dual core 1.6Ghz in pretty much both. Should play 720 alright. 1080 is iffy by not impossible I guess.

But even then. 720/1080 on a 10 inch screen? Come on. There's really no need to care about quality, but playback capabilities.

You should be ok with 720.

1080p is just the worst case. Most bakabt videos are just 720p. So i'll be happy with just that

And both are 12" netbooks, and i'm gonna be connecting them to an external 22" LCD

[vuzedome]

Just to clarify that these aren't normal netbooks.



The reviews demonstrated them playing back blueray so it's pretty much guaranteed that they can support a standardized codec. The question now is if it supports bakabt codecs (Which is everything out there set to insane bitrates).

Yeah, they're underpowered ones with barely any grunt to decode H264.
And graphics? Oh sweets~! DVD quality will be superb but 720p? Usually depending on the bitrate.
DivX HD? Even my Nokia E90 can do that.

[lapa321]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDq8qpE1U0

Looks like the 1201N can run 1080p. The video uses Queens Blade as an example.

Now i'd like to know if the u230 can do it too

[vuzedome]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDq8qpE1U0

Looks like the 1201N can run 1080p. The video uses Queens Blade as an example.

Now i'd like to know if the u230 can do it too

Youtube 1080p quality is nothing compared to THORA's or CG's, not even eureka's or DTS-WIKI's or even CBGB's encodes will play on that thing.
VLC 720p with an MP4 container, could be anything in that for the video.
And Queen's Blade was sluggish even on a slow paced scene and did you see what that guy used?
WMP!! \o/

[Mcgreag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDq8qpE1U0

Looks like the 1201N can run 1080p. The video uses Queens Blade as an example.

Now i'd like to know if the u230 can do it too

Youtube 1080p quality is nothing compared to THORA's or CG's, not even eureka's or DTS-WIKI's or even CBGB's encodes will play on that thing.
VLC 720p with an MP4 container, could be anything in that for the video.
And Queen's Blade was sluggish even on a slow paced scene and did you see what that guy used?
WMP!! \o/

Stop spreading lies please. That computer can do THORA's 1080p with 10% cpu usage. It's called DXVA/CUDA, you use the gpu to decode the video. As I said I have a nettop with the exact same specs and it can do 1080p without any problems what so ever, I just tested a high action sequence of Thora's 1080p release of Appleseed - Ex Machina and I had cpu usage of 7-11%.

Flash 1080p are much more demanding btw. This clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI with flash 10.1 for gpu decoding uses 20-30% cpu.

Now considering the size and resolution of the monitor it might be fairly pointless to watch 1080p but that has nothing what so ever to do with the capabilities of the rest of the hardware.

[fohfoh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDq8qpE1U0

Looks like the 1201N can run 1080p. The video uses Queens Blade as an example.

Now i'd like to know if the u230 can do it too

Youtube 1080p quality is nothing compared to THORA's or CG's, not even eureka's or DTS-WIKI's or even CBGB's encodes will play on that thing.
VLC 720p with an MP4 container, could be anything in that for the video.
And Queen's Blade was sluggish even on a slow paced scene and did you see what that guy used?
WMP!! \o/

Stop spreading lies please. That computer can do THORA's 1080p with 10% cpu usage. It's called DXVA/CUDA, you use the gpu to decode the video. As I said I have a nettop with the exact same specs and it can do 1080p without any problems what so ever, I just tested a high action sequence of Thora's 1080p release of Appleseed - Ex Machina and I had cpu usage of 7-11%.

Flash 1080p are much more demanding btw. This clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI with flash 10.1 for gpu decoding uses 20-30% cpu.

Now considering the size and resolution of the monitor it might be fairly pointless to watch 1080p but that has nothing what so ever to do with the capabilities of the rest of the hardware.

If you say so.

The thing is, I've heard of a lot of people just barely capable of 1080 via the use of coreavc on approx 1.6Ghz C2D+ laptops. Now, the only reason I hesitate on this netbook is because I'm not entirely sure how well they play. I dare not say "flawless" because I cannot guarantee it's true. It may have slight hiccups at times, blah blah blah etc. 720 for sure will work AFAIK, but 1080? 70-95% capable of 1080 per my guesses, because even my C2D @ 2.0Ghz isn't flawless at 1080p.

22" LCD? O_o Why not just invest in a VGA cable and connect to a tv? If it works as it is capable of, this might be a hell of a good replacement for many HTPCs and will probably blow popcorn hour and the WD playback thing out of the water in term of portability, file capability, function etc.

Put it this way. "Flawless" I will not guarantee. There's still a chance that the whole setup will slow to a crawl if the netbook overheats when doing this function. 720 will have no problem at all AFAIK. 1080 will be close, but probably doable.

I seriously have no idea whether that vid card is "that good" for decoding videos though. So many cards are advertising this... yet I am quite capable of 1080 on a intel 950 which is an older graphics card and afaik, scores like a 2.3 on the windows experience index.

[vuzedome]

I know DXVA, and I sure damn know that both the Geforce 9400 and HD 3200 do not have the grunt to process 1080p bitrates!!
720p, yes! It can do it! But 1080p....... Like I said, depending on the bitrates. Go download CG's Tayutama and THORA's K-on!, only the OP, play it, if it runs smoothly with minimal frame drops(less than 25), then I take back everything. Oh, you are allowed to use pre-buffering for the subs to make it fair.

[Mcgreag]

I know DXVA, and I sure damn know that both the Geforce 9400 and HD 3200 do not have the grunt to process 1080p bitrates!!
720p, yes! It can do it! But 1080p....... Like I said, depending on the bitrates. Go download CG's Tayutama and THORA's K-on!, only the OP, play it, if it runs smoothly with minimal frame drops(less than 25), then I take back everything. Oh, you are allowed to use pre-buffering for the subs to make it fair.

K-ON! Op flawless with same cpu usage. Same for Tayutama, even during the first seconds, no hickups what so ever. Bit rate is NOT going to be a problem. The thing was created to support Blu-ray which has higher bitrate than all those encodes (upto 40mbit/s while the k-on op for example are around 10mbit/s).

Going higher than the High profile might be a problem but if you do that most software decoders (like x264) won't even support it.

[vuzedome]

Oh? This is most interesting!! I need to get my hands on one to see it for myself.
What's the brand and model of your's? I'm considering getting one now.

I've read through reviews and all have mentioned the same stuff I mentioned before, but now that I have someone here claiming otherwise, I just have to try it out myself.
 

[Mcgreag]

I have this one:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%20330

If I where to buy now I would get:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%20330HT
It's basically the second version with some more extra features (wifi, remote, esata etc) for 25$ more.

There's also a bluray version of both of them available.

Of course there are lots of others with same performance. Which one you want it mostly dependent on other factors like formfactor, look, extra features etc. Some other popular systems:
Asus EE Box 1012/1501
Acer Aspire Revo 3610
Point of View Sydney

Or you can get a motherboard like the Zotac ION ITX A Series 330 and build your own.

There are one thing to consider with these systems and that's that they do not support bitstreaming of the new HD audio formats like DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD, it has to convert them to LPCM. This is only an issue if you want real blurays (I have yet to see a rip that use them, they either go with AAC or FLAC) and have a new surround receiver that supports them.