We already knew that Adobe was working with NVIDIA and Broadcom to enabled hardware acceleration for Flash Player 10.1. But sometimes it’s nice to see it in action. I’ve already highlighted videos showing netbooks with Intel Atom processors and NVIDIA ION graphics handling 1080p Flash video… but Blogeee dug up another video that shows even more hardware handling HD Flash playback.

In the video below, Adobe’s Kevin Lynch shows off an HP Mini 311 with NVIDIA ION, an HP Mini 110 with the Broadcom Crystal HD decoder, and a Mobinnova Beam smartbook with the NVIDIA Tegra platform (which bundles an ARM-based CPU with NVIDIA graphics). Each one of these low power systems is capable of handling HD Flash video playback.

Check it out for yourself after the break.

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Intel Atom powered netbooks with integrated graphics are known for long battery life and halfway decent performance. They’re not known for handling CPU-intensive tasks like decoding HD video. For that you have third party solutions like the NVIDIA ION chipset or Broadcom’s HD decoder for netbooks.

While some companies including Dell and HP are offering machines with an optional Broadcom decoder, most netbooks don’t come with that option. But that didn’t stop SammyNetbook Forum member Banzai from picking up his own Broadcom card and adding it to a Samsung NC10.

The Samsung NC10 has only one Mini PCIe slot, and it’s occupied by the WiFi card by default. So in order to add the Broadcom decoder, Banzai needed to remove the internal WiFi card. But it’s much easier to find a USB WiFi adapter than a USB video card, so I think he probably made the right call.

In order to get everything working properly you’ll need to pick up a Broadcom PCM970012 HD Decoder, which you can find on eBay for around $25 or less. You also need to download the device drivers, and install a custom version of Arcsoft Total Media Theatre designed to play nicely with the video decoder since it’s the only application that will actually take advantage of the HD decoding features of the Broadcom module.

You can find step by step instructions and software download links in the SammyNetbook Forums. There’s a video of Banzai’s NC10 playing HD video after the break.

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Most netbooks with Intel Atom processors and integrated GMA950 graphics can handle 720p HD video. But try playing a 1080p clip and you’re in for a choppy, sluggish, battery-killing experience. Two companies have solutions for that. NVIDIA’s ION platform bundles the Atom processor with a higher performance GeForce 9400M graphics processor. Not only do you get better HD video performance, but you can also use an ION based system to play 3D video games.

Broadcom, on the other hand, offers a Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator, which works in conjunction with the Atom/GMA950 graphics. The co-processor doesn’t use much energy, and HP offers it as a $30 upgrade to the HP Mini 110 netbook. But it’s not readily available as an option for any other netbook yet.

But the folks at Terracode managed to get their hands on a Broadcom video accelerator and they crammed it in an 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One netbook. The mini-laptop was also upgraded with a high performance solid state disk, which replaces the standard 160GB hard drive.

The Broadcom chip is designed to decode HD video up to 1080p in H.264, WMV9, MPEG-2, and a handful of other formats. It also supports Blu-Ray disc playback, assuming you’ve got a Blu-Ray player plugged into you netbook or nettop.

Terracode has posted detailed instructions for disassembling the Acer Aspire One and placing the Broadcom chip inside. The end result is a low power computer that can handle 1080p video playback with very little strain on the CPU. Right now, you’ll need the version of ArcSoft Total Media Theater that’s been optimized to take advantage of the Broadcom accelerator, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see additional applications add support in the not too distant future. Terracode picked up the video accelerator for about $40 on eBay.

via SlashGear

HD video on netbooks is sort of a funny beast. On the one hand, most netbooks don’t have HD displays, which kind of makes me wonder why anyone needs the ability to watch HD video on these little laptops. But a growing number of mini-laptops do have 1366 x 768 pixel or higher resolution displays, and more importantly, there’s  growing amount of HD video out there in the world and you’re not going to want to go through the trouble of converting it to a lower resolution format just so you can watch it on a netbook.

While most Intel Atom based computers have enough oomph to handle 720p video in a variety of formats, 1080p video is another story. One solution is NVIDIA’s Ion platform, which bundles an Atom CPU with an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU to provide enhanced video playback. Another is the Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator, which is basically a co-processor that handles HD video playback in some applications. It’s not a full GPU and doesn’t replace the integrated GMA 950 graphics bundled with most Intel Atom N270 or N280 processors. And oddly, thanks to Intel’s convoluted pricing schemes, that can make Broadcom’s solution cheaper for PC makers than NVIDIA’s.

Right now the only netbook available with the Broadcom solution is the HP Mini 110. Buthow exactly does the Broadcom chip work? Broadcom has put together a little video to show you. You can check it out after the break, but here are the highlights:

• An HP Mini 110 with the Broadcom chip can handle 1080p with 20% CPU usage, while a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 struggles with the same video while at 100% CPU usage.
• The Mini 110 needs a special video player in order to handle HD video, Windows Meia Player won’t suffice.

via Portable Monkey
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The HP Mini 110 XP Edition is now available for order with Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video accelerator. The upgrade will set you back $30, and it includes the ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre software that will handle HD video in a variety of formats.

The netbook is also now shipping in two new colors, white and pink. At launch, only the black model was available. You can check out a few more photos of the new color options after the break. The black model has a starting price of $329.99, while the pink and white models start at $349.99.

via Engadget and Portable Monkey

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You can throw all the NVIDIA ION and Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerators you want into netbooks and nettops. If you don’t optimize software applications to take advantage of those chips, you won’t notice any sort of performance improvements.

NetbookNews.de caught up with the folks from Cyberlink at Computex, where they were demonstrating a version of their PowerDVD software capable of playing 1080p video on netbooks and nettops running using both video acceleration platforms. If you tried decoding a 1080p movie with PowerDVD on a normal netbook with an Intel Atom processor you wouldn’t have much success, unless you call incredibly choppy video playback a success.

It doesn’t sound like Cyberlink is building support for NVIDIA and Broadcom’s hardware decoding into its main product yet. So right now you’ll need to get an optimized version of the software if you want HD video playback. It’s also possible that PC makers using these platforms could strike deals with Cyberlink to bundle PowerDVD with their netbooks or nettops.

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