Broadcom mini PCI-E HD decoder

[frostedflakes]

Maybe this is old news, but did anybody else know that these things are available on eBay for like $20? Driver and application support seems to be great as well, looks like Broadcom has released open-source Linux drivers, and Windows software like Flash and MPC-HC are supposed to work with the chip.

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Consumer-Electronics/Netbook-and-Nettop-Solutions/BCM70012
http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd/

Has anyone added one of these to their netbook or laptop? Is it as good as it sounds? Not being able to play back HD video is really the only complaint I've had with my netbook, so if a $20 add-on card could fix this I'd be pretty stoked.

Only downside is my Mini 9 doesn't have another mini PCI-E slot (well, it has the solder pads for one to support a WWAN card, but no socket is installed), so I'm debating getting this card and soldering on a mini PCI-E socket for it...

edit: Hmm, sounds like the WWAN mini PCI-E socket on the Mini 9 is only wired for USB operation. There goes that idea.

 

[Nitemare]

put one in my MSI Wind U100 and it won't play 720P, 480 is fine though

 

[frostedflakes]

Must be a driver or software issue, because it should be able to handle 1080p no problem.

 

[Nitemare]

only tried a few 1080P trailers on youtube, i will try to play a movie on an external usb dvd drive and see if that will work.

 

[frostedflakes]

Do you have the latest Flash 10.1 beta installed? This is necessary for accelerated x264 playback.

Also make sure you're using the latest Broadcom drivers, they can be found in the links in my OP.

 

[Nitemare]

drivers yes, updated flash beta, I have not tried yet. I didn't get home until late last night, hopefully can try it tonight

 

[ScavengerLX]

Last us know when you get 10.1 updated.

 

[frostedflakes]

Let us know how it goes Nitemare.

Also I think I'll still be able to add one of these to my Mini 9. I bought a USB WiFi card that I can install in the WWAN slot, then I'll put the Broadcom HD decoder in the true mPCI-E slot (where the WLAN card used to be). Think I have everything ordered, and should be able to get it installed within the next few weeks.

 

[sygyzy]

Nitemare - Does your system automatically know to use the card for decoding?

 

[Nitemare]

ok, after reinstalled the Intel 945GXE chipset drivers, uninstalling flash and install 10.1 beta I got it to play the 1080P Avatar trailer on youtube and it was near flawless. It did manage to hang a few times though, but this is also using the flash 10.1 beta version as well as a still young driver package from Broadcom.

I imagine 720P should play fine and 1080P will play with a more mature driver/software update

 

[frostedflakes]

Thanks for the update Nitemare. What was CPU usage like during playback of the 1080P trailer?

 

[Nitemare]

I did not check, supposedly this card is supposed to offload the work from the CPU onto itself. Will check tonight

 

[Nitemare]

around 75-80%, never pegs it out

 

[frostedflakes]

Weird that it's still so high, maybe that's just overhead for Flash or something. The Broadcom card should be able to fully offload x264 decoding from the CPU. Anyway, thanks for testing it out Nitemare. I'll be able to post some more info here in a few weeks as well once I get mine installed.

 

[alyarb]

it's an MSI wind. CPU usage is going to be high, the idea with the broadcom is that at least playback is possible for only $20.

 

[skriefal]

The CPU still has to handle demuxing of the audio and video tracks, decoding of the audio, etc.

 

[Nitemare]

Played a DVD with an external drive with WinDVD and it was flawless.

Next step piping it to my TV and seeing what it really looks like

 

[Bryf50]

I'm thinking about picking one of these up to throw in my m1330's extra pci-e slot because the 8400m gs's dxva seems terrible. Videos that play fine with dxva on my htpc's integrated Ati 3300 won't work at all or are filled with artifacts on my laptop. The only issue is if theres a way to disable dxva on the graphics card so programs don't default to it. Anyone know a solution?

 

[konakona]

hmmm thanks for heads up. gonna have to check if V6719NR has a spare mini pci-e slot. I think one is being used for the wireless board, not sure if there is another one available.

 

[frostedflakes]

You also have to be careful about extra mPCI-e slots, because sometimes they aren't actually hooked up to a PCI-e lane, only USB. This was the case for my Mini 9, so what I had to do was buy a WiFi card that uses USB interface to install in the WWAN slot, then the Broadcom chip will go in the true mPCI-e slot where the WLAN card used to be.

The tale is chronicled in the thread below. I ended up finding a USB WiFi card that was only like $15. Working fine in the WWAN slot so far.

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/del...des/17769-good-usb-wifi-adapter-mini-9-a.html

So before you buy anything, maybe consult the manual or Dell tech support to make sure the Broadcom card would work in any extra mPCI-e slots your laptop has.

 

[hans007]

i dont think its an mpeg2 accelertor so it wont do anything for dvd.

its for h264 and vc-1 encoded stuff only i bleieve.

i'm thinking about getting one for my MSI wind Net top. yeah a desktop... happens to have that slot. seems liek it'd make it at least bareable to watch youtube with the flash 10.1 beta

 

[BTA]

says on the product page that it supports mpeg2

not that it matters much, my wind plays dvd's fine.

 

[frostedflakes]

Well, got the card and have it installed. I did a few before and after tests.

YouTube 720p HD video -- Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
Before: 100% CPU usage, pretty choppy
After: ~70% CPU use, looks like it may drop some frames here and there but is still pretty smooth

Transformers ROTF clip (h264, 1080p, 25.6Mbps)
Before: 100% CPU use, not watchable at all
After: About 60-70% now, big improvement although it's still pretty choppy in places. But now it's actually watchable. I don't know why this isn't perfectly smooth, though. Fortunately I never play back anything with this high of a bitrate on my netbook

Kimi ni Todoke 18 (h264, 720p, 1.71Mbps)
Before: Nearly 100% CPU use, not very watchable
After: Around 30% CPU usage, plays back great, no issues

FLCL 01 (h264, 480p, ~1.8Mbps)
Before: No playback issues, about 60% CPU use
After: Reduced CPU use to about 25%, plays back fine

In conclusion, it seems to choke with very high bitrates (although according to Broadcom it should be able to handle h264 up to 40Mbps or so). This is probably an issue with MPC-HC or something else with my system, though, not the Crystal HD. Fortunately it worked beautifully for the kind of stuff I'd use it for, which are anime and TV episodes that have a bitrate of a few Mbps.

edit: Trying it a few more times, the Transformers clip seems to play back pretty well if I just open the vid and fullscreen it. It seems like doing other stuff (like monitoring CPU usage while it's playing) slows things down.

 

[Jugernot]

Have you tried playing TF2 in 720P? Does it play more fluid?

 

[frostedflakes]

edit: Nevermind thought you were asking something else.

I don't have a 720p clip for Transformers ROTF. All the other videos I tested were 720p, though (although they were much much lower bitrate than the 1080p transformers clip).