CD/DVD on a netbook

[lifeblood]

I assume a netbook does not have a CD/DVD drive on it. If so, why do people seem to care about watching HD on a netbook? Do they stream HD content via the internet? Or is an external USB DVD drive a must-have?

 

[corkyg]

You have two choices if the netbook has no optical drive.

1. Use and external drive (many netbooks are bundled with such.)
2. Copy the DVD/CD to other media, eg., a flash drive.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> If so, why do people seem to care about watching HD on a netbook? Do they stream HD content via the internet?

There is a lot of legal content now, some of it free: Netflix (free with disc sub), Hulu, Fox, YouTube, etc.

The problem is most netbooks -can't- play HD video reliably, just DVD-quality or less. The lousy intel graphics won't accelerate HD and the Atom CPU is too slow to decode HD in software.

 

[bliq00]

There is also the subnotebook/supernetbook 12.1 UL20A with an optical drive but it costs around $900. I used an external USB drive with my netbook. I don't really care about true HD on a netbook, but my old atom netbook couldn't reliably play quicktime or DVD movies with the GMA950 graphics. it sucked. I understand 4500MHD can play at least DVD movies easily, so that's probably good enough for me, though I wonder how long it'll be til we see a CULV/Ion system out there- I'd buy that in a heartbeat, I have the cash in my sock drawer and all my socks are on fire!!!

 

[21stHermit]

Frontier introduces 10 inch Pine Trail netbook with DVD burner

If you read the article, it kind of defeats the purpose of a netbook: small, light and cheap, but it does a a burner.

 

[Rottie]

so i take netbook cant play ripped blueray video? i am thinking about ripped some of blueray video to netbook for my trip.

 

[HannibalX]

so i take netbook cant play ripped blueray video? i am thinking about ripped some of blueray video to netbook for my trip.

The Asus 1201N can since it's dual core and has Geforce 9400 graphics.

 

[tcsenter]

The problem is most netbooks -can't- play HD video reliably, just DVD-quality or less. The lousy intel graphics won't accelerate HD and the Atom CPU is too slow to decode HD in software.

Depends. The Netbooks based on Intel 945 (GMA 950) won't handle HD but the GMA 500 should do it. Also, remember that Intel has crippled decoding support under Windows XP due to what it considers inadequate protected pathway implementation, but is functional on Vista/7. I don't think any Netbooks use the GMA 4500 (but they should).

 

[Rottie]

The Asus 1201N can since it's dual core and has Geforce 9400 graphics.

Yeah I read some of reviews about 1201N I am suprised Asus is the only one that have netbook running atom dual core.