• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Would this Netbook be able to handle XBMC and play back 1080P mkv's fine?

gigahertz20

gigahertz20

Golden Member
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3108694

Big thread on slickdeals.net on this netbook, gonna be on sale at Target for $200 this Sunday, specs below.

I wanted to know what you guys think of turning this into a HTPC with XBMC? Would it be able to handle all the usual 720P/1080P h.264 mkv's that come off torrent sites and usenet? From what I've read it seems like it should, a reviewer on Amazon says, "It outputs 1080p video perfectly and I am able to watch a show or movie on my TV via HDMI output and be surfing the web or be typing a document at the same time with no noticeable lag."


http://www.amazon.com/review/R22JDII...tag=&linkCode=

Specs:

# AMD C-Series Processor C-50(1.0GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
# 11.6” HD Widescreen CineCrystal™ LED-backlit Display
# Windows® 7 Home Premium
# 2GB DDR3 Single-Channel Memory
# 250GB SATA Hard Drive
# ATI Radeon™ HD 6250 Graphicswith 256MB of dedicated system memory
# 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™
# Multi-in-One Digital Media Card Reader
# Built-in 0.3 Megapixel Webcam
# Two Built-in Stereo Speakers
# Full-Size Acer FineTip Keyboard
# Multi-Gesture Touchpadsupporting circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom and page flip
# 3- USB 2.0 Ports
# 1- HDMI™ Port with HDCP Support
# 6-cell Li-ion Batteryup to 7-hours battery life
# 3.21 lbs. | 1.46kg (system unit only)

Specs from http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AO722-BZ4...cm_rdp_product
 
It has been my experience that mkv 1080P playback is heavily GFX card dependent on lower spec computers and that laptop (and older desktop for that matter) integrated GPUs are not up to the task. Since it appears to have a decent GFX card you should be able to offload the video processing to that and not kill your CPU.

So basically I think it should be fine

Edit: There appear to be a number of people who are saying it works fine for them (see the comments section here: http://www.netbooknews.com/18908/amd-c-50-benchmarks-gaming-video-playback-testing/)
 
Last edited:
Exterous said:
It has been my experience that mkv 1080P playback is heavily GFX card dependent on lower spec computers and that laptop (and older desktop for that matter) integrated GPUs are not up to the task. Since it appears to have a decent GFX card you should be able to offload the video processing to that and not kill your CPU.

So basically I think it should be fine

Edit: There appear to be a number of people who are saying it works fine for them (see the comments section here: http://www.netbooknews.com/18908/amd-c-50-benchmarks-gaming-video-playback-testing/)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info. On the 2nd page he doesn't have good things to say about mkv playback...hmmmmm maybe not so good for a XBMC box after all?

"When I tried 720p using mkv it was a disaster it was barely a video it was more like an abstract painting! I dropped the audio since I used Rhiannon’s live in concert and didn’t want to violate any YouTube copyright in case you were wondering. Surprisingly 1080p in .mov format played much better then the 720p mkv but having said that it was still not watchable. YouTube 1080p played flawlessly when I tried out the Planet Earth trailer."
 
Last edited:
After reading the comments that were left for the review just below it, I think the reviewer didn't use the right playback software for the mkv's, whatever he used probably didn't tap into the GPU for video playback, only the CPU which is why he said it couldn't handle it.
 
gigahertz20 said:
After reading the comments that were left for the review just below it, I think the reviewer didn't use the right playback software for the mkv's, whatever he used probably didn't tap into the GPU for video playback, only the CPU which is why he said it couldn't handle it.
Click to expand...

Thats what I am thinking. I did a brief search on the AMD C-50 setup and generally people are saying good things about video playback
 
Exterous said:
Just came across an earlier Anandtech discussion on the C-50.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2162404

Basically if the video can be run on the GPU it should be fine. If the video has to go through the CPU you would probably have problems. XBMC can be setup but you might run into issues
Click to expand...


People in the slickdeal thread I posted earlier are reporting XBMC has no problems playing back 1080P mkv's using this notebook, as long as the GPU does the decoding like you said:

From http://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=41031870&postcount=302:

"The big surprise for me is how well it handles high definition video. I installed XBMC on it and it seems to have no problems whatsoever with 1080p video. At this price, this would actually make a really nice low power HTPC, just get yourself a remote and you'd be good to go."

Then post #305:

""The biggest file I have is a 16GB 1080p encode of Fight Club, encoded with x.264 and in an mkv container. Playing over wireless, it needed to buffer for about 5-10 seconds, after which it played perfectly for the 15 or so minutes I left it playing. I don't have any full Blu-Ray rips, but I doubt they'd be able to stream over wireless with my G router. Maybe over N. I'm sure a wired connection would work great.

All I had to do after installing XBMC was turn on "use hardware decoding" in the settings."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top