Adobe recently updated their beta version of Flash 10.1 to include hardware acceleration support to Intel GMA 500 graphics and the Broadcom Crystal HD video decoder.
I’ve been following the Flash HD video acceleration news for a while now, as an admitted addict to sites like Hulu and Netflix Watch Instantly. I rarely watch cable TV and feel that these sites are the best thing since the invention of the TrackPoint. Up until now the Flash acceleration talk has been limited to discrete graphics chipsets, like the NVIDIA Ion.
Unfortunately the GMA 500 graphics are only found on netbooks with the Atom Z5xx single core processors, which are relatively rare compared to the ubiquitous Atom Nxxx models. Wikipedia has a partial list of netbooks with GMA 500 graphics, but no Lenovo models have used that platform.
Still, this is good news that Adobe is committed to bringing a good Flash experience to all platform and hopefully it won’t be too long before we see near universal hardware acceleration support.
Problem: Flash is a CPU hog and makes watching high res video on low-end systems impossible
Solution: Flash 10.1 to receive NVIDIA GPU acceleration and run on certain smartphones
We’ve been dancing around this for a while. The Broadcom HD Accelerator originally promised Flash acceleration support sometime next year. The VIA Nano platform for netbooks helped with some more horsepower. And just a few short days ago, a netbook was demo’d playing HD video via YouTube flawlessly.
Adobe has finally officially announced that Flash 10.1 will support GPU acceleration on NVIDIA Ion, GeForce, and Tegra products. This means netbooks like the IdeaPad S12 (if it ever launches with Ion) or the HP Mini 311 (which can already play Call of Duty 4) will now be able to play HD video like on Hulu or YouTube without a problem.
I’ve talked a lot about my love of NVIDIA’s Tegra platform and this just completes that picture. The forthcoming Tegra-based, Chrome OS running Lenovo smartbook will be able to seamlessly watch high-def videos, in Flash or otherwise, and likely get similar or better overall battery life than Intel’s Atom platform which can’t handle HD at all. Also, the new Zune HD music player uses the Tegra chip and its browser may eventually benefit from Flash acceleration. YouTube on the Zune HD? Yes please. I smell an app from Microsoft.
As for smartphones, Flash 10.1 will also run on the following phone OSs: Blackberry, Google Android, Palm WebOS, Windows Mobile, and Nokia Symbian S60. James at jkOnTheRun talks a bit more about the phone implementation.
Look for Flash 10.1 to hit sometime in the first half of 2010, and the masses will rejoice.
Back in June of this year, Adobe and NVIDIA announced intentions to bring Flash video acceleration to GPUs. We are starting to see the fruits of this with a demo of GPU-accelerated 720p Flash video.
The PC in question isn’t a run of the mill netbook, but one of the new HP Mini 311 netbooks with an 11.6-inch screen and NVIDIA Ion graphics. The German folks at NotebookJournal recorded a video showing the progress made by NVIDIA and Adobe, embedded below. It looks quite good, but unfortunately it won’t be available until sometime in 2010. (Skip to about 1:20 in the video to see the accelerated playback)
Trivia: What netbook are they playing the “unaccelerated” content on?
Last week we reported that Lenovo is adding a high resolution screen option to their IdeaPad S10-2 10-inch netbook, and the guys from Netbook News got a few minutes to play with it.
Sascha from Netbook News has a standard S10-2 and high res S10-2 side by side, showing the differences in usability with the extra pixels. Having used a standard resolution netbook display, I must say the odd resolution and limited number of pixels are quite restricting in the machine’s intended purpose: browsing the web. Most websites are designed to be wider than 1024 pixels and they certainly aren’t designed for only 600 pixels of vertical height.
The high res display brings things up to 1280×720, which could make for some viewing trouble if you try to sit it too far away from you on a desk, but in your lap it should be just fine.
As a little bonus, the Netbook News crew also has some footage of some new graphic designs Lenovo is considering offering on their netbooks. These are not just various designs on the top cover, but they also spill over onto the palm rest and keyboard, making for a nice aesthetic affect. Check out the video below or hit the Netbook News website link for more.
Facevision, a division of Quanta, has announced an add-in card for your ExpressCard slot that will handle 1080p video processing.
This type of device is mostly useful in netbooks, where processing power is highly limited and discrete graphics cards mainly don’t exist. Unfortunately relatively few netbooks actually have an ExpressCard slot and Lenovo removed theirs from the IdeaPad S10-2, whereas the S10, S10e, and S12 do have one. You can also find them on the HP Mini 2140 and Gigabyte Touch Note.
This device has better utility than Broadcom’s HD Crystal device, which requires installation in a Mini PCI Express slot, but a bit less functionality. The Facevision will only add 1080p video, whereas the Broadcom will eventually support Flash video acceleration as well. This is where video acceleration needs to go thanks to the proliferation of high resolution video on sites like YouTube and Hulu.
In our previous posts about VIA’s Nano netbook platform, we knew from tests using desktop hardware that Nano should beat out Intel’s pokey, if power thrifty, Atom platform in the low-power notebook/desktop spaces. Lenovo made their 12-inch IdeaPad S12 netbooks available with the VIA Nano platform over a month ago and a review of the Nano-based model was finally able to slip out.
The crew over at CrunchGear got one and put it through some less scientific paces, but found that it handled HD 720p video decently and even played standard definition Hulu video in full screen, but the CPU-intensive Flash video was too much for even the Nano when played in high definition. Hopefully Broadcom’s HD Accelerator will get the promised Flash acceleration support sooner than later and we can all revel in high-def Hulu.
Hit the link below for the full review of the IdeaPad S12 with VIA Nano.
Intel may lead the integrated graphics space in sheer volume, but NVIDIA and AMD (courtesy their acquisition of ATI Technologies) lead in features and performance. AMD is looking to step their game up and release a new graphics chipset that will have a sizeable lead over even NVIDIA’s offerings.
If you have a netbook or opted for the longer battery life option on your notebook, chances are you have a set of Intel integrated graphics. While these are great for minimizing power consumption and offer simple, effective dual display control (compared to AMD/ATI’s puzzling interface), they are very lacking in features and performance. HD video? Not so much. Gaming? Dream on.
NVIDIA’s Ion platform threatens to bring suitable HD playback to netbooks and at the heart of it is the GeForce 9400M GPU, which has a home in a number of other notebooks as an Intel integrated graphics substitute. AMD is getting ready to fire back with the Radeon HD 4200, codenamed RS880. It’s looking like the 4200 will bring a hefty 15% performance increase over competitors, which would include the well respected 9400M.
The big question on my mind is if it can handle HD and speed things up without killing too much battery life. Either way it doesn’t do much for me without Flash acceleration, which the Broadcom HD Accelerator should have later this year.
I recently wrote about how every netbook (except an NVIDIA Ion-powered one) needs Broadcom’s HD Video Accelerator, and now Broadcam has released a video of this beast in action.
The machines in question are a Lenovo IdeaPad S10, which does not have the Broadcom card installed, and HP’s Mini 110 which offers the Broadcom card as a factory option. The end result is impressive: the Lenovo’s CPU is pegged and still dropping frames from the 1080p video playback, while the Mini is barely breaking a sweat at 20% CPU utilization.
Here’s hoping Broadcom sells this puppy publicly, and soon! They’ve got a good chance to beat NVIDIA’s Ion platform in market saturation, as NVIDIA is still mostly on the sidelines.
I must apologize, it appears I am a little late on this one. Broadcom has a product called the Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator. Mouthful of a name aside, I think this is one of the coolest add-ons for a low-end PC out there and every netbook should have one.
Have you tried to watch the high res video on a netbook, or even a low-end notebook? It generally isn’t pretty, especially if it’s streamed through Flash like on YouTube or Hulu. Even if the video is smooth and doesn’t drop frames like crazy, you don’t have much capability to do anything else with the system and clear audio playback is questionable as well.
It looks like Broadcom’s CHDEMA (my own abbreviation) might change all of this. It is a PCI-E card that should take over dedicated video and audio encoding/decoding duties to not only reduce the strain on the computer’s dedicated CPU/GPU subsystems, but improve the entire process. Announced about a month ago, this beauty is now available for purchase, but only in the HP Mini 110 netbook as a $30 option.
If the HD support wasn’t enough, later this year or early 2010 will see the addition of Flash support as well, which is absolutely the way to go. Online video is only growing and with everything from a 10-inch netbook all the way to 100-inch screens via projector supporting HD resolutions, this solution is needed until integrated GPU’s can catch up. Or until Intel stops punishing people for using NVIDIA Ion.
There’s no word on whether Broadcom will sell the card standalone, which would be a great option for those who want to use their netbook for more than text. I would love a 10-11 inch netbook with a good keyboard layout, HDMI output, and this card. Hell, I’d like to stick it in my X61 to take any HD video strain off the puny Intel graphics.
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In our previous posts about VIA’s Nano netbook platform, we knew from tests using desktop hardware that Nano should beat out Intel’s pokey, if power thrifty, Atom platform in the low-power notebook/desktop spaces. Lenovo made their 12-inch IdeaPad S12 netbooks available with the VIA Nano platform over a month ago and a review of the Nano-based model was finally able to slip out.
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