News - VIA serves up ION alternative with VX855 Media System Processor

[HEXUS]

NVIDIA's ION may be bringing 1080p HD playback to Intel's Atom, but VIA has HD plans of its own.

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[Biscuit]

Its hard to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p on a 50" screen when your sat a good few feet away nevermind a friggin 10" netbook. Nevertheless its good to see things moving on.

Is there actually any well known netbooks with the nano cuz i havent seen any?

[TheAnimus]

1080p to 720p is piss easy to tell if you've got a 50", well it is on my 52".

Anything smaller than 40" it becomes hard, by 32" almost impossible.

But its nice to see that they will be offering competition for something that can be used as a media PC. Most TVs have side HDMI jacks, i quite like the idea of just plugging in your netbook!

[Biscuit]

Maybe close up or if you look really hard but at a few meters distance casual viewing its really not, iv seen the difference on a 47" 1080p LCD and a 70" (estimate) projector in my lecture theatre. Im not saying 1080p is worthless by any means im just trying to demonstrate how pointless it is on netbooks.

[MadduckUK]

Im not saying 1080p is worthless by any means im just trying to demonstrate how pointless it is on netbooks.

oh i dunno, having a netbook that can be used as a HD media player when plugged into a telly sounds pretty nice to me. certainly it will only be a few netbooks coming out that could have that feature, most will stay intel gma, sooo.. nice usp

[3dcandy]

Its hard to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p on a 50" screen when your sat a good few feet away nevermind a friggin 10" netbook. Nevertheless its good to see things moving on.

Is there actually any well known netbooks with the nano cuz i havent seen any?

How about the Samsung NC-20, just become available around the £330 mark with a 12" screen?

[scaryjim]

Given that Gigabye have recently unveiled a netbook + dock arrangement, I think the HD-playback netbook is starting to make sense. The dock sits next to your HD TV or monitor, and you simply pop the netbook in and out as you need! If the graphics processor can also provide a modicum of gaming at 1024x600 (for those boring train journeys) so much the better! The only real question is where the optical drive belongs...

Given that I'm currently considering replacing both my HTPC and my laptop, if I can do it with a single device I'm going to be very tempted...

[Biscuit]

How about the Samsung NC-20, just become available around the £330 mark with a 12" screen?

lol no, no different really.

Given that Gigabye have recently unveiled a netbook + dock arrangement, I think the HD-playback netbook is starting to make sense. The dock sits next to your HD TV or monitor, and you simply pop the netbook in and out as you need! If the graphics processor can also provide a modicum of gaming at 1024x600 (for those boring train journeys) so much the better! The only real question is where the optical drive belongs...

Given that I'm currently considering replacing both my HTPC and my laptop, if I can do it with a single device I'm going to be very tempted...

Good point actually, a dock arrangement would be ideal for these things, the only issue which comes into play IMO when you talk about attaching them to big displays is the hard drive limitations in comparison to HTPCs as you can use a HTPC as a good expandable storage device. I guess you can get pretty big notebook drives now but its more expensive.

[baius]

How about the Samsung NC-20, just become available around the £330 mark with a 12" screen?

LOL (sorry to plagiarise).

...for those boring train journeys

LOL again. I feel your pain brother. I know your pain. (Someone said that to me today on YouTube - it was actually touching.)

... dock arrangement ... Issue ... is the hard drive limitations.

Biscuit, couldn't you have a 3.5" HDD through USB (to dock), or even better have a HDD in the dock itself?

Just something modest, mind you, like one of those cheap, new WD 2TB Green drives?

[baius]

From article, "race to netbook 1080p" (or words similar).

I didn't know there was a race!?

I'm sure there's a race to 720p - if your netbook will even do that. (Only HP 2133?)

[Biscuit]

Biscuit, couldn't you have a 3.5" HDD through USB (to dock), or even better have a HDD in the dock itself?

Just something modest, mind you, like one of those cheap, new WD 2TB Green drives?

a dock containing a HDD which also acted as network storage would be amazing!... might be onto something there i wonder if there is a patent

[Funkstar]

a dock containing a HDD which also acted as network storage would be amazing!... might be onto something there i wonder if there is a patent

Never mind a dock, given the price of a Popcornhour (£210) an 1080p netbook permanently connected to a large screen would be great value. Would also make a nice now cost front end for MediaPortal, you could even use some velcro and strap it to the back of a TV.

[baius]

a dock containing a HDD which also acted as network storage would be amazing!... might be onto something there i wonder if there is a patent

Probably not yet - d'y'wanna say 50:50 on profits?

[baius]

Never mind a dock, given the price of a Popcornhour (£210) an 1080p netbook permanently connected to a large screen would be great value. Would also make a nice now cost front end for MediaPortal, you could even use some velcro and strap it to the back of a TV.

What's popcornhour? I've googled it but the first link is being really slow, so I can't be bothered to wait. (Also Wikipedia doesn't have a direct hit.)

[Funkstar]

What's popcornhour? I've googled it but the first link is being really slow, so I can't be bothered to wait. (Also Wikipedia doesn't have a direct hit.)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Popco...-and-Many-More

It's a Network Media Tank. It can either have a hard drive installed and play from that, or stream from anything else on your network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_media_player

[Biscuit]

thats cool but if you could dock your netbook onto it and transfer the files e-sata style i would say that would be the best thing since sliced bread