[tubo88]

720p videos are choppy on my mini 10v anyway to boost this. im running osx 10.6.7

[underwhelmed]

Nope.
Dell 10V-the V stands for value.
The video chip is just not up to the job, and never will be.

[jmacie]

Sacrifice wi-fi slot, get a broadcom chip, use xbmc

[tubo88]

Originally Posted by jmacie

Sacrifice wi-fi slot, get a broadcom chip, use xbmc

Could you be more specific. what wifi slot and what is xbmc?

[jmacie]

O.K, You can get a Broadcom chip here--http://www.logicsupply.com/products/bcm970015--If you purchase elsewhere, make SURE you get this model, the other model won't fit. Remove the wi-fi card, install broadcom card. Follow directions to install drivers for broadcom crystalhd chip here--http://code.google.com/p/crystalhd-for-osx/. XBMC is a free media player that can use crystal hd for movies and youtube etc., for up to 1080p. Works great! Now, crystal hd CANNOT help your straight web surfing, or web videos, in osx, Only windows has support for crystal hd and flash. Then you only need a usb wi-fi key that you can use in osx, if you need wi-fi, then your set! If you need directions to remove wi-fi card, use your search engine here and search for ram upgrade directions, the wi-fi card part is easy and early in the directions.

[reflex]

Downloaded 720p videos generally have h.264 video (also called AVC). h.264 video is challenging for a slow CPU to decode without hardware acceleration, as is the case with many netbooks.

Try disabling the "h.264 loop filter" in your playback software, if possible. Quality will take a hit, but speed will improve.

And as mentioned above, Broadcom makes a couple video decoder cards, but on a 10v, you might have to use it in the wifi card's slot. Which means that you'd need to buy a USB wifi adapter in order to have wireless networking. And I dunno about software/driver support in OSX, which is a VERY important consideration.

In a 10v, I think you'd want one of the full height cards, but I'm not sure. My newer 1012 has a Broadcom card pre-installed (there's separate slots for wifi and video decoding on the 1012). The pre-installed card is a half-height one. A half-height card will work in a full-height slot with an adapter to line up the screws (or instead of an adapter, you can go for a sloppy install with tape or glue ).

This looks like an option that work: Newegg.com - Habey HB-VD920 Broadcom Crystal HD PCI expresses Mini Card AVC/VC-1/H.264 Enhanced Hardware Dec - Server Accessories. It's a half-height card with the full-height adapter, so it should work in any machine with a normal Mini PCIe slot (like most Dells' wifi slots) but it's a bit expensive ($50 plus shipping).