[bjd223]

You sure this will work in the Wireless card connector, as I do not think that is a PCIe connection? Because I would be willing to put this in my wireless slot if it worked, and slap an internal USB wifi dongle in the mini. I am too lazy to take a part my mini, but if it is like other Dells then the Wifi connection is not PCIe as far as I know.

Also I am not afraid of Vista drivers, as they more than likely work for Windows 7.

[davico_rosello]

please somebody buy one!

[zeos]

Originally Posted by elchubi

if it works, this might be interesting for a group buy BCM970012 Mini PCI-e HD Decoder Chipset 4 UMPC BCM970012,BCM970012,PCI-e

good idea, if it works of course.

[bjd223]

I am probably going to buy one of these. However during my research it looks like the GMA 950 implementation in many Netbooks is not HDCP compatible. This means that you must either use AnyDVD HD and an application that does not have its own strict video card requirements. It looks like PowerDVD will not work with the GMA 950 no matter what, as the application says the Video card is not supported, even with AnyDVD HD running. Looking at WinDVD's site it looks like their requirements are not as set in stone. Also VLK can play back Bluerays, but you must browse the file structure and run the video file manually. Also depending on what format the audio is in, it may not play.

The problem seems to be the PowerDVD Advisor, that is in version 7+. As it is not in 6.5 and that version will play back HD DVDs on the GMA 950. However this version is very buggy.

My question is, has anyone used Blueray playback software (thats not old and buggy) on a chipset that was not listed in the requirements, and it worked? Even better if it was a GMA 950.

I could only find one forum thread online of someone who actually had the Broadcom card, and all he said is that yes he can play back Blueray; and his CPU, playing supported video files, went from about 75-85% to about 40% after the install of the card.

[bjd223]

Okay I am finally finding some good information.

After reading this

Nvidia ION Platform: GeForce 9400 + Intel Atom (page 8) - X-bit labs

Which is about a new Nvidia mobile solution that plays HD video it seems like the application "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" can play back HD with Hardware H.264 decoders. And it is free. Also if that doesn't work I will have to try WinDVD (but its not free, well you know). I think Software wise I am covered, and I will be able to get Blueray to play back on the mini even though it is not HDCP compliant.

Also in the article they talk about CPU usage being at 15-20% during 1080P playback (with a H.264 hardware decoder in place).

If I can get HD to playback at full speed (even at 100% cpu) I will be very happy as I have a decent amount of BD images on my media server. If it does work I just hope that HD scales well to the strange resolution of the mini.

All in all, I just don't want to have multiple copies of the same movie for different devices. For some movies I have had BD rip, DVD rip, avi, and mp4 (ipod). What a pain in the ass to have all those multiple files of the same movie talking up space.

[Douglas Thurman]

On my Mini9 before I installed OSX, I loaded XP MCE 2005 and WinDVD current version. Slapping an external Blu-Ray on it would recognize the disc and attempt to play, but the video would halt after a few seconds. For the hell of it I ripped the 25GB Blu-Ray movie file off and used Nero 9 to play the file in HDD mode. It looked awesome on the small screen with no screen tearing or skipping whatsoever. It seems to me that the screen resolution and video chipset are capable of playing HD movies, it's just a matter of finding a method that works reliably.

On a side note, for kicks I put my 16GB SSD in the Wi-Fi slot hoping to get extra storage, but the card doesn't recognize in Windows. Not sure if the slot can handle anything but a network card.

[bjd223]

Originally Posted by Douglas Thurman

On a side note, for kicks I put my 16GB SSD in the Wi-Fi slot hoping to get extra storage, but the card doesn't recognize in Windows. Not sure if the slot can handle anything but a network card.

Ouch that is not good. Has anyone used the WIFI slot for something other than WIFI and it worked?

[somms]

Originally Posted by bjd223

Ouch that is not good. Has anyone used the WIFI slot for something other than WIFI and it worked?

Dell : Dell 2.4 GHz Wireless 370 Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR) Mini-Card for Select Dell Latitude E-Family Laptops / Precision Mobile WorkStations : Wireless/WiFi : Home & Home Office

Sure, had put a Bluetooth Wireless 370 Mini-PCIe into the WLAN slot and it worked just fine after I installed Widcomm XP driver...

[cjako]

Are you trying to play 1080p on an external display? otherwise, out lcd's don't even accommodate all of the pixels in 720p..... I think 480p scaled right looks great on that size display. Maybe this is more up your alley if your looking for a media machine:

fit-PC2 Wiki

[bjd223]

Thanks for the link, but I have media boxes on two of my HD TVs. The real reason I want this is because then I do not have to re-encode all my current video files. It takes a decent amount of time to re-encode Bluray movies to a different format.

I like to be able to carry a laptop to a TV in my house, and stream a movie to it or the TV at any time (I have a couple of HD TVs). Right now I can only stream my DIVX/AVI files and non of my Bluray rips.