Ever wanted to play 720p video on your low end Atom based netbook? But you don't have ION based netbook? Tired of skipping and slow Full HD video playback? I just found out a near perfect solution for any netbook, even for those with just 1,6GHz Intel Atom processor and Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family.

Required stuff:
- regular Atom based netbook (in my case Dell 10v)
- Media Player Classic Home Cinema (free)
- CoreAVC codec (unfortunately not free)
(mod edit: bootleg link removed, do not re-add it)

How to setup Media Player Classic - Home Cinema...
Install Media Player Classic. Click "View" and "Options...". Select "Internal filters" and uncheck (remove checkmarks) in front of:
H264/AVC (DXVA)
H264/AVC (FFmpeg)

Now go to Playback->Output where i suggest to leave the settings set to "System Default".
This is what i used and it worked really well.

Click Ok to save changes.

How to setup CoreAVC...
Install CoreAVC and open it's configuration menu. Set the settings like this:
- leave everything set to "Auto detect"
- set Deblocking to "Skip always"
- set Deinterlacing to "Hardware"

Click Ok to save settings.



However there might be certain scenes that are just too complex for Atom processor to handle smoothly.
At that point audio might go slightly out of sync, but as soon as that scene is over, the audio will sync again. This happened only with some movies such as "2012" but i have watched many 720p movies that have been flawless.

I was really surprised how efficient CoreAVC is. I mean, the capability of playing Full HD video on Intel Atom N270 is just amazing. So thank CoreAVC team for giving us option to enjoy Full HD video on our weak netbooks. Enjoy!

[Luphilaipe]

Wow Thats very interesting ! The codec is 9.99$ which is not bad.....instead of downloading it, we should encourage them ! That's what I'm gonna do !

Thanks for the guide Emviper1

[formerglory]

I like this, a lot. I'm interested in seeing how this guide plays out on a new N450-based system, like the new Mini 1012 model (without the Broadcom HD package, to see what this new chip is capable of alone).

[Brokenlax]

Its nowhere near "flawless", the n270 is just too weak. Until dell uplift the restriction on overclocking the processor (which is never) there'll be frames dropping every few seconds/crappy deblocking/artifacts if deblocking is disabled.

Also the integrated graphics doesnt even support h264 decoding, so selecting the "hardware" for deinterlacing will yield the exact same results as off.

[Emviper1]

Originally Posted by Brokenlax

Its nowhere near "flawless", the n270 is just too weak. Until dell uplift the restriction on overclocking the processor (which is never) there'll be frames dropping every few seconds/crappy deblocking/artifacts if deblocking is disabled.

Also the integrated graphics doesnt even support h264 decoding, so selecting the "hardware" for deinterlacing will yield the exact same results as off.

Why don't you try it before you knock it so not to discourage other users that this can help greatly. I was also amazed It does work I have been using this for months with my stock 10v no ram upgrades... I think it has to do with the Matroska media splitter that comes with CoreAVC and im telling you it works flawlessly playing 720p.

---------- Post added at 07:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by dtay

would this work with VLC? Good guide, thanks.

No the videos have to be played with Media Player Classic Home Cinema this sucks because VLC is the meadia player of my choice.

[spencer123]

Wow Emviper1 how did you find this. I followed you instructions and it worked...I Didnt think this was possible, great guide!!!!!!

[Brokenlax]

Originally Posted by dtay

would this work with VLC? Good guide, thanks.

No, VLC uses its own codecs. MPC-HC uses external ones.

No the videos have to be played with Media Player Classic Home Cinema this sucks because VLC is the meadia player of my choice.

I dont think you know how this works.

Originally Posted by Emviper1

Why don't you try it before you knock it so not to discourage other users that this can help greatly. I was also amazed It does work I have been using this for months with my stock 10v no ram upgrades... I think it has to do with the Matroska media splitter that comes with CoreAVC and im telling you it works flawlessly playing 720p.

Are you trolling me?

Ram has nothing to do with processing power, or how well mpc is able to play the video. and media splitter sole purpose is to split the video, nothing to do with it either.

Just here warning people not to purchase something (or in your case, pirate) that'll barely help them play their videos.

Learn about how things work before making a guide, and not try to be on the defensive about it when someone corrects you.

[Emviper1]

Originally Posted by Brokenlax

No, VLC uses its own codecs. MPC-HC uses external ones.

I dont think you know how this works.



Are you trolling me?

Ram has nothing to do with processing power, or how well mpc is able to play the video. and media splitter sole purpose is to split the video, nothing to do with it either.

Just here warning people not to purchase something (or in your case, pirate) that'll barely help them play their videos.

Learn about how things work before making a guide, and not try to be on the defensive about it when someone corrects you.

No one is getting defensive. Have you tried this yet or are you just going to be a downer? Because until you try it you cant have an opinion I can understand if you tried this found it doesn't work and then said what you said but if it works it works. The ram comment was to let you know I didn't mod anything out or change a thing it's a regular 10v stock. Try this and let me know your opinion because from reading your posts on other forums it looks like your trying to figure this out. I just want to spread the love of hd on minis there's nothing wrong with that...

[Brokenlax]

Originally Posted by Ray

Would someone comment on how QT Pro 7 performs on their 10v as a HD playback platform?
Thx.

You phrased that somewhat hard to understand....do you mean how well quick time 7 perform as a mediaplayer compare to others?

Both VLC and Quick Time uses its own decoders, and so far from benchmarks, it seems that VLC out perform Quicktime. (then again theres cyberlink which is like a hybrid of coreavc and standalone player).

Originally Posted by Emviper1

No one is getting defensive. Have you tried this yet or are you just going to be a downer? Because until you try it you cant have an opinion I can understand if you tried this found it doesn't work (yes, coreavc as the hardware decoder itself works, but im just stating that the n270 is just too weak of a processor to decode 720p even with the help of it, and it would be somewhat misleading if someone actually went out and purchased the software and not gain any noticeable difference) and then said what you said but if it works it works. The ram comment was to let you know I didn't mod anything out or change a thing it's a regular 10v stock. Try this and let me know your opinion because from reading your posts on other forums it looks like your trying to figure this out. I just want to spread the love of hd on minis there's nothing wrong with that...

Exactly what the issue is here, I purchased the 10v in hopes i could watch hd content on the go, but was quickly disappointed by how bad it performed (100% cpu on 720p playback w/coreavc, 4~10 frame drops on 24FPS show/artifacts).

Noticed that other eeePC users overclocked their netbook with the n270 to around 2ghz and got flawless 720p playback, and 1080p with slight lag, then only to find out that the 10v had a restriction on overclocking.

Back on topic, hd content is definitively out of the question, but 480p play back extremely nice.

--------
Now somewhat more off topic: since we are speaking about video playback, I found this userscript to very useful when watching flash videos:

Youtube without Flash Auto for Greasemonkey

Watching flash videos on the 10v usually uses about 60~80% cpu, and that can reduce battery life, increase heat, and might even damage the 10v over time.

What this userscript does is uses VLC's internal decoders to decode flash video, instead of using, well, flash. It reduces cpu usage to 10~20%, so you can stream up to 3 or 4 youtube videos simultaneously and it'll still use same/less cpu than before.

[dtay]

would this work with VLC? Good guide, thanks.