New netbook

[Scouse]

What one, how much?


Maybe ~£350. As many AV outs as poss.

 

[Zenith.UK]

First things first...
A netbook is NOT a media powerhouse... unless it has an nvidia ION graphic chipset. There aren't many netbooks with that chipset yet.

One is the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 but it cost £389 inc.vat.
Lenovo - Netbook laptops - S12 Multimedia mini

Here's a demonstration of it...
Lenovo S12 NVIDIA Ion netbook 1080p video demo - SlashGear

Then there's the Samsung n510 for £384.97.
Samsung N510 Atom N280 1.66 GHz - 11.6 Inch TFT N - Laptops Direct


Then there's the HP Mini 311-1000NR for £368.27.
HP Mini 311-1000NR Netbook | Overstock.com
Review here: Hands on: HP Mini 311 review | News | TechRadar UK

They're all ION based netbooks, and if I had to pick one of those three, I'd go with the Lenovo one (IBM by another name) because of the memory, hard drive, bluetooth and Win7. The demonstration also buys it for me... seeing it actually outputting 1080p while encoding HD video to phone quality is no mean feat for a small machine like that.

 

[Scouse]

Ta for that Zen. I'll have a good look at them

 

[Scouse]

Gah. Reading about netbooks I've come to one conclusion:

It's not worth it for about 3 more months, when you'll get about 4 times more bang for your buck.

Of course that means no porno skyping the bird whilst I'm away tho

 

[Zenith.UK]

Scouse cyb0rs with his s/o!

 

[Embattle]

Gah. Reading about netbooks I've come to one conclusion:

It's not worth it for about 3 more months, when you'll get about 4 times more bang for your buck.

Of course that means no porno skyping the bird whilst I'm away tho

The idea of waiting is nice but in reality there is always something better due and normally for less.

 

[DaGaffer]

The idea of waiting is nice but in reality there is always something better due and normally for less.

Agreed. Unless you have some compelling desire to use a netbook for Hi-Def video (pointless) or gaming (cramped), then current netbooks are "good enough" for what they were designed for, which is a bit of web browsing and on the move portability. OK, the next gen netbooks can run Win7 as well, big whoop.

The only reason I'd get a replacement for my Samsung nc10 would be because of new form factors; there are some new tablet netbooks coming and I love the idea of that split lenovo thing (although it will probably be an overpriced novelty); I'm also really intrigued by the NotionInk Adam, which looks like its everything the iPad should be, but isn't.

 

[Scouse]

The idea of waiting is nice but in reality there is always something better due and normally for less.

I usually agree, but these things come in cycles.

If you're gonna shell out 350 quid the time to do it isn't just before a major bang-per-buck hike. If there wasn't anything significantly better on the horizon then no problem.

As for whether netbooks are suitable for games or video, it doesn't really matter. Personally if I can plug one into a telly so it can double as a media machine then I think that's surely better than not being able to.

 

[Scouse]

So. Plumped for the Lenovo S12 in the end. Typing this post on it now.

It'll be good for what I really want to use it for (which is email/limited browsing etc.).

However, that "demo" above of the S12 streaming HD video whilst encoding another video stream is BULLSHIT.

Trying to play the tron 2 trailer from youtube in 1080p right now, fail. Tried it in 720p, jerk-o-rama.

It's plugged in and working fine and like I say, it'll do what I need it to do. But that's about it. Don't believe the hype kiddies.

As for Ion2 - the only benchmarks they've got are slower than Ion1 (not that Nvidia's doing their best to not let that little fact out). Much better power consumption but donkey-bollocks on the actual power.

Pretty tho

 

[Zenith.UK]

Gahhh...
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they used a custom video driver or some other prioritisation of processes.

Have you set your netbook to Maximum/Superior performance when plugged in on mains?

 

[Scouse]

I'm still playing old bean. It could just be that 1080p through flash player sucks ass - I'm d/l-ing a 1080p vid just to see if it'll play not through a browser

Still. It's pretty smart!

 

[WPKenny]

So. Plumped for the Lenovo S12 in the end. Typing this post on it now.

It'll be good for what I really want to use it for (which is email/limited browsing etc.).

However, that "demo" above of the S12 streaming HD video whilst encoding another video stream is BULLSHIT.

Trying to play the tron 2 trailer from youtube in 1080p right now, fail. Tried it in 720p, jerk-o-rama.

It's plugged in and working fine and like I say, it'll do what I need it to do. But that's about it. Don't believe the hype kiddies.

As for Ion2 - the only benchmarks they've got are slower than Ion1 (not that Nvidia's doing their best to not let that little fact out). Much better power consumption but donkey-bollocks on the actual power.

Pretty tho

In the words of someone famous......Youtube, you're doing it wrong.

You need the beta flash drivers from adobe to get it to work with the ION processor and do it's sparkly thing. I recently set up and ION desk top machine for my father in law and had it running 1080p vids from youtube flawlessly and barely hitting 15% processing power.

Get them here... Adobe Labs - Downloads: Flash Player 10.1

If you want it to do the same for hidef vids like MKV etc then you need to spend a whopping 13 dollars on the coreavc codecs... CoreAVC 2.0 (for Windows) | CoreCodec

 

[nath]

Either that, or try right clicking on the youtube video, click settings then "disable hardware acceleration" for some reason that stops stutters on my laptop from time to time.

 

[Embattle]

I usually agree, but these things come in cycles.

If you're gonna shell out 350 quid the time to do it isn't just before a major bang-per-buck hike. If there wasn't anything significantly better on the horizon then no problem.

As for whether netbooks are suitable for games or video, it doesn't really matter. Personally if I can plug one into a telly so it can double as a media machine then I think that's surely better than not being able to.

The only real improvements in netbooks recently have been W7 and NV Ion, the refreshes in Intel Atom processors isn't any thing major.

 

[inactionman]

Yeah, apart from some power saving, the new atoms have been a dissapointment! Still using my sammy NC10 until the slate comes out.

 

[TdC]

Scouse cyb0rs with his s/o!

who doesn't?


cybor...with....Scouse's......erm.....



oh, never mind

 

[Scouse]

In the words of someone famous......Youtube, you're doing it wrong.

If you want it to do the same for hidef vids like MKV etc then you need to spend a whopping 13 dollars on the coreavc codecs...

So, there's no free codecs out there that'll do the trick? Downloaded CCCP but yeah, it prolly just uses the Atom processor. Shurely shomeone on shourceforge is beavering away?

I don't like paying for things to make shit I've already bought work properly

 

[Scouse]

Oh. And is it ok if I admit that I don't even know what s/o means?


Other than "your mum"

 

[Scouse]

WPKenny are teh w1nnnarz!!!11!


Cheers old bean! 1080p in tubes de you and I've just tried a 720p version of a film and that was spanky too

 

[Zenith.UK]

Oh. And is it ok if I admit that I don't even know what s/o means?


Other than "your mum"

s/o = significant other.
A nice way of saying your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/lover and is gender neutral. If I said "your wife" and you were gay, you'd be unhappy with me. Same thing if I said "your hubby" and you're straight. s/o is a way of meaning that person who you care about most.

 

[Scouse]

I figured it must be something like that. But being t3h internets and the fact that it's so easy to get things wrong, I'd better ask.

Anyway, that's her on t' text!

/takes pants off and scurries to bedroom