Broadcom’s PCI-E Crystal HD Media Accelerator in pictures
June 6, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Trying to watch HD content on a netbook can be a trying experience. Whilst 1080p is a no-go for most netbooks, some are able to play 720p video through various tweaks and choosing carefully which software to use. Broadcom aims to make that work a thing of the past with its Crystal HE Media Accelerator.
This device enables “flawless playback of all internet steaming video” according to the company, along with support of 720p and 1080p (H.264) video content. It claims that using this accelerator (in PCI-E or Expresscard/34 format) means that HD content will not stutter, even with a 100 percent CPU load.
This accelerator will be used as an option in the newly announced HP Mini 110 XP Edition along with the rumoured Acer Aspire One 571. However, if you have a spare PCI-E or Expresscard slot, there’s no reason you couldn’t use this in your current netbook to give a boost to your video performance. These add-ons are in full production now. Check out some close-up pictures of this card after the jump courtesy of ASCII.jp.
Via Portable Monkey.
June 9th, 2009 10:29 PM
Where are these available now?
I’ve fallen in love with the HP 2140 and the only thing holding me back is the lack of video acceleration and Windows 7. If I could pop in one of these in (I think its PCI-e slot might be used for wi-fi but it’s got an expresscard slot), I might go ahead with the purchase. I’ve been looking everywhere for information on this, but can find very little. Otherwise, I’ll likely hold off for something a little more certain.
June 9th, 2009 10:50 PM
The press release talks of these cards being in full production right now. As they only announced it last week, it will probably take some timt to hit retail channels.
June 11th, 2009 7:54 AM
Remember that once Pineview hits, this is old news. MPEG-2 and h.264 (AVC) video decode acceleration is implemented in the GPU embedded in the N450. So this sort of external video accelerator will be unnecessary. And Pineview may be available as early as October.
Personally I think that if you’ve waited till now, given that Windows 7 is coming out in October, you might as well wait a little longer.
Also, remember that NONE of these does anything to fix the big buggaboo of netbooks, e.g. full screen HD flash playback without stuttering (Hulu or Youtube in HD say). Until Adobe does some kind of GPU offload, even for the video scaling part, none of these will help make that work any better on netbooks than it does today.
July 3rd, 2009 1:41 AM
“These add-ons are available now.”
where exactly? I’d love one of these in my inspiron mini10.
July 3rd, 2009 2:38 PM
The press release says they are in full production, maybe they are yet to hit retail as I haven’t come across the Crystal HD solution on any site so far.
July 3rd, 2009 11:29 PM
that’s my point, if it’s only in production, and not actually >AVAILABLE NOW<, don't write that, it will only serve to confuse people. if they actually ARE available now, linkage would be very nice.
July 3rd, 2009 11:31 PM
another thing, will this actually be released under Broadcom’s branding, or by OEMs under different names?
July 3rd, 2009 11:59 PM
Thanks Sarreq, we’ve changed the text, as it was a little ambiguous.
I have seen previous versions of these Mini PCI-E cards sold in eBay under the Broadcom brand, but not sure whether OEMs will be doing their own versions too.
September 16th, 2009 4:00 AM
Can I just slap this into my Lenovo S10’s express card slot and get the high quality video to my external monitor?!!
February 17th, 2010 7:49 AM
For an ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-B is it of any worth,
1. Does the 1005HA-B have a that slot PCI-E slot
2. where to buy it.
3. is it more practical and economical to buy a netbook with ION onboard.