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Budget Laptop -- Glitch-Free HD

post #1 of 10
1/9/13 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Hi All--

My sister would like to get a budget laptop, but would still like to be able to stream Netflix in HD and perhaps other HD files as well.

What is the current state of play on hardware HD decoding on the integrated graphics chipsets? Do you need an HD 4000, strictly speaking?
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post #2 of 10
1/9/13 at 1:45pm
HD 2500 is sufficient. I'd take a 1080p film on USB along with VLC portable and test some laptops out. The newish Pentiums should have enough grunt. Celeron, uncertain.

Edit: Budget laptops are probably 1366x768 so 1080p is overkill, but if it plays 1080p, then it will play anything HD.
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post #3 of 10
1/9/13 at 5:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiddles88 View Post

HD 2500 is sufficient. I'd take a 1080p film on USB along with VLC portable and test some laptops out. The newish Pentiums should have enough grunt. Celeron, uncertain.

Edit: Budget laptops are probably 1366x768 so 1080p is overkill, but if it plays 1080p, then it will play anything HD.

Yup, cheap laptops don't come with high res screens. You might as well just go with a pentium or celeron chip.

PS I'm all for cheap laptops because they get dropped, stolen, lost, etc.

This is the cheapest laptop on newegg with a 1080p screen:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127831
Edited by jeffkro - 1/9/13 at 5:54pm
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post #4 of 10
1/10/13 at 6:37am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your thoughts. So HD2500 and HD4000 are sufficient. What about HD3000 and HD4500? Also, am I recalling correctly that the Atoms still don't have the hardware decoding horses?
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post #5 of 10
1/10/13 at 7:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dschmelzer View Post

Thanks for your thoughts. So HD2500 and HD4000 are sufficient. What about HD3000 and HD4500? Also, am I recalling correctly that the Atoms still don't have the hardware decoding horses?

I would avoid atom laptops. The intel celeron 847 is lowest you should go and still expect decent performance.
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post #6 of 10
1/10/13 at 8:46am
Thread Starter 
As I understand it, the Celeron 847 has an HD 2000 built-in. Is the HD 2000 sufficient?

Saw that the Acer C7 chromebook has the Celeron 847. Don't think it can boot Windows, unfortunately.
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post #7 of 10
1/10/13 at 9:17am
Celeron 847 will run around 85-90% CPU streaming Netflix HD. So, it will do it but it gets pretty warm. (This was my experience testing the desktop form of the 847).

1080p file played through WMC, the CPU was under 20% and things ran cool and quiet.

XBMC's internal renderer in Windows was a no-go. You get macroblocking with DXVA on and the CPU couldn't handle it with it turned off. If you're willing to launch an external player though it goes back to the 2nd bullet above.
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post #8 of 10
1/10/13 at 9:49am
Thread Starter 
That sounds plenty good enough for her purposes. Thanks for the report.

It would be great to be able to boot to Windows on that $200 Chromebook...
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post #9 of 10
1/10/13 at 3:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

Yup, cheap laptops don't come with high res screens. You might as well just go with a pentium or celeron chip.

PS I'm all for cheap laptops because they get dropped, stolen, lost, etc.

This is the cheapest laptop on newegg with a 1080p screen:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127831

Would the OP or "An interested bystander" be able to stream 1080 withone of the Tablets
Let's say a 7 inch offering from Apple or Samsung?
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post #10 of 10
1/28/13 at 8:51am
Thread Starter 
It looks like the Celeron 847 is getting somewhat long in the tooth. Is there any similar processor with a lower TDP than the Celeron 847's 17W, or will we need to wait until Q2?
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