901+ more graphics horsepower?

My 901 running Windows XP (originally came w/Linux) has exactly
what I hoped for when I ordered it:

- Convenient form factor for a "walking-around" PC
- Great battery life
- Good durability (no moving parts save the fan)

But now I've taken to running something called SageTV
PlaceShifter on it.

Think Microsoft Media Center with a client to connect to the
server and play back recordings.

Anyhow.... the 901 chokes hopelessly on raw HD TV recordings and
isn't doing all that well lately on recordings that SageTV
dynamically transcodes to lower quality.

There's probably a way to tweak Sage so that it transcodes to
something more palatable, but that seems tb dodging the real
issue.

To that end, I'm wondering is if there's a 901 alternative out
there: maybe with a little more high-end graphics card in it -
yet comparable battery life and silent operation.

??
--
PeteCresswell

Per (PeteCresswell):
>To that end, I'm wondering is if there's a 901 alternative out
>there:

I should add that the 901 I have has the 1.1 ghz Atom processor.

I guess my real question is "Is there anything out there that
will render HD video, yet approximate the 901's battery life?"
--
PeteCresswell

Per Clas Mehus:
>For HD-video based on h.264/x264 you normaly should be able to
>playback video in 720P using the CoreAVC-decoder in combination with
>e.g. Media Player Classic.

I found a menu in the SageTV player app that lets me set the
on-the-fly transcoding parms and also turn on/off something they
call "Video Post Processing".

Going with default settings of 300 kbps, CIF (352x240/288), 30
video frames/second, 10-second key frame interval, and 64 kbps
audio bitrate the rendering gets noticeably better.

Turn off "Video Post Processing" and it becomes as smooth as I'd
ever want it. I even kicked video up 500 kbps and audio up to
192 kbps just on GPs and it remained 100% acceptable.

Don't take this answer as an indication that I know anything,
though - I'm basically clueless on this stuff.

>What format does SageTV has for it's recodings? What options do you
>have? Can it use third party decoders to get other formats?

For other than OTA, it has various options I don't know anything
about bc all I do it OTA.

For OTA, it writes whatever the tuner card feeds it. "Native
MPG" for want of a better term. One-hour shows in HD seem to
take roughly 6 gigs. The PBS show "Children of the Taliban"
according to the app's "Recording Detail" popup is
"MPEG2-PS[MPEG2-VIdeo 16:9 1080i@29.07fps, AC3/192Kbps@48kHz
Stereo eng, AC3/192Kbps@48kHz Stereo eng] Recording File Size:
6.06 GB"


>And what power-mode do you use in Windows XP while playing video?

I leave the 901 in "Auto" mode as indicated by right-clicking the
"Super Hybrid Engine" icon in the system tray. Never conisdered
the possibility that power mode might be a player in how much
horsepower the graphics card was capable of.
--
PeteCresswell

Hi Pete,

Overclock Utility http://www.gmabooster.com/
There are recent reviews of this out there.

The graphics chip also shares the main RAM so if you haven't maxed it
out already more RAM may help.

For my 1000HE there is a new BIOS which is labeled for Windows Vista use
and increases the RAM shared by the video card to 222MB. I don't know
if there is such a BIOS for the 901, but its worth a look or maybe even
an enquiry to ASUS.


Marcus

Per Marcus Coles:
>Overclock Utility http://www.gmabooster.com/
>There are recent reviews of this out there.
>
>The graphics chip also shares the main RAM so if you haven't maxed it
>out already more RAM may help.
>
>For my 1000HE there is a new BIOS which is labeled for Windows Vista use
>and increases the RAM shared by the video card to 222MB. I don't know
>if there is such a BIOS for the 901, but its worth a look or maybe even
>an enquiry to ASUS.

I didn't realize the 901 could have it's memory increased.

Without pulling it apart, I'm guessing that the slots are fully
populated and it would be a matter of getting bigger SIMMs.
Anybody know?
--
PeteCresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
> Per Marcus Coles:
>> Overclock Utility http://www.gmabooster.com/
>> There are recent reviews of this out there.
>>
>> The graphics chip also shares the main RAM so if you haven't maxed it
>> out already more RAM may help.
>>
>> For my 1000HE there is a new BIOS which is labeled for Windows Vista use
>> and increases the RAM shared by the video card to 222MB. I don't know
>> if there is such a BIOS for the 901, but its worth a look or maybe even
>> an enquiry to ASUS.
>
> I didn't realize the 901 could have it's memory increased.
>
> Without pulling it apart, I'm guessing that the slots are fully
> populated and it would be a matter of getting bigger SIMMs.
> Anybody know?

It has only one slot, it usually has a 1GB module in it.
A 2GB module can be substituted.
For example:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...Eee%20PC%20901

I went the 2GB route on my 1000HE, which I think is pretty similar
inside and both Win XP and Debian Sid with KDE4 were noticeably more
responsive.

You might get a chuckle out of this video, I haven't seen the handlebar
mount listed in ASUS accessories yet. ;-)
http://eeepc.asus.com/global/video.html?n=1


Marcus

Per Marcus Coles:

>You might get a chuckle out of this video, I haven't seen the handlebar
>mount listed in ASUS accessories yet. ;-)
>http://eeepc.asus.com/global/video.html?n=1

Gotta wonder if the guy at the end hosed his arm going over the
bars while watching his laptop....

Thanks for the Crucial link

For thirty-two bucks it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Just pulled the trigger on the buy screen.
--
PeteCresswell