Wmv-hd
 

Is there any portable PC available that can playback WMV-HD at full resolution (spatial and temporal), so that it can be used as a player when connected through VGA to an HD display? Personally I think that the videocard and the processing power in portables is too low for this application. Any comments?

the best laptops are able to do this, even an HD-DVD player is able to do this.

You have specific brands/types in mind? I don't think the problem is HDD or HD DVD player related. Processing power and graphics board's performance is the issue. Up to now I didn't find a portable able to play WMV-HD at full resolution without stuttering.

HDDVD?

I got one, how?

I am running a Dell Inspiron 9400 with a 2.0GHz Merom CPU (pre-release version) and a Radeon X1400 graphics card. It runs WM9 Advanced Profile WMVs (specifically 1280x720 at 60fps) with no problem.

Thanks for the info. This is of course a very powerfull laptop.

I'd say processing power is less of an issue now than video card and hard drive performance. A good dual-core laptop with a 64+ MB video card and a 7200 RPM hard drive shouldn't have a problem playing WMV at 720p resolution, and maybe even 1080p. Of course it would be best to test that first before buying any particular laptop for that purpose, but it should work.

Are you shure about processing power? Maybe WMV-HD has a very asymmetric codec behaviour, but I doubt...The 1080i HDV video signal has to be decompressed, de-interlaced and rescaled, all in real time, and I think, this needs processing power.

If you go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...hoosingpc.aspx it might help.

Thanks Steven. It looks like a laptop PC as a WMV-HD player is still a problem.

You guys seriously underestimate the clock speed equivalent.

Long argument short - GHz means nothing anymore, absolutely nothing. It is the worse performance indicator anymore.

That said my 1.6GHz Pentium-M centrino based dell 9200 benchmarks just a tiny bit slower than a 2.4Ghz P4 but is much closer to a 2.4GHz than a 2.2Ghz. AMD's 3000+ runs at 1.8GHz but doesn't mean it can't play back WMV in HD.

I have lots of WMV encoded movies and with my Laptop with a Radeon 9700 and 1.6Ghz P-m chip it plays back 720p and 1080p24 in HDWMV around 6mbit without dropping a frame. HDV is even easier on the system.

The newer core-duo laptops even more powerful, but what i've found makes a huge difference is video card. I had an AMD 3000+ with an older Quadro DCC card and it couldn't play WMV except at 720p30, a newer dx9.0 compliant video card made is so much easier, so if you want portable you can't be using intel GMA garbage, it should be a dedicated card.

Dell XPS M170 1920x1080p WMVHD
 

I've downloaded all the WMVHD see link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...tshowcase.aspx

They all play really great on the XPS. It has a beautiful 17" widescreen 1920x1080p glass covered LCD display so its easy to keep real clean. It has DVI, Firewire and built in DVD burner. It's a 2Ghz Pentium, 2Ghz SDRAM and 80GB 7200RPM disk. The sound card has digital out for 5.1 DTS when watching movies like T2 WMVHD.

Isn't Merom a Core 2 Duo processor?

I checked Dell's website and all I saw was the standard Core Duo processors offered for the 9400 or any other laptop for that matter.

How did you get a hold of a "pre-release version" of the Merom CPU?

AC

I suggest you investigate what Nvidia is doing with its Purevideo software/hardware acceleration concept. While I cant answer your specific question about portables, I can tell you that running Purevideo with a GT6600 card dramatically reduces the processor demand for HDV mpeg2 playback on my machine and lets it play high definition, high bitrate stuff that would have been a no-go otherwise.

My understanding is that current (or coming?) revisions of Purevideo will provide similar benefits for WM9 and H.264 ... its a rapidly developing area.