Streaming Video on Netbooks - Are They Good For Watching YouTube?
By Mika Staplesson
Most people think netbooks are only for browsing online content. They're right to a certain extent, but are they aware of the fact that the largest part of all bandwidth is used to watch streaming media online?
Streaming video has been a smashing hit since it first appeared only a few years ago. Now every day millions of videos are watched on YouTube alone and there is no smartphone taken seriously unless it can play videos from the largest video sharing site.
Are notebooks up for the task? Have they increased in power enough to play online streaming media without a problem?
Netbooks tend to have the least power consuming hardware possible and it usually doesn't result in strong processor and much memory. The price has to be kept low and manufacturer would be unable to do that if they added extra features like dual-core processor and fast graphic cards.
The common setup for a 10" netbook today is the N270, N280 or N450 Intel Atom processor, which is everything but a computing powerhouse. If you want to get some word processing done, you won't be left alone, reading the news and your favorite blog will pose no issue. Once you find an interesting video on YouTube, you might be in problem, though.
N270 and N280 is the old chip, but still very popular and common in netbooks. The former runs at 1.6GHz, the latter is clocked at 1.66GHz, both with 512KB L2 cache, and hyper threading technology to solve some multitasking issues. The N450 is similar to the N280 in all aspect but the fact that it has a memory controller and graphic chip integrated.
The problem with N450 is that the latest flash, which YouTube still uses despite all the debate and fight between Apple and Adobe around flash, is enhanced by graphic chips. What it means is that since the integrated graphical solution in N450 slower than what most netbook makers used with N270, the video playback may even be slower than with the older chip. Integrated video chips also make external chips, like in Nvidia ION redundant.
All netbooks with these chips will run standard definition videos perfectly, unless you run something in the background. The usual 1GB memory vanishes quickly when media applications are involved.
High definition YouTube videos are more demanding than a DivX encoded video would be, you will need something more powerful than the usual N270 or N450. Nvidia ION plays them perfectly all the way up to 1080p, and while you may have some luck with N280 when trying 720p the overall experience won't be satisfactory.
Netbooks run YouTube videos as long as you don't choose high definition, but run out of steam at higher resolutions. You need to decide for yourself if the low upfront cost of netbooks justifies the inability to play HD videos from the most popular streaming media site.
Thank you for reading my article and I hope you enjoyed it.
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Article Source: Mika Staplesson
Streaming Video on Netbooks - Are They Good For Watching YouTube?