As I said in the other post, the Toshiba S1125 is technically superior to the S1120. The S1125 has a dual-core processor (which means it will be better at running multiple applications, there are also a bunch of programs that are written to take advantage of dual-core processors) and a larger hard drive. Other than that, it has the same specs as the S1120.
YouTube HD actually requires some pretty specific hardware. YouTube uses Adobe Flash for displaying videos and Adobe is rather stubborn when it comes to certain hardware support. You can playback HD videos using a netbook that has the Nvidia ION platform (along with Nvidia's HD chip), a Broadcom Crystal HD chip, Intel HD capable graphics (the GMA X4500/4500MHD and above), and ATI's (which is actually AMD's) HD hardware. All of these companies make chips that are dedicated to playing back HD video. All of them, except for Broadcom, put these chips right on the same die/board as their graphics cards. The issue is that you have to find the right software that can unload video decoding to these chips.
You can purchase an Nvidia ION equipped netbook but HD playback will stutter if you try to use Windows Media Player for video playback. Adobe is currently working on compatibility with the HD chips I mentioned. This means that the web browser will off-load the Flash content to the hardware chips. This version of Flash is still not in a final release, it is only available as a press release. An updated press release is expected this month with a final public release sometime around the end of this summer or even this fall.
Either way, you will definitely need something more "run of the mill" to playback HD YouTube videos. A generic netbook configuration (Atom N270/N280/N450 along with GMA 950/3150) can playback 720p content with lower video and audio bitrates when using VLC without issues. CPU usage will be stuck at about 70% so don't expect a typical netbook to last for 6 hours when playing back HD content. That is where these different hardware HD accelerators comes into play. With the appropriate software, you will be able to playback a 720p video while CPU usage sits at around 3%. Much more power efficient and you aren't limited to low bitrate 720p videos.
|