Dell Mini 10 with Broadcom Crystal HD Examined - Mobile 3A month ago, Ryan posted an interesting news article on the Broadcom Crystal HD, and raised the question what Broadcom meant by stating: “software support for Adobe Flash Player (v10.1), Windows Media Player (v12)“. Ryan’s concern was that Broadcom’s acceleration only applies to these supported applications.

Today we have our answer thanks to Engadget taking a look at the Dell Mini 10 loaded with a Broadcom Crystal HD (read it here). Essentially Broadcom’s Crystal HD will only work if the software is enabled for it – currently this means Flash 10.3 (with a driver update), Windows Media Player 12, and an unreleased Arc Soft Blu-ray player.

For 80% of the netbook buying population this combination is probably sufficient for their needs, but if you’re hoping to use a different software combination, you may be out of luck.

The article also points out that the Dell Mini 10 does not have HDMI output, despite it having HD decode capabilities.

Hit the article for the details!

“As for downloaded HD content, a 1080p WMV video of dolphins and the Iron Man 2 trailer from Apple’s site played smoothly in Windows Media Player 11 — something we’d hoped Pine Trail netbooks would do on their own. However, because Broadcom only supports Windows Media Player, that same MOV was like watching a slide-show in QuickTime. We’re pretty happy we figured that out before we went and purchased Iron Man in HD from iTunes. In turn, because Windows Media Player 11 doesn’t support Blu-ray playback, and Broadcom’s other software partners haven’t released players yet (we’re told ArcSoft is working on one), playing a Blu-ray disc if you happen to have an external drive isn’t an option at the moment.”

Dell Mini 10 with Broadcom Crystal HD Examined - Mobile 4