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HD Playback in Ubuntu: VDPAU on an ION Netbook

GPU Video enhanced playback is becoming more and more important with the availability of low cost Netbook and Nettop CPUs.

If your device features an ION gpu (such as my Lenovo S12 netbook) you will be able to playback even 1080p HD Videos using VDPAU in Linux. These implementations are also available for Windows as DXVA (Direct X  Video Accelleration) or NVIDIAs CUDA interface (which is not limited to enhancing video performance).

To use VDPAU simply follow these steps:

  1. make sure you are using the restricted NVIDIA drivers
  2. grab a trailer from http://www.h264info.com/clips.html – I used the 1080p Simpsons movie trailer
  3. download mplayer-nogui: apt-get install mplayer-nogui
  4. playback using vdpau: mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau The\ Simpsons\ Movie\ -\ 1080p\ Trailer.mp4 vdpau
  5. For comparison: mplayer The\ Simpsons\ Movie\ -\ 1080p\ Trailer.mp4   novdpau
  6. When using a mplayer GUI such as smplayer or gnome-mplayer, make sure to select vdpau in the video playback options
  7. Enjoy Full HD video playback
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Good News Everyone!

Season 6 is the upcoming season of Futurama and the first season of the second run. With 26 episodes, season 6 is so far the largest season, beating season 3 during the original run, which had 22 episodes.

From a broadcasting perspective, season 6 will be the seventh and the eighth broadcast season, with 12 episodes in 2010 and 14 episodes following in 2011,[3] which would make “The Mutants Are Revolting” broadcast season 7‘s season finale as previously hinted.[4] Which will make episode 6ACV13 the season première of broadcast season 8, but given it is a holiday special,[4] broadcast season 8 may already start in December of 2010.

The première for season 6 – and thus broadcast season 7 – is scheduled for 24 June, 2010.[1][2]

http://theinfosphere.org/Season_6

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Android 2.1 on HTC devices

A lot of 2.1 Roms with HTC Sense have been released for the Hero lately due to the availability of the HTC Droid Eris sources.

Stability and Speed is awesome!

Here is a quick review on VillainRom 3.1 for the HTC ( available at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622468 )

  • very Stable
  • great Performance
  • new HTC Sense and Widget features
  • Screen Overview (press Home on the Homescreen or Pinch)
  • all working 2.1 features (Market, Navigation, Energy Manager)

The official release for the 2.1 Hero Rom is yet to come but regarding the VillainRom you wont have to wait any longer for the stable Android 2.1 with HTC Sense.

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