Video: NVIDIA's ION-based netbooks and nettops are go for launch

Things are finally hotting up in NVIDIA's ION camp. An official press release now tells that the first batch of "incredibly small and affordable PCs" (like the Acer Hornet rumored for an April 8th launch) are due in Q2 -- that's as early as today folks, on up through the end of June. Along with the new gear, NVIDIA is promising optimized software support from powerhouse developers like Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts in an effort to signal the platform's suitability for serving up 1080p video over HDMI in a home theater as well as gaming, photo editing, and general computing in nettop- and netbook-sized devices. Bring it, we say... we're so over Intel's GM945-class chipsets.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 9:22AM]

The short video is just a bunch of hype of personal opinion. It should be a video showing you the product, what it does, and what it exactly is. Let the people decide what they think of it, don't be filling peoples heads with other peoples opinions, before everyone gets to see the product its self..

[Alan Strangis Posted Apr 2nd 2009 10:09AM]

Uhm... they did show it off in Feb. Engadget had a link to a tweaktown video of it in action....

Running on Windows 7 they were playing an HD movie while downconverting it in the background. They also showed that it was capable of playing L4D at 720p (I think the guy said at medium settings). That's not to bad for a $300 box.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/11369/nvidia_demo_windows_7_multi_tasking_on_ion_video/index.html

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 10:04AM]

I am really looking foward to this. I just mainly want it as a HTPC :) I recently got a WDTv and it is pretty awesome but very limited. Ive read about the popcorn hour also, but it is still limited since you cant just do whatever you want. I just want to have a nice htpc that could handle all 1080p content plus be able to support any possible codec and also as a bonus download mame and load it up with arcade games :) and have a gui like a media center with support for a remote and i am set!

[movedor Posted Apr 2nd 2009 10:30AM]

It sounds like this low cost platform *might* open doors for HDTV manufactures to offer built-in HTPCs in their high end TVs. It seems to me besides CPU+chipset+memory cost, the other thing they need is low cost storage. If they manage get Microsoft to build Windows media center version that can run out of flash memory and store media content somewhere in the network, they might just get it done. Some (I guess it was HP only?) HDTVs have built-in media center extender, but they require a PC running media center somewhere, which is fine for a few people, but not for majority of consumers.

[finnschi Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:34AM]

yea i was wondering why they didn't just bundle theire TV's with a build In HTPC, probably due to the fact that it makes the screen Thicker, and they are always trying to make them thiner... who knows

[finnschi Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:08AM]

Thats EXACTLY what i need!!!!! W000t!!! for some reason our school bought a 1080p Projector!!!!! I want a ION netbook with HDMI !!!! (and still.... VGA ) ahh just give me all outputs ever made, and i'll be fine xD

YAY for Nvidia!!!

ah yea, and a Dual core Atom would be sweet!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:19AM]

SUPER excited as well.

The other benefits nobody's seemed to mention here are low power usage, and quiet operation. Perfect for an always-on, low-cost, all-in-one HTPC/home server solution. Putting it into a netbook form factor so that it can be portable is just the icing on the cake!

I really just can't decide when to buy in. Do I just wait for Ion? Do I wait for Ion with a dual core ULV processor? Do I wait for USB 3.0? Do I wait for Apple's version of it? :P

How powerful is the ion platform supposed to be? Output 1080p video only? Output 1080p video to a 2nd monitor while streaming audio to another room, and surfing youtube on the primary monitor? Dual screen Windows 7 MCE? It seems like this platform, with 4gb ram (CHEAP nowadays!) could be pretttty powerful, but just how powerful?

[finnschi Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:32AM]

I think its all capped by the CPU peformance... , but surfin youtube and showing HD content should work, since showing 1080p content only takes 20% cpu, you have about 80% left for youtube!! What do you mean by Dual screen Windows7 MCE? if you clone it, of course it will work...

I am personally going to wait for a netbook with following specs:

Nvidia ION
Dual-Core Atom(since i am a multi tasking maniac)
8+Hrs Battery time
10" screen / 720p resolution
Vga Out AND HDMI out (1 for projectors/presentations and the other for my HD projector)(although 1DVI-I port would work as well)

450-500$

So I'll probably have to wait until Windows 7 Launch.. but this is going to be SWEET!


one more thought tho... how much power will this consume running 1080p video??

[palehorse Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:03PM]

@Finnschi

Nvidia ION
Dual-Core Atom
8+Hrs Battery time
10" screen / 720p resolution
Vga Out AND HDMI out
$450 - $500

Put me down for one nettop and one netbook with those specks, as well as one matching low-profile dock for my main hoem theater!!

The scene: Walk into the house after a long day of work, snap my trusty netbook into the home theater, sit down, and proceed to watch whatever it is my backend server downloaded for me that day... at 1080p!

Going on the road for a week? Just bring the trusty netbook, 1 HDMI cable, and 1 small external drive...

GOOD SHIT MAN!

[Oli D Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:28PM]

I'm waiting for a 12" 330 Dual Atom with this chipset, W7 and an OLED screen, and an SSD.

Think of the battery life...

Maybe by that time there will be more than 2Gb max on Atom boards...

[bachviet Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:11PM]

If the price is right, I would take one nettop as my HTPC and one netbook as my travel companion.

Good thing I didn't jump on the current Intel Atom netbook and just sold my N800.

[omegahelix Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:19PM]

Hell yeah! This is long overdue. I can think of so many places I'd like to be able use these ion platforms. MythTV frontends. Kitchen multimedia box. Lightweight portable gaming machine. Net top I can carry easily between home and work and just plug into my extra monitor cable. And I may actually be convinced to buy a netbook if I can get some decent graphics.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:43PM]

linuxmce?

[Oli D Posted Apr 3rd 2009 10:55AM]

If your lucky enough to get it to install... :(

[jihiggs Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:45PM]

ROFL! looking at the picture I assumed it was a 5 1/4 front panel connector.

[Trowa Posted Apr 2nd 2009 4:17PM]

The VIA Artigo kit which also uses pico-itx boards can be mounted in a 5.25" drive bay, if you compare the case with ION's case they are almost identical, so in theory this could be mounted in a drive bay also.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:57PM]

Do they have an IR port?

[jsmrekar Posted Apr 2nd 2009 5:32PM]

yeah, it is next to the hayes 1200 baud modem.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 5:03PM]

NVIDIA ION can't achieve the smooth 1080p playback directly from Blu-ray disc due to the high bitrate (up to 60 Mbps), check this:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://www.frazpc.pl/artykuly/681/NVIDIA/ION/idealne/polaczenie&sl=pl&tl=en

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 5:17PM]

It's possible that Dual-Core Atom 330 could slightly increase the performance in high bitrate sections of video, but don't expect it will play smoothly all the time. I assume that little overclocking (up tp 1,85 - 2 GHz) could help to solve this problem.

[pcfishhk Posted Apr 2nd 2009 5:33PM]

I hate color coded audio jets, all jets should be gold plated, not plastic.

[mitchsw Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:49PM]

Look good, but I would like to have a network port on my computer thanks!

WTF NO INTERNET?

[Oli D Posted Apr 3rd 2009 10:56AM]

...Its on the back.

Its so small that they have to have I/O on both sides