Flash 10.1 beta 3 released, adds support for Intel GMA 500 and Broadcom Crystal HD chips (Update: 1080p Flash on a netbook!)
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 24th 2010 4:25PM
posted February 24th 2010 4:25PM
Rejoice, owners of netbooks with Intel GMA 500 graphics: Flash Player 10.1 Beta 3 is here, complete with hardware video acceleration for your machines. That should make Hulu and YouTube HD usable on machines like the Sony VAIO P and VAIO X, the Nokia Booklet 3G, and the previous-generation Dell Mini 10. The new build also bring support for the Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator found in Pine Trail Atom machines like the newest Dell Mini 10 and HP Mini 210 -- support we found sorely lacking when we reviewed the Dell. We just tried it out on our review HP Mini 210 and it managed 720p YouTube just fine, although 1080p was a no-go -- we're waiting on some updated Broadcom drivers though, so don't take that as gospel quite yet. We'll have much more on that in our full Mini 210 review; for now you should all get downloading and let us know how it's going in comments.Update: Success! We updated the Broadcom drivers on our Dell Mini 10 and downloaded the fresh Flash 10.1 Beta 3, and as you can see in the video below 1080p YouTube HD content plays smoothly. It's almost everything we've ever dreamed of for our netbooks. We are still having issues with the HP Mini 210 which uses the older BCM70012 Crystal HD card, but will have an update on that in our full review soon.
Isn't that Nokia Booklet 3G just BEAUTIFUL??
@SetThemStraight I must admit it is still the best looking netbook out there ... although it looks better on photos than in the store
@SetThemStraight
the vaio x is the most beautiful :)
@jaffreywali agreed, but $1300 machine should not be called netbook
@SetThemStraight
I think the Dell Mini9 ist quite sexy
My boy, this flash beta is what all true video viewers strive for
@jaffreywali Vaio p is more beautiful
@SetThemStraight
I hope the performance of flash 10 is jsut as smooth on webos and android
"That should *make* Hulu and YouTube HD usable on machines..."
Nice one, should make underpowered pc's a little easier to use:)
@GingerFox
I just find it funny that these netbooks generally have screens that are 600 or 768 pixels high. Not even close to 1080p. So why does this matter?
@Alex
To connect to your tv or monitor?
@Alex I completely agree, I was going to say the exact same until I saw you had. +1 my good man.
@streetfighters Thats utter BS. A netbook connecting to a tv is going to happen so rarely it's not even a viable use case scenario. It's meant to be a portable device, a more powerful phone with 80-100% keyboard and trackpad.
@FORDY
Yet, 1% will do it and will want it working.
@Alex
720p will bring an Atom to it's knees and that's what these machines are.
Being able to "play anything" is a handy thing. It's not the size of the output device but the "size" of the content that will determine whether or not the video will be playable on any given device.
@Alex
but 720p fullscreen on a 1024x600 display is just perfect, and does not fry your processor, with temps high enough to fry eggs on the keyboard. Not to mention that it would still get half the framerate without any acceleration (relying solely on the CPU)
I'm not sure if this will work on my acer aspire one, hope it does... Will use cpuz later to double check
@BubblegumBalloon do let me know, i have one too. our video card is just the intel 45 series so i guess 4500? anyway, maybe there is a chance.
@dr steve brule I had an acer timeline with the 4500m and a single core. I could play 720p youtube and most 1080p. My ASUS UL50 has the geforce 210m so I dont have to worry about that anymore, but when I switch to integrated I can still play 1080p with the dual core su7300. I dont know if that helps.
too bad most netbooks don't use GMA 500, but rather GMA 950, which has no hardware acc
@KevinQ
Ya, way to go Adobe, add support for the gma500 - real useful to the majority of netbook/slow pc owners.
@KevinQ I was excited until I realized that my netbook wasn't included in this. Come on Adobe, show us some magical love!
@balthazar - the GMA950 doesn't have any sort of H264 acceleration hardware, so what is Adobe supposed to support there?
The GMA500 is awful in many ways, but it supports supported higher-res video playback in the hardware, hence the Flash support.
@balthazar Nope. They're too busy rolling out the next batch of Acrobat vulnerabilities.
@KevinQ
yeah that sux,
my VAIO from 2007 has a GMA950 so no HW acceleration love there but it does pack 1.6GHZ core 2 duo so most 720p stuff works fine.
@NewL
thanks for that Captain Obvious. Next time
perhaps read and comprehend what is written
How long has 10.1 been in beta? Jeez.
Also, not sure what's up, but my Flash hates me. Everytime I try to upgrade to the newest 10.0, it says it installs, but checking the version shows it didn't actually update.
@paul34 You need to uninstall the old version first... RTFM ;-)
@paul34
It's been in beta since November...how long do you think betas are supposed to last?
@Tes Not 5 years like Google likes to do.
@TheLostSwede
Thanks, I'll give that a try. Unfortunately, that is not mentioned anywhere in the installation instructions. I guess I've gotten lazy... generally I do prefer clean installs when doing updates.
@paul34 it says it right on the beta download page, i just did it yesterday, and just now.
@killplay
True, but I was talking about non-beta Flash player (10.0.*). It doesn't have the specific instruction; however, now that I have successfully installed it, Swede's advice is indeed necessary if you want to have a successful upgrade. Otherwise it will "install," but when you check your version, you'll see it didn't actually upgrade.
Commenting from me iPhone
My Broadcom infused AppleTV is looking better all the time. :D
@(Unverified) Here's a question - if you hack the CrystalHD into an AppleTV, can you use a usb wireless stick if you still want wifi?
I ask because if so it becomes a very compelling htpc, considering the only thing holding it back is decent HD playback.
I've been waiting for this and was happy when I read the title here at Engadget. But ... when I tried it with my Lenovo S10 equipped with Broadcom Minipcie BCM970012, it failed even at 720p.
I have 3 OSes installed on my S10, Win7(homepremium), OSX hack(Snow), Fedora 12. I installed beta 3 on all platforms and all failed even at 720p. My broadcom was working fine with independent players before. For Win7, I use gom and mpchc -- OSX, I use XBMC nightly build -- XBMC for Fedora as well. I also tried other browsers. I guess I still have to wait for Broadcom Drivers.
Thanks Engadget!
Ok, I just updated the Broadcom Drivers from the website (which I should have done in the first place) and it had big improvement when playing 720p "2012 HD trailer" but it was still not flawless. Oh yeah, before the trailer ended, my firefox crashed! XD
@keplenk
I just installed the BCM970012 two days ago on my MSI L2100 (same as U210). Before Flash 10.1.3 and the newest Broadcom drivers it made barely any difference. But I just updated both and now it's playing Youtube 720p full screen videos with no dropped frames (or at least not noticeable) and 1080p non full screen perfectly. Honestly, the $379 for the netbook + the $20 for the broadcom HD decoder make for a $400 super lightweight HD playing powerhouse!
Oh yeah and Flash 10.1 beta also manages to CRASH my mac. It's not an isolated case at all so good job Adobe. Way to prove that Jobs is correct about you being lazy. I seriously do not remember when was the last time I saw osx crashing on my computer so your devs must be really good ...
@(Unverified) - it's a *beta*. If you require stable software, wait for the proper release...
@(Unverified)
Beta software is beta? WHY ADOBE, WWWWWWHHHHHHHYYYYYYY???????!!!!!!!!!??????
@(Unverified)
Flash sucks on Macs, because Apple won't give Adobe the stuff they need to make it not suck. which sucks!
I've never quite understood why Adobe can't just rewrite Flash to make it compatible with the iPhone and iPad. Why not rewrite it so that it is essentially HTML5? I am not a programmer so this may be totally impossible, but it seems to me that Adobe are being their own worst enemies here?
@ecobore
"am not a programmer"
Well I think you just answered your own question there.
@ecobore
that's about the same as asking apple to add windows as an OS choice...
@PBB
Just use bootcamp, noob.
@Tes Yep, looks like I stirred up a hornet's nest! Nope, can't use bootcamp on iPad or iPhone! Not that i would want to!!! I am fine with Flash on OSX, works fine, don't know why there is all the fuss. As far as I am concerned the iPad and iPhone should support it! I have two websites written in it! (I didn't write them!)
@ecobore Flash content works on the iPhone and iPad in the form of the Packager for iPhone tool, which will be in Flash Pro CS5: http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2010/01/building_ipad_apps.html
@ecobore
Adobe *CAN* write flash for use on iPhone - the point is Steve Jobs doesn't like flash. I had Flash Lite on my old windows mobile phone years ago, and although it didn't support everything, it at least let me watch Strongbad Emails and play plenty of flash games.
I wish apple would STFU and just get over their hatred of flash. As reviewers have said, the new Full version of flash for mobile may not run *great* on android, but it runs.
Its the same as when the iMac came out with no floppy. Steve Jobs just wanted to kill the floppy sooner, rather than wait for it to die. He's trying to do the same thing with iPhone/iPad. Don't know if it will work, but its annoying for us to be caught in the crossfire.
Though i could care less, i just want AT&T to get a damn Android phone that isn't the backflip!
-Taylor