More ASUS Eee Pad Details, No MKV Support on 10" Model
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 2, 2010 10:11 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- Computex 2010
- Eee Pad
- Asus
At the start of Computex ASUS unveiled its two tiered approach to an iPad competitor: the 12" Eee Pad running Windows 7 Home Premium on an Intel CULV Core 2 Duo, and the 10" model running Windows Embedded Compact 7 on NVIDIA's Tegra 2. Yesterday ASUS answered some additional questions we had about the models:
- Both Eee Pads have a 1366 x 768 resolution
- Both support 802.11 b/g/n with optional 3G
- 1080p H.264 decode acceleration is supported on both platforms.
- The 10" Eee Pad will not support MKVs at this time
I also got clarification on the minimum focus distance for the camera on the Eee Pad. It's 10cm, not 10mm as ASUS originally told us.
There's nothing terribly surprising about these details, but the lack of MKV support out of the box for the 10" Eee Pad is disappointing. There's enough ambiguity in ASUS' statement to not give up all hope, but I'm not sure this will be the play anything iPad alternative that many were hoping for from the first Tegra 2 tablets.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
32 Comments
View All Comments
austonia - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
Support for DXVA-complaint mkv / x264 / AC3 (& DTS) is essential.DWMorse - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
What IS it?MKV is a flexible, open standard video file format that has quickly become the preferred file extension for high definition video on the Internet. It natively supports features like alternate audio tracks, multilingual subtitles and chapter points, as well as rich metadata authoring including cover art, ratings, descriptions and more. These features made it the perfect choice for DivX Plus™ HD video, allowing us to create an ideal viewing experience.
-
I consider myself fairly internet-savvy, and haven't come across a single .MKV yet.
Murloc - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
ripped dvd video --> aviripped blu-ray video --> mkv
you probably never downloaded any hd video (you only watched them on youtube maybe)
bigboxes - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
I rip DVDs into mkv. You don't need mkv for blu-ray either. AVI and MKV are just containers. Also, if this is Windows 7 is there any reason that you can't just install another media player? Are we just talking about an embedded default media player? I figured that the whole reason not to get an iPad was so that you could customize your device as you see fit.kkwst2 - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
That's true to some extent, but you understand that the 10" model runs Win embedded, which is the new name for CE, the same platform Win Mobile is based off of. So your options will be limited.Maybe you can get CorePlayer or something like that to install, which supports MKV, but I'm not positive this will be the case, as it was built for Win Mo, which is a customized build of Win Embedded Compact. So there may be dependencies not on the device. Maybe someone else can comment further.
bigboxes - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
Yeah, it seems that the 10" is a stripped down version and doesn't offer you much in customization options. Like I said, I figured the makers of iPad alternatives would want to emphasize full customization. That is I would never buy an iPad as long as I couldn't choose what I wanted to do with it. I hate the artificial limitations.medi01 - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
You could use mp4 container just fine.Most people who use mkv dont' really need it.
mkv seems to have a lot of "power" at expense of unnecessary processing complexity.
austonia - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
you don't have to look very far - usenet binaries, bittorrent, etc. pretty much all HD TV caps and HD movie releases are in mkv / x264. hundreds of GBs of new stuff every day. the internet is like a big DVR thanks to the efforts of some groups. also some videophiles like to rip their own DVDs / blurays in the same fashion for easy access on storage arrays. of course this is only referring to content that is legally distributed / public domain / homegrown / not subject to DMCA. remember kids, don't copy that floppy.probedb - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
Divx adopted MKV for their DivX-HD format I believe.It's just a container format but it's far better than AVI and various others. Plus I believe it's open source?
zdzichu - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
Also, Google's WebM is MKV.