For a long time I meant to build something, a little cube PC of some sort, to do this. Used to be it was VIA's early mini-ITX boards and processors I was thinking about, but they were always way too expensive and had pathetic processing power. Then Intel adopted mini-ITX and with Atom you had something half-viable and prices are getting better. But NOW, Acer, Asus, MSI and others are going to just make the device for me, smaller and slimmer than I could build it, with Nvidia ION for really decent graphics. So its just wait for the best devices to come to market at good prices and I'll finally have the small unobtrusive sufficiently-powered media unit I want in the main room, and it'll be a far cry from my power-hungry multi-core video-crunching behemoth Home Theater PC in the other room that has the form factor of a 1970's VCR.

Look at the new OpenGL|ES 2.0-capable iPod touches and the Tegra-powered Zune HD – they've already passed most netbooks in 720p video output capabilities, at a $200-$300 price point, with many of the same basic functions (Wi-Fi, Web browsing, games, applications) in an even more portable, battery-efficient, touchscreen design.

HD video should be a perk of netbook design, not a centerpiece. Battery life is #1, price #2, connectivity #3. If you sacrifice any of these things for HD, you're narrowing the niche these things fill.

People prefer a netbook to be HD capable because it assures them that their purchase will not be outdated in a matter of one year! Not to mention a clear and obvious intent to make use of it.

There is no reason why a netbook should not be capable of acting as a fully-abled multimedia player because all of the necessary components are already there… including long battery living.

It's not asking too much to want full 1080p capability out of your third, fourth, or fifth purchase of a laptop. The screen has nothing to do with it. It's a given that cellphone-like devices will become the true laptop/desktop replacements if netbooks fail to meet such reasonable requests.

http://www.picoprojector-info.com/guangzhou-dar…

Of course, people want 1080p capability because they plan/intend on using it. Asking why is a silly question! It's not logical to assume that an overwhelming request for HDMI output is intended for netbook screen viewing! What else did you think they were going to route the cable to?

If they ask for camcorders that shoot in full HD, will you wonder why and lecture them on the fact that their laptop screens aren't full 1080p?

Movies – maaybe a better GPU will help, if you're set on watching an 8GB 1080p movie instead of a 1-4GB one.

Hulu – you do know that even a Core2Solo won't be able to handle it at 1920×1080 right? My 2Ghz AthlonXP desktop couldn't handle Hulu HQ at 1080p.

iLife – huh? What does graphics have to do with this?

PC Gaming – you're going to game on a netbook?

Skype – won't make a bit of difference as it's all CPU, even webcam streams.

So in the end, if you're connecting it to a bigger screen all the time, you may be better off with a desktop.