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The Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator is a media coprocessor that adds support for HD video playback on computers with slow processors and graphics cards that normally wouldn’t be able to handle high definition video. A handful of netbooks on the market today ship with the card pre-installed, and hackers have been picking up cheap Broadcom cards from eBay for ages and installing them in a wide range of netbooks.

But the prices of those eBay cards shot up a while back after Broadcom introduces its second generation video accelerator and supplies of the original model became scare.

Now there’s another option. Habey is selling its HB-VD904 for $49.99 through Amazon and Newegg. This card is based on the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator, and can decode high definition AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and H.264 video.

Tjhe HB-VD904 is a PCIe mini card which can fit in many existing netbooks and other devices. Officially Habey is targeting system integrators, but if you’re not afraid of opening up the case to your netbook, this might be a way to improve the video capabilities of your Intel Atom powered mini-laptop.

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8 replies on “Habey sells the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator for $50”

  1. Try using ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater. I’ve read that having this app running is needed for the accelerator to work.

  2. I just got mine today and haven’t gotten it to work correctly with my Acer Aspire One. For MWV and MP4 it actually worked better with the card disabled than with it on.

  4. But it’s based on the older BCM70010/BCM70012 and not the newer BCM70015 Broadcom Crystal HD.

    What I’d like to know is why Broadcom flat out said they won’t be selling the BCM70015 directly to consumers?

  5. Now if only it was in stock at ncix ;_; I dislike newegg Canada.

  6. It’s a nice little accelerator for netbooks, no more transcoding x264 for portability!

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