MSI Wind re-badged alternative :)
- Thread starter Bradmax57
- Start date
here's mine, blow xp away and installed kubuntu hardy
What wireless drivers are you using? Not recognised as standard and the hacked drivers are being mega iffy for me.
i've used the ones on the msiwind ubuntu wiki, though i haven't had much of a chance to use the wifi yet, its been plugged into the eth0 most of the time.
Just really doesnt enjoy using WPA personal and WEP 64 is iffy, just disabled security and using mac filtering for now.
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Anybody considered the Medion Akoya mini? Seems to be simply another MSI Wind but there's stock around already. £299 puts it above the Advent but an option perhaps...anybody know anything?
* Lacks bluetooth
* Has low resolution webcam
* Has wireless Draft N
No available RAM slot iirc aswell.
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Just got mine today, left the default XP Home install on but binned all the techguy rubbish and put my own bits and bobs on. Flashed the bios to the latest MSI version and installed the latest wireless/webcam software.
I was waiting for the CPW/Elonex webbook which should be on sale now - after playing with an early production version, the keys are too small - screen is not bad though and its not using an Atom CPU. I was also going to wait for the Acer Aspire One if the webbook didn't fit my requirements but heard that its non upgradable (hard soldered ram and ssd).
My personal comments on the Advent/MSI is that its just the right size, the 10 inch screen isnt too small and the keyboard seems a nice size (admittingly I have quite small hands). The built in webcams resolution is good and the microphone at the top right of the screen is also handy.
As for speed, the machine has a Western Digital 80GB harddisk which is quite nippy anyway - the machine is just like a normal laptop but smaller and easy to transport. Cant recommended it enough to be honest.
I was waiting for the CPW/Elonex webbook which should be on sale now - after playing with an early production version, the keys are too small - screen is not bad though and its not using an Atom CPU. I was also going to wait for the Acer Aspire One if the webbook didn't fit my requirements but heard that its non upgradable (hard soldered ram and ssd).
My personal comments on the Advent/MSI is that its just the right size, the 10 inch screen isnt too small and the keyboard seems a nice size (admittingly I have quite small hands). The built in webcams resolution is good and the microphone at the top right of the screen is also handy.
As for speed, the machine has a Western Digital 80GB harddisk which is quite nippy anyway - the machine is just like a normal laptop but smaller and easy to transport. Cant recommended it enough to be honest.
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Cheers theres not a great deal of info out there about it yet. Hmm so 2 negatives, a positive & a tbc then...still quite tempted it looks pretty decent and who knows maybe draft n compatibility will be useful in the future. Re: the webcam it says 'VGA' is that worse than the Advents?
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- 1 Jul 2006
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acer ones too
Acer ones are now at the same evil shop.
I have gone for installing Sabayon on my MSI wind, for those that want to try it too, I haven't got the wireless working yet (not really tried tho'). Eeepc/Umpc option is not that great but the std install or just running off the live dvd with compiz is pretty slick.
For those that have not heard of Sabayon its a bit like Gentoo without the compiling compiz runs out of the box and its not poo brown like ubuntu. Also has Suse's Kicker menu in kde for vista like 'Start' menu.
audio, ethernet and graphics seem to detect ok. boot time currently well up on XP's rather impressive 32 seconds,
Acer ones are now at the same evil shop.
I have gone for installing Sabayon on my MSI wind, for those that want to try it too, I haven't got the wireless working yet (not really tried tho'). Eeepc/Umpc option is not that great but the std install or just running off the live dvd with compiz is pretty slick.
For those that have not heard of Sabayon its a bit like Gentoo without the compiling compiz runs out of the box and its not poo brown like ubuntu. Also has Suse's Kicker menu in kde for vista like 'Start' menu.
audio, ethernet and graphics seem to detect ok. boot time currently well up on XP's rather impressive 32 seconds,
What is the battery life on these models like? I have heard that it is quite low due to a smaller battery. Is this the case? The mentioned competitor websites above don't seem to go into that much detail regarding the specifications. If it is a smaller battery is it possible to buy later ones, and at what expense?
Thanks
Thanks
Battery life is pretty poor tbh, 2-3 hours max in XP with power saving and wifi on, only 2hrs in linux.
Hopefully the 6-cell batteries will start appearing soon and double the life, its really a must for this type of machine.
Hopefully the 6-cell batteries will start appearing soon and double the life, its really a must for this type of machine.
. Just done some more googling on the issue and yeah just a case of waiting for the 6-cell to appear. Presumably as this is the exact same machine as the Wind using a 6-cell Wind battery is completely fine.HD playback on the Advent 4211
Ok everyone, thought i'd whack together a brief guide on getting HD playback working on the Advent 4211 (MSI Wind), well 720p at least (not tried 1080p yet).
So here we go.......
First off, if you havent already get rid of the crappy competitor install (I work for them so I'm allowed to dis their preinstalled stuff!). I run XP+SP3 installed off a USB stick.
Ok so here we go, get your drivers etc. up to date and then get these files/apps.
KMPlayer
CoreAVC Pro
Haali Media Splitter
1) Install KMPlayer
2) Install CoreAVC
3) Install Haali Media Splitter - Untick all options during install:
4) Once these are installed open up KMPlayer
5) Right click in the player window and goto:
6) Options ---> Preferences General --->Playback---Work Priority
7) Tick Enable SuperSpeed and Goto:
8) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->Internal Video Decoder
9) Untick H.264 and AVC1:
10) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->External Video Decoder
11) Set H.264 Video and AVC1 Video to System Default
12) Click the "c" next to H.264 and this should display the CoreAVC settings
13) Tick Preferred decoder and click Close
14) Still within the KMPlayer settings Goto:
15) Filter Control---->Splitter
16) Select System default for Matroska and Goto:
17) Filter control---->Source Filter--->The Rest tab
18) Tick Matroska
19) Click Close which will save the settings
Tada, HD mkv playback on your £250 ultra portable laptop.
Sorry for the crap pic, taken with phone. I promise you that is HD lol.
Admittedly, the screen is to low to res to appreceiate it, but it works nicely over VGA output and the increased bitrate of HD stuff even on a smaller screen is still very noticeable.
Ok everyone, thought i'd whack together a brief guide on getting HD playback working on the Advent 4211 (MSI Wind), well 720p at least (not tried 1080p yet).
So here we go.......
First off, if you havent already get rid of the crappy competitor install (I work for them so I'm allowed to dis their preinstalled stuff!). I run XP+SP3 installed off a USB stick.
Ok so here we go, get your drivers etc. up to date and then get these files/apps.
KMPlayer
CoreAVC Pro
Haali Media Splitter
1) Install KMPlayer
2) Install CoreAVC
3) Install Haali Media Splitter - Untick all options during install:
4) Once these are installed open up KMPlayer
5) Right click in the player window and goto:
6) Options ---> Preferences General --->Playback---Work Priority
7) Tick Enable SuperSpeed and Goto:
8) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->Internal Video Decoder
9) Untick H.264 and AVC1:
10) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->External Video Decoder
11) Set H.264 Video and AVC1 Video to System Default
12) Click the "c" next to H.264 and this should display the CoreAVC settings
13) Tick Preferred decoder and click Close
14) Still within the KMPlayer settings Goto:
15) Filter Control---->Splitter
16) Select System default for Matroska and Goto:
17) Filter control---->Source Filter--->The Rest tab
18) Tick Matroska
19) Click Close which will save the settings
Tada, HD mkv playback on your £250 ultra portable laptop.
Sorry for the crap pic, taken with phone. I promise you that is HD lol.
Admittedly, the screen is to low to res to appreceiate it, but it works nicely over VGA output and the increased bitrate of HD stuff even on a smaller screen is still very noticeable.
720p stuff is absolutely fine, no stuttering even skips through quickly. The secret is CoreAVC, its just the best software decoder by a million miles. I can watch 720p hd on my mums 1.4 smelleron with 512 ram quite happily.
I recommend following it regardless of your spec, the player/codec combo is a LOT better than VLC/ffdshow.
