How to watch 720p mkv x264 movies on an Acer Aspire One Windows XP Netbook

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The Acer Aspire One Netbook boasts a 1.6-GHz Atom processor, 1GB of ram and an 8.9-inch, 1024-by-600-pixel display. Despite these somewhat low specs compared to today's Media Center PC's, it is possible to play high resolution 720p WMV-HD or x264 MKV files, and output the display through it's VGA connector to a bigscreen TV.

Things You Will Need:

CoreAVC codec You can download a 30-Day trial version here, or purchase it for 8 dollars. (or torrent)

AC3Filter

Media Player Classic: Home Cinema Edition (the home cinema edition adds the feature to remove tearing issues with VGA output)

Combined Community Codec Pack (For all other movie formats) (but for me im not using this)

A VGA cable

A TV with a VGA input

A cable to connect your Headphone Jack to your home theater audio system.

Step 1 Install CoreAVC codec and AC3 Filter (optionally the combined community codec pack). Extract mplayerc.exe from the Media Player Classic: Home Cinema Edition.

Step 2 Start > Programs > CoreCodec > Configure CoreAVC

Step 3 Deblocking - Select Skip Always

Step 4 Check Preferred Decoder, click OK.

Step 5 Start > Programs > AC3Filter > AC3Filter Config

Step 6 Output Format > Select either 2/0 Stereo or Dolby ProLogic II depending on your stereo config. (The soundcard can't do dolby digital, you would need to buy an external soundcard for that) Click OK.

Step 7 Launch mplayerc.exe

Step 8 View > Options > External Filters > Add Filter... Select CoreAVC Video Decoder and click OK. Now select it in the list of External Filters and make sure that "Prefer" is selected.

Step 9 Playback > Output Select VMR9 (renderless) ** and make sure Direct3D Fullscreen (remove tearing) is selected. Click OK.

With this setup, it is possible to connect to an LCD TV with a resolution of 1900x1080 and play 720p movies with no skipping.

Tips & Warnings

Note that because we are using Direct3D to render the display to stop tearing, we lose any context menus when playing a video, so you have to learn to use the keyboard to navigate through a movie. Ctrl+C closes the movie file so you can get back to the menus. One option in particular that helps is View > Options Miscellaneous > Remember File position so I don't have to navigate through movies so often.

Also, you may want to turn off subtitles, Start > Programs Combined Community Codec Pack > Filters > VSFilter Configuration > General > Loading > Do not load > OK. (But for me Subs still work fine)

Source: http://www.infobarrel.com/How_to_watch_720p_mkv_x264_movies_on_an_Acer_Aspire_One_Windows_XP_Netbook

Im surprised this really worked for me, now I can watch Highschool Of The Dead Bluray 720p on my netbook. !!! this guy really needs a reward or something for this awesome find haha

Im pretty sure this will help anyone else also thats using a netbook, not just a acer aspire one. or hell any laptop. So I hope this works for everyone else also