UNBOXING: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook
*UPDATE* Want to make your voice heard for a wide screen video player? Post in the YouTube Community Help Forums:
http://help.youtube.com/group/youtube-help?pli=1
This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Dell’s first step into the world of low-cost netbooks. The Mini 9 that I ordered has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 16 GB solid-state flash storage, 1 GB of RAM, a 4 cell battery, and an 8.9 inch at 1024 x 600 resolution.
This is the first video I’ve uploaded from my new Canon HF100 HD camera - unfortunately YouTube has no option for 16:9 wide-screen videos, so you’ll be seeing ugly black bars on the top and bottom. Do me a favour: email YouTube and encourage them to offer a 16:9 player for wide-screen content.
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Duration : 0:9:15
dude,,your vid are …
dude,,your vid are awesome,,,specialy the 22″ hp laptop ‘]
Yes, it’s 2.28 …
Yes, it’s 2.28 pounds - very light, very easy to carry.
- Jason
when you opened the …
when you opened the lid,,,it was so cute inside the notebook,,and the way you hold it,,it seems that its extreamly light!!is that right??
lol shiny black ya …
lol shiny black ya i got a dell inspiron 1525 with 250gb hard drive and 3gb ram and it has a street pattern so fingerprints show
okay. with mine, …
okay. with mine, its 2mbps 640×360 @ 30fps (160kbps, 48kHz CBR sound) in WMV format, and seems to normally take a day or so (or more sometimes) for the higher quality option to appear.
cool
cool
(oops…)
Really …
(oops…)
Really, the video player needs a lot of work beyond just the aspect ratio. The performance and quality (even the “high quality” mode) are terrible - even when minimized.
Oh… see I was …
Oh… see I was talking about the full-screen mode which, aside from the lousy compression, fills a 16:9 screen properly. Yeah, I agree that the standard player isn’t the most efficient for
OK, so it looks …
OK, so it looks like YouTube doesn’t want to hear from users: I spent 10 minutes trying to find this mythical “contact form” they talk about, and it’s nowhere to be found. It seems like the Community Help Forums (see sidebar for the URL) are the only place where you can make your voice heard. Please post a message there asking that YouTube deploy a wide-screen video player for 16:9 content. Yahoo’s video player is an example of how it should look and work.
- Jason
Some further tests …
Some further tests reveal that if I upload a video at 640 x 360, even at 3 mbps h.264, I lose the “High Quality Playback” option. I’d much rather have high quality playback on my videos than give people the ability to go full screen at the correct aspect ratio - going full screen at regular YouTube video quality looks horrible.
- Jason
OK, I’ve done some …
OK, I’ve done some more research and it seems like I didn’t explain myself clearly: I was referring to the lack of a 16:9 format video player - something that shows 16:9 video without black bars on the top and bottom. Something that would hopefully be bigger than what YouTube offers today. Check out Yahoo’s video player for an example of what I mean. I personally don’t think there’s much value in uploading 16:9 video unless there’s a player that supports it properly.
- Jason
No, not on the …
No, not on the Inspiron Mini 9…on the Mini 12, yes, it comes with Vista Basic.
- Jason
I’m exporting mine …
I’m exporting mine at 640×360 (WMV format, but use whichever you like). I get widescreen like that.
itd be nice if they documented it, i found out by testing too.
Do dey have vista?
Do dey have vista?
Thanks for the tip …
Thanks for the tip - I am in fact uploading 4:3 aspect ratio videos because I wasn’t aware that YouTube supported widescreen videos…I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wide-screen video on YouTube…can you point me to one?
Regarding the Dell, an additional memory card slot for storage expansion would be nice - but there are more netbooks using hard drives than SSDs, so it’s really just a decision that Dell made, not something the market is doing. My MSI Wind has 160 GB of storage.
- Jason
I’m finding it hard …
- Jason
I’m finding it hard to figure out exactly what resolution YouTube supports for 16:9 videos - I can’t find any official support documentation, just a bunch of YouTube help forum questions with no authoritative answers. 480 x 360? That’s what was suggested. I’ll try that as a test and see how it looks (publishing privately). I wish YouTube supported 720p resolution…now THAT would be sweet.
yeah, with my new …
yeah, with my new lg flatscreen tv,
its all shiny black,
and they gave us this huge microfiber cloth,
i use it for my ipod though,
lol
they do actually …
they do actually have an option for 16×9. you uploaded it wrong though.
make sure that your video is actually widescreen that you upload, not letterbox.
when people click fullscreen - it’ll be widescreen if they have a monitor that is widescreen.
Jason, are you sure …
Jason, are you sure you didn’t upload the video in letterbox (4:3 ratio) format? YouTube now allows 16:9 videos to display properly, but they won’t crop letterbox videos.
Anyway, it’s a shame Dell doesn’t have any hard drive options (or at least an internal CF/SD card slot), because 8/16GB is hardly enough to hold any decent software, let alone any music or pictures. But I guess since it’s a *netbook* it really isn’t designed to be a portable photo album.
unfortunately can’t …
unfortunately can’t find an email address to contact youtube - the help centre mentions a contact form but never links to it - can you post a URL we can visit to send in the request re. 16:9?
great re-unboxing, …
great re-unboxing, I think the keyboard size would be the only thing about this notebook that wouldn’t work for me… as for contacting YouTube about a 16:9 view, I couldn’t find anywhere to email them about that.
Yeah, I agree - a …
Yeah, I agree - a micro-fibre cloth would be a nice touch. Even better though would be a different finish option.
- Jason
Thanks, it’s good …
Thanks, it’s good to be back - though I really do hate the black bars on the top and bottom of my video. It sucks that YouTube doesn’t offer any 16:9 aspect ratio player. My videos would be almost twice as big on the screen if they were in 16:9 format. I hope everyone emails YouTube to ask for this!
- Jason
The Linux-based …
The Linux-based versions start at $349 USD, and the XP-based versions start at $399. If you get the XP-based version with every option, it’s about $480 USD.
- Jason
ill try to get …
ill try to get utube to do that
good video