5 reasons Blu-ray is a failure in the European market

Most of the sales of Blu-ray discs happen in the US. Most of the sales of Blu-ray recorders happen in Japan. The European market, while potentially bigger, is lagging behind the two other main consumer electronics markets. I have narrowed down the reasons behind the failure of Blu-ray to crack the European market to a few major points:

1. Standard PAL DVD are high resolution already

The US and Japan DVDs are using the inferior NTSC standard while the European DVDs market use the superior PAL standard. An NTSC DVD has 480 lines, a PAL DVD has 576 lines and a Blu-ray has 720 or 1080 lines. This means that the difference between DVD and Blu-ray is much smaller in Europe. In the US market consumer will probably notice a big improvement between SD and 720p Blu-ray content, but most European consumer won't see a big difference unless the content is 1080p!

2. Blu-ray requires a bigger television than most Europeans have.

To really see a difference in quality between PAL DVDs and Blu-ray you need at least a 37 inch screen. The problem is that the most popular screen size in the European market is 32 inches. European consumers don't seem to have the appetite of their US counterpart for huge screens. The problem for Blu-ray is that an upscaled PAL DVD will already deliver a good quality image on a 32 inch screen, meaning that for a large part of the European market Blu-ray resolutions are overkill.

3. Blu-ray is too expensive in Europe.

The price of Blu-ray players and discs has not come down in the European market like it has in the US. It is very difficult to find a sub $300 Blu-ray players in Europe, and most quality models cost at least $400. The same problem exist for the discs: most new releases cost around $20 on DVD but cost more than $30 on Blu-ray. Worse, most back catalog titles are available under $10 on DVD but still cost $25 to $30 on Blu-ray. Few people are willing to pay the 250% premium, so Blu ray remains a luxury item. The failure of Blu-ray prices to reach a mass market level in Europe is of course hindering adoption of the format.

4. The lack of “free to air” European HD channels is hurting Blu-ray burner sales

One of the reason Blu-ray burners are selling like hot cakes in Japan is that a lot of TV channels are in HD. This means a lot of HD content to record. In most part of Europe HD channels are uncommon, and when they exist they are often provided trough cable or satellite. The cable and satellite providers often restrict recording of HD content to their approved set top boxes. This means that there is very little HD content to record, so Blu-ray burners don't sell. The failure is so deep that stand-alone Blu-ray recorders practically don't exist outside of Japan.

5. No Blu-ray on Linux

Desktop Linux is more popular in Europe than in the US. The lack of Blu-ray player software for Linux is hurting the adoption amongst a lot of the most tech savvy users. The problem is that these are the folks that would usually be the early adopters of this kind of product. Instead of pushing the advantages of Blu-ray in image quality to their friends and relatives many European technology gurus have given Blu-ray an image of poor compatibility and excessive DRM.

What needs to change?

To let Blu-ray avoid failure in Europe a few things need to change. First the prices must come down to the level they are at in the US. Second more HD content needs to be available for burning. Cable and satellite providers must be encouraged to open their HD content to Blu-ray recording, or pushed to include a Blu-ray recorder as standard in their set-top boxes. The Blu-ray association must loosen the controls on Blu-ray playback software and encourage the creation and availability of some Blu-ray player software for Linux. Most importantly, the backers of Blu-ray must realize that the HD image quality argument doesn't work in “small screen TV” Europe like it works in the “big screen TV” US. They must develop and promote other advantages of Blu-ray like mandatory managed copy and downloadable extras.

Image cc by /pitzipper

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Windows 7 starter and Intel Atom: not for the big screen!

Some time ago Intel had announced that they did not want netbook manufacturers to put Atom processors in portable computers featuring a screen bigger than 10 inches. Now it is Microsoft who announced that the cheap starter edition of Windows 7 would only be available for small screen netbooks.

I can somewhat understand the behavior of Intel on the grounds that selling a full size notebook equipped with an Atom processor could be deceiving the buyer. A lot of people just assume that if it looks like a notebook it will have a notebook processor, and these customer would feel cheated when the Atom failed to perform heavy tasks like video editing. To be fair Intel is also preparing the 11+ inche notebook market for its new CULV ( Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processors, but this may yet turn to their disadvantage as the AMD Neo is currently very well placed in this market segment.

The move by Microsoft to limit windows 7 starter to small screen netbooks is more intriguing. I can understand that they want to protect their sales of the "full" version of Windows 7, but the lack of Windows 7 starter on the smaller notebooks will seriously increase their price. That means that a lot of buyer will likely go for a small screen netbook instead of a big screen notebook, so Microsoft would lose the revenue anyway.

There is an added problem for Microsoft in that these small computers are more likely to be offered with a Linux based operating system like Moblin or Ubuntu than big screen laptops. These cheap netbooks may even use ARM based Snapdragon processors, meaning that the Microsofties are taking Intel down with them, something Intel probably hopes to avoid thanks to Moblin.

The only positive for Microsoft is that the limitation to 3 open applications on Windows 7 starter is now a thing of the past. To be frank the 3 application limit was one of their dumbest ideas and it would probably have weakened Windows 7 starter too much against Linux anyway, but this robs Microsoft of any possible upgrade revenue. It would have been better to give windows 7 starter away and make money on upgrades. All in all Microsoft managed to make a policy that is bad for the consumer AND bad for them. I would like to say that it is a new low for them, but unfortunately they have been lower in the past...
Image cc by impresa.mccabe

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How to choose the best netbook computer?

Choosing the best netbook computer based on your intended usage is very different from choosing the best notebook computer. In the notebook world there are many screen sizes, price points and processor speeds. If judged by notebook standards all netbooks look the same: same 9 to 10 inch screen, same 1.6 GHz Atom processors, same $300 to $500 price point.

How do you choose best netbook computer when at first glance all products look the same?

Well, they look the same from a notebook buyer's point of view, but from the netbook buyer's perspective they are very different! To find the best netbook computer for your intended usage you need to take several new factors into account. Forget screen size or processor speed, here is what you need to pay attention to:

HDD or SSD?

Unlike notebooks, netbooks are not supposed to store huge amount of data locally but are expected to be more resistant and shock proof than their bigger brothers. As a result some netbook computers use an SSD instead of a mechanical HDD. Ask yourself: How do I intend to use my netbook? do I plan on storing a lot of data on it or just to use it to access the web? If for you mobility is more important than local storage then the best netbook computer for you is one fitted with an SSD. If local storage is more important for you then a mechanical HDD is better.

Linux, Windows XP or Windows 7?

Notebooks usually come installed with some flavor of Windows because they are full multi purpose machines that are expected to run most available commercial software, and they have enough processing power to accommodate Windows demands anyway. On a netbook computer that will perform a limited number of tasks however I think that Linux is the best solution: it does not requires an antivirus and requires less resources to run than Windows, which is great on netbooks with low power processors like the Atom. Some Linux distributions like Ubuntu netbook remix also offer interfaces optimized for a netbook's small screen and a good selection of internet and media related software. Windows XP on the other hand is compatible with most commercial software but requires an antivirus and uses more resources. Windows 7 is only recommended for netbooks with a mechanical HDD and more than 1 GB of memory (this post explains why you shouldn't use Windows 7 on SSD netbooks). On the flip side Windows 7 manages the computer energy consumption better than Linux, which may improve battery life.
Conclusion: if you want a netbook mainly to access the internet or want a netbook with an SSD, the best netbook computer for you uses Linux as it's OS. If you want a true multi purpose machine to replace a notebook you may want to choose Windows as your netbook's OS.

Keyboad size?

unlike a notebook, a netbook usually has a reduced size keyboard. Not all netbooks are created equal in this respect however. The first EEE PC netbooks had very small, poor quality keys that were very unpleasant to use. Later models like the MSI Wind U100 that I currently use have keyboards similar to most notebooks, only the keys are slightly smaller. Some newer netbook prototypes have keys that seems to be raised from the surface of the computer, like on some mac notebooks, and these are supposed to be even better. If you intend to use the computer to type a lot the best netbook computer for you must have a decent mac-like or notebook-like keyboard! The following article should help you choose a good keyboard if you don't know what to look for.

Extras?

Some netbook computers have special features that may make them more interesting to some peoples. For example the Dell Inspiron mini 9 has a fanless cooling system, which means that the computer is completely silent if fitted with an SSD. The disadvantage is that the computer keyboard can get warm, something that you may consider unpleasant. The MSI Wind U100 has a BIOS feature that allows the Atom processor to be overclocked to 2GHz when running on mains power. This makes this netbook the best netbook computer for those who need a fast machine. These extras can have a big impact on your choice if they fulfill a specific requirement that you have.

Conclusion?

As you can see there are many factors that can influence your choice of what is the best netbook computer. These factors depend a lot on the usage you intend to make of the computer, so that point should be clear from the start. If you mainly intend to surf a netbook with an SSD and running Linux like the dell Inspiron Mini, the Acer Aspire One 110 or the EEE PC 901 are good contenders for the title of best netbook computer. If you want more of a notebook replacement machine with lots of storage the Acer Aspire One 250, the MSI Wind or the Samsung NC10 are good choices.
image cc www.zieak.com

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This week on the tech-no-media blog network

What's new this week on the tech-no-media blog network.

- The first Linux tutorial for beginners has been published on From Windows to Linux for the average Joe. I start the series of tutorial by the essential question: what is Linux? However I try to go beyond the definition you find by Googling and try to explain this from the point of view of a non technical beginner.

- On Online Video Producer I made a post on the interview of Trent Reznor by Kevin Rose and the very good insights that online media publisher can get from the experience of Trent with his music group: Nine Inch Nails.

That's it for this week! Note that since this is a bank holiday week end in Belgium there will be no post on Friday.

The technology patents issue and innovation.

In the old "pre 2000" day, the objective of most technology companies when they applied for patent protection was to ensure that their products and technologies were not copied by their competitors. The idea was that thanks to the patents you enjoyed about 20 years of exclusive use of your technology, after which everyone was free to use it because by then it was considered obvious. If the technology became too commonplace for you to exploit alone you could always allow you competitors to use it against payment: that's licensing. These patents were supposed to allow companies to make back the money invested in technological innovation

What is the issue with technology patents?

Part of the problem is the length of the patents. Initially the system was devised for inventions in domains like the pharmaceutical and automotive industry where progress is quite slow compared to the computing industry. In these industries it was uncommon than any technology that was considered an innovation when the patent was applied for would be considered obvious long before the patent expired. Contrast this with the situation information technology industry: about 10 year ago innovative technologies were the internet browser, mp3 players, online radio streaming etc... We are now ten years later and these thing are already staples of our daily lives: everybody has an MP3 players, a browser etc... none of these technologies would still be considered an innovation.

This caused a major issue for technology companies because the basic building blocks of our technological lifestyles were still under patents protection. This was never the intention of the patents system, the big idea was that by the time the invention is considered a an obvious feature in any industry the patents would have expired. There should have been an adjustment of the duration of technology patents based on the rate innovation but this was never done, probably because other industries were reluctant to set such a precedent.

This meant that companies could not create innovative products anymore, because the basic technologies they would have to build upon were still protected. This created the need for patents cross licensing. the basic idea is that two companies in the technology field allow each other the access to all their patents. This allows both companies to create innovative products without fear of being sued by the other.

What is the issue with technology patents cross licensing?

There are 2 problems with patents cross licensing however. the first is that it only works for large corporations that own a vast portfolio of patents themselves. Small companies usually can't sign any of these deals because they have very little to offer in term of patents to share. The issue is that in the technology field innovation usually starts with the small companies, not the huge corporations. The second issue is patents trolls, companies that buy and own technology patents but do not produce anything. The aim of such companies is purely to license the patents for money, and they will not sign any cross licensing deals since they don't need access to any technology for their own products: they don't have a product! This means that some basic building blocks of technology are inaccessible to most corporations because the patents are owned by trolls, and this stifles innovation.

Are technology patents bad?

In their currents state, yes they are bad because they do no do what they were supposed to do anymore. Patents currently do not encourage companies to invest in research and come up with new products, but actively discourage technological innovation because of the risk of litigation. Before patents can be useful again both issues above need to be solved: the length of technology patents and the issue of patent trolls. Some sort of organization needs to be set up to allow smaller companies to have access to cross licensing deal, for example by pooling their patents. This idea is very popular in the open source culture where small companies see the creation of such patent pools as the solution to defend themselves against bigger corporations.

I recently read an article published on Ars Technica about the book of Marshal Phelps and David Kline "Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft". What the books is about is the change of heart Microsoft had about a decade ago regarding patents. I suggest that you read the article as it give a lot of insights into the way major technology corporations view patents.

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eBook readers: 5 kindle alternatives

Not long ago Amazon released it's oversized Kindle DX, and I reported that it was too expensive. The only kindle alternative I suggested at the time was the Sony e-Reader priced at $299. There are however a few other eBook readers that could be excellent kindle alternatives:

The COOL-ER electronic book reader. This brightly colored eBook reader has three big advantages: its' reasonable price ($249), its beautiful ipod inspired industrial design and its support for PDF and epub formats with DRM schemes. For commercial content the device is supported by the Coolerbook library. Note that the service is also compatible with some other eBook readers such as the Sony or the Cybook, which may prove practical if you wish to change your reader in the future. With 1 Gb of integrated storage and the possibility of a storage expansion through an SD card slot this is a nice budget kindle alternative for whoever doesn't absolutely want a wireless connection on an eBook reader.

The Txtr reader connected eBook reader. This reader isn't released yet but look very promising for those who want their eBook reader to be always connected: the machine will feature bluetooth, 3G and Wifi wireless connections. The machine will support storage expansion through microSD cards. What remains to be seen is the price of this baby when it is released.

The Cybook eBook reader. This Linux based reader support a large variety of formats such as PDF, Mobipocket, HTLM, text , jpg, gif, png and mp3 for audio, but unlike the COOL-ER it doesn't support PDF DRM. It does support RSS synchronization but only through USB. Like the COOL-ER there is no wireless adapter in the machine, the synchronization is performed trough a host computer. The machine comes with 512 Mb of storage which can be expended with an SD card. This device is similar too the COOL-ER but is quite a bit more expensive at $350.


The Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Readersupports PDF, plain and RTF or word formated text text as well as mp3 and AAC for audio. The usual image formats are also supported. Like the cybook and the COOL-ER, the e-reader doesn't feature any wireless connection. At the price of $299 for a device with only 192 Mb of storage this machine is less of a bargain than the Cool-er, but you get the Sony branding and warranty support. The memory can be expended with memory cards anyway. A worthy kindle alternative for those reticent to invest in a device from an unknown brand.

The iPhone or iPod Touch. Thanks to the iPhone application Stanza (recently purchase by Amazon) the iPhone and ipod touch can be turned into very decent e-book readers. Amazon even released an official kindle reader application that makes it the best kindle alternative if you already own kindle formated eBooks from Amazon. The main inconvenient is that the iPhone lack an e-ink screen, which means that reading can be less pleasant for the eyes and can be difficult in direct sunlight. The Stanza software support the epub format and lexcycle offer a wide assortment of eBooks in that format. The iPhone also supports PDFs, but you may have to email them to yourself, which is not very convenient. For more info Mobileread has a forum dedicated to Ebooks on the iPhone.

As you can see numerous options still exists for those who don't want to buy a kindle. Note that until the release of the Txtr reader the kindle remains the only wireless enabled reader with an e-ink screen. That being said, do you really need the connectivity? Is it worth the extra price of the kindle? If yes I woulds suggest going for the Kindle 2 which is still more affordable than the Kindle DX and is compatible with Amazon's whispernet.

Read more in the eBook Category

New sub Blog: Online Video Producer

I am currently in the process of cleaning up the Tech-no-media blog. I have a lot of different interest from technology to media, and initially this blog was a place to store all my ideas and opinions.

It became clear however that the person interested in media creation is not always interested in mobile processor technology or portable devices. The reverse is also true as readers interested in the most technology focused articles have probably no interest in timing video releases based on what is playing in the theater. There is definitely an overlap between the two audiences, but they are not always the same.

For this reason I decide to give all the post on online video production, distribution and promotion their own blog: Online Video Producer.

One of the big advantage is that those interested in video production but not in technology can subscribe to the new blog RSS stream or subscribe through e-mail and receive only the posts relevant to them without all the technology noise.

Of course I will still keep the faithful tech-no-media readers informed of the post on Online Video Publisher that could interest them through a small post on the main blog.
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There is a problem playing flash video on a netbook.

Many Netbook users have been complaining of having a problem playing flash videos such as from Youtube or Hulu on the Atom processor. The same people can play the same videos fine in their normal media players or in VLC media player.

This requires a little bit of explanation. The big difference between playing flash video online and the same video in H264 stored locally is that for the online flash video the decoding and rendering is handled by the flash plug-in of your browser, while locally it is handled by your media player. You media player can be configured to take advantage of many OS specific GPU accelerated video frameworks that will take some of the burden of the video decoding from the processor. ( see this article for an in depth explanation of GPU assisted video decoding!)

The problem playing flash videos is that the flash plug-in can at best take advantage of the simplest form of acceleration: hardware stretching to fill the screen, and even that is a very recent development and not implemented in most flash based video players! This means that most of the actual decoding (and sometimes stretching) is performed by the CPU, and that places too much processing demands on it for the Atom processor. Providing better GPU acceleration for Video decoding in the flash plug-in would help, but will be difficult to implement because the frameworks are different on each OS and sometimes different for each GPU brand ( Nvidia and AMD do it differently). Supporting all this is what you pay the powerDVD developers for when you buy their product.

A solution to the problem playing flash videos is to first download the flash video locally from sites like Youtube and then play it in a dedicated media player that supports flash video such as VLC. The VLC media player will use some GPU acceleration to render the video and the it will play fine even on a netbook!

To download the video locally there are 2 convenient Firefox extensions you can use:

Flashgot allows you to download flash video with your usual download manager.

Video Downloadhelper allows you to queue the download in the extension itself and even to trans code the video if required. The trans-coding can be useful because flash video use the H264 codec that may be too much for the old 7 inch EEEPC 600 MHz processor.

Now these extensions don't support all flash sites, but for Youtube at least they offers a workable solution to the problem playing flash videos on a netbook.

Read more in the Online Media Category
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Norhtec Edubook: Finally an innovative Netbook

With the mass of "me too" Netbooks that are released these days I was almost incredulous when the French web site Blogeee announced the Norhtec Edubook.

The design of the Edubook sets it completely apart from all the Atom powered Netbooks out there. Firs it uses an X86 compatible system on a chip that I never heard of: the Xcore86. That processor include and X86 core, sound, video and wired networking in one chip consuming less than 2 watts at 1 GHz. When you consider that an Atom + chipset consumes close to 10W this is an achievement that can very well upset the Netbook processor war! Since this processor uses an X86 core it is compatible with Windows and Linux, and the manufacturer announced that both Windows XP and Ubuntu Would be available.

Another innovation comes from the power supply: not only is the power brick inside the machine (very convenient for traveling) but the machine can be powered for 4 hours using standard NiMH AA batteries. This means that the Norhtec Edubook is a machine that can potentially last much longer than a traditional Netbook because it will be easy to replace the batteries when they wear out! One of the biggest problems with LiON batteries is that they tend to wear out after 3 years, and since they are usually proprietary it is often easier to replace the Netbook that track the proper battery.

For storage the Norhtec Edubook accepts SD cards or an IDE SSD. Since both can easily be replaced when they wear out the longevity of the machine is assured. There is no included wireless adapter but an internal USB port is available to add the type of adapter your network requires. 3 external USB port will be also available.

What remains to be seen is the capabilities of the Xcore86 processor. It will almost certainly be powerful enough to play music and SD videos, as well as for light surfing and document processing. Online flash videos (Youtube) on the other hand may prove a challenge as these use a lot of CPU power, and this may be a deal breaker for many. That being said if they can meet the planned $200 price point this could be an ideal machine for high school students, and definitely something different from the average Netbook. Now what remains to be seen is if the Norhtec Edubook will ever reach the US or Europe.

Read more in the Netbook Category.

The netbook processor wars: Atom x86 versus snapdragon ARM

War is brewing in Netbook processor land. The current king of the hill is the Intel Atom CPU based on the x86 instruction set, the same instruction set that is used in "full size" laptops and desktops. The only contender that Intel faced in the Netbook space up to now was the VIA Nano, which didn't have much success up to now. The Nano is somewhat more powerful than the Atom, but it also consume more power, a major problem in a market where battery life is more critical than processing power.

But now a new contender has appeared: the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor based on the ARM instruction set. The current model is single core and runs at 1 Ghz, but the new models to be released this year should be dual-core and be able to run at up to 1.5 Ghz. This is powerful enough to run most of the applications that a Netbook is expected to deliver. Add to that the fact that the Qualcomm snapdragon ARM core can also include hardware HD video decoding as well as Bluethoot, Wifi and GPS wireless technologies and you already have a serious contender for the title of ultimate mobile processor. Now the killer blow for the Atom is that the Snapdragon processor should consumes much less power, not requires a fan and be half as expensive as the current Atom + chipset on offer from Intel. Ouch!

With these new generation offerings, the ARM architecture is ready to make the jump from devices like the iPhone or the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet to Netbooks and crush the Atom processor. However Intel has a secret weapon against ARM based processors like the Snapdragon: Windows compatibility!

The disadvantage with ARM based processors like the snapdragon is that the full version of windows will not run on them. It is not that Microsoft doesn't want to make an ARM version of Windows, but because most drivers and applications for Windows are closed source, it is not possible for Microsoft to recompile them fro the ARM architecture. Since the main incentive for users to run Windows is to be able to run legacy or familiar applications (the OS itself is not that great) and that Windows for ARM would not do that there is little point. The Microsoft offering for ARM based processors is Windows CE and mobile, but these did never gain traction with consumers and frankly, sucks!

This means that on the software side much of the ARM action will be with Linux and it's derivatives like Google Android or Google ChromeOS! This is a field that Intel is trying to invade with it's Moblin platform: An x86 based Linux distribution optimized for Netbooks and portable devices that features very short boot times. Recently Novel announced that they will provide a SUSE distribution for x86 based Netbooks based on the Moblin standard. On the ARM side, Xandros has announced the availability of the same Linux distribution used with the first EEE PC for the ARM architecture, and canonical, the backers of Ubuntu, are currently porting the well known distribution to ARM. It is easier to port Linux applications to the ARM architecture because the source code is available, so a lot of the software only needs to be recompiled. Add to that the fact that a lot of the drivers are implemented in the Linux kernel and hardware support becomes a cinch.

What is my prediction? I think that the arrival of ARM based Netbooks will first split the market in two.

On one side we will have cheap, silent ARM based netbooks with long battery life but a reduced number of applications. These will probably focus on web access, music, video, GPS and basic productivity tools. Expect something like the original Xandros Linux distribution of the EEE PC and the Linpus lite distribution of the Acer Aspire One. These netbooks based on processors like the Qualcomm Snapdragon should cost between $200 and $300 and will probably use SSDs for storage. Some of these will probably be heavily subsidized by network operators or given away free with a contract. They will be designed as companion devices to supplement a desktop or a destop replacement laptop.

On the other side we will have real "mini notebooks" with processors based on the Atom x86 architecture. These will feature full featured operating systems like Windows XP, Windows 7 or Ubuntu. The mini notebooks will be heavier, require a fan for cooling, probably have shorter battery life (or heavier batteries) and will mostly use a mechanical HDD for storage. They will also be more expensive, with prices starting a $300 and going up past the $500 mark, but since they will feature a full OS and will be suitable to run most desktop applications they will be able to replace a laptop or desktop computer.

What will happen next is open to conjecture. Either the ARM based Netbooks will gain full computer capabilities and displace the Atom based Netbooks, or Intel will reduce the price and power footprint of the Atom so much that it displaces the ARM Netbooks. It will depend a lot on the Linux OSes used with the ARM based Netbooks. If these offer a good enough experience and enough applications to make the users forget that they are not running Windows, ARM will probably win. If on the other hand these are half-assed experiments most users may decide that they prefer the full Windows experience after all, even at an increased price and with a shorter battery life

Read more in Netbooks category!

The state of GPU assisted HD video decoding

Many GPU (graphic Processing Unit) manufacturers like to promote the video decoding capabilities of their products, and for good reason as decoding HD video is one of the most processing intensive tasks that a typical computer will have to perform. Most HD video is encoded with the H264 codec, which provides excellent image quality and compressions ratios, but requires much more processing power to decode than older codecs like DivX, Xvid and MPEG2.

It is very interesting to have as much as possible of the HD video decoding work performed by the GPU instead of CPU in a computer because this allows you to keep an old computer in usage and allows for a cooler and quieter computer as a GPU typically produce less heat than a CPU during HD video decoding. Also GPU assisted HD video decoding usually produce a smoother image and animation, as the decoding processing is not perturbed by other processes requesting CPU time such as virus scanners etc...

The level of video processing that will effectively be taken over from your CPU varies dramatically not only based on your GPU itself but also based on the decoding software you use. To simplify things we will divide the amount of work performed by the GPU in 3 levels:

1) Scaling and rendering: one of the most intensive tasks when rendering video on a computer screen is to scale the image to the resolution of the monitor. If the program just add or removes lines the result will look ugly with jagged lines. To avoid this GPUs perform bicubic scaling: a process that smooths the image scaling at the cost of extra processing. All GPUs manufactured in the last 10 years have these capabilities. All OS also have this. In Linux this is performed by the Xvideo renderer.

2) iDTC and motion compensation acceleration: Most video codecs since MPEG2 uses these 2 functions as part of the compression process. Since these consume a significant amount of CPU, HD video decoding performance is improved and uses less CPU if these operations are performed in the GPU. All GPUs from the last 5 years have this capability (even recent intel integrated GPUs) but not all software can take advantage of it. On Windows, most software able to use DirectX video acceleration can use this. This includes most DVD playing software as well as most free media players such as Smplayer, VLC media player and media player classic. On the Linux side, most video drivers implement these function as XVMC, a standard also supported by most video players, however acceleration is limited to the MPEG2 codec, which is unfortunate as it is H264 decoding that would benefit the most from it.

3) Full bitstream acceleration: This means that the GPU takes in charge almost all of the video decoding, leaving only the sound processing and control to the CPU. This allows to play even 1080p HD video on a lowly atom CPU, meaning that when used the CPU is pretty much irrelevant. On the hardware side this is only supported on recent GPU such as the Nvidia8 & 9 series and the AMD HD series. On the software side support is scarce as well.
On Windows major DVD and Blu-ray playback software (such as powerDVD) will support it, but these players usually refuse to play video files from the internet, such as mkv and sometimes mp4. The only free media player that does so with directX-VA acceleration is media player classic home theater, but this comes with restrictions on the renderer you can use.
On the Linux side it is currently supported on nvidia GPUs only in the form on VDPAU accelerated video decoding. VDPAU is now supported in the XBMC 9.4 media player and VLC media player, with other players either supporting it as patches or with plan to support it in the near future. Intel and AMD also have their plans for Linux video decoding acceleration in the form of XVBA and VAAPI, but these are not in mainstream use yet.

In conclusion, the level of GPU assistance for HD video decoding that you will get is often dependent on the combination of GPU, OS and player software that you will use more than on the GPU alone. this is why it is difficult to play flash video full screen on a netbook while the same video plays fine in a media player. With Nvidia GPUs the results are excellent on Linux, while with intel or AMD GPUs they are currently quite poor under this OS. On Windows all brands are well supported by commercial players, but support is poorer for free players such as VLC media player and Smplayer, leaving media player classic as the only free player to use bitstream acceleration.

Read more in the Linux category.