The Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator enables high definition video playback on netbooks with Intel Atom processors that wouldn’t ordinarily have enough power in the graphics or CPU departments to handle 1080p HD video. It’s not a complete graphics card, but rather a media coprocessor that can be added to an internal PCIe slot in some netbooks. A handful of netbooks from Dell and HP are available with an optional Broadcom HD card. But some netbook users have been picking up cheap cards on eBay and installing them in other 10 inch mini-laptops for a while.

One thing I hadn’t seen before though, was a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator on a 9 inch netbook. But that’s exactly what EeeUser Forum Member horakus managed to create by adding a PCIe connector onto the mainboard of an Eee PC 901 netbook to make room for the video accelerator card.

It’s not the easiest hack on earth. But if you find yourself with a 9 inch netbook like the Eee PC 901 and you want to be able to play 1080p HD video on a non-HD screen, it loks like it is possible, at least on some models.

The Broadcom Crystal HD is available on eBay for as little as $19.

via Netbooked