A few specific questions about the EEE before purchase.

[Guest Notme84]

I've been reading up on the EEE and wanted to know some specifics about the machine for my usage for it. I'm planning to use it for mainly .avi/.mkv videos that uses the Combined Community Codec Pack or something similar to it and some web surfing/instant messaging with some office work. The EEE 8G model seems like the best fit. Here are my questions:

I read that the EEE can play Divx and Xvid right out of the box but what about MKV, and OGM files that has dual audio channels? If it doesn't, is there something like Community Codec Pack that works with Xandros or would I need to install XP on it to be able to do that? I understand that MPlayer should be able to do that but I rather not have a command line verison of it.

How well can the EEE run XP? From what I've seen from some podcast videos, it runs fine. But the users were running lighter programs like openoffice, and firefox by itself. When I use it, I would be surfing multiple pages and have video playing on the side at the same time.

I know the everyone has said the battery life is roughly 3.5 hours. But I'm pretty sure that is not constant video playback. What would you say is the battery life when you are playing alot of videos as if you would on a flight and also would installing XP on EEE use up more battery life because XP is more resource intensive?

I don't mind using Xandros as long as I can play my videos and surf at at least 3 hours. And does anyone know if there is going to be an 6 cell or even 9 cell battery replacements for the EEE or a new model with a better battery life like 4-6 hours? I know that is asking much but i've been hearing and reading that other Ultraportables are reaching that level of unplugged usage.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

I've now got XP on my EEE, but would have thought that installing say VLC onto the EEE would allow you to watch pretty much any filetype.

On XP I installed VLC and was able to watch Divx, Xvid, MKV, etc without installing the CCCP codec pack.

Battery life, erm ... Ive never really used it that much on battery. In the car its plugged into the cigarette lighter, in the house its plugged into the mains.

I suppose you could use a portable power supply to charge or extend the EEE's power usage if you were beyond a power point. There are also things you can do to reduce the power consumption, such as turn off wifi, reduce volume, reduce screen brightness, turn off bluetooth usb dongles etc.

It will play all those formats and its a great little tool, but for a £200 PC it is well worth the money and I am really happy with mine. If it were a £800 UMPC, then I would be expecting far more from it, but its essentially a kids laptop.

[Guest Notme84]

Thanks for the info. So I guess I can just wait for an XP verison of the EEE then. I'm not a rush to get it, especially if Asus is trying to get cheap XP copies on to it.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Places are selling XP preinstalled, or the manual that comes with it details how to install XP. Go on, get one now :D