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

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.
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)


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.