Today I received something in the mail I’ve been looking out for ever since I won an auction on eBay.

See, I wanted to get my hands on a Broadcom HD encoder card but didn’t want to pay the $30+ dollars people were charging for the privilege of having one.  Instead I kept thinking about ways that people could list one of these cards without a bunch of other people searching for it.

Finally I discovered that while Broadcom’s decoder card was used in many netbooks, it was first used in many notebooks as well.  Toshiba was one of the notebook makers who included one of these cards in their computers to help them play video more smoothly.  I found a part number and began doing searches on eBay until I struck gold.

Someone didn’t know what they had.  Instead they labeled it as a Wifi card when it was in fact a decoder card.

Even as I was paying for it a part of me wasn’t sure if I’d actually have it or if I’d end up getting scammed.  All of my doubt and concern disappeared when I check my mail and found my card waiting for me in a cardboard package.  No drivers are included so I’ll have to dig around to find those over the web.

Next I’ll have to take some time to find some instructions on how to install this into my netbook and then see what kind of difference it provides.

For those of you curious about the actual part number I’m referring to it, it’s V000101820.

1. ION LE Netbooks Hacked For Better Video Performance

2. HP Mini 311 Owners Reporting Issues With Choppy HD Video

3. Win A Broadcom BCM70012 HD Decoder

4. Broadcom Decoder Contest (Winner Announcement)

5. Price Of Broadcom HD Decoders Shoots Up