The PCMark 7 video playback test uses high definition H.264 content (1080p, 30fps, 10Mbps) and the maximum result systems can achieve here is 24fps. As you can see according to this test the Liva can handle 1080p content, provided that it doesn’t go much above 10Mbps. That said, we believe the average Blu-ray bitrate is more like 24Mbps. Still, services such as Netflix stream their 1080p content at 6Mbps, so the Liva should easily handle that.
When testing 1080p performance using MPlayer we see that the Liva is just able to deliver 23.1fps and that was with 100% utilization on both cores.
Although the ECS Liva delivered borderline smooth 1080p playback, there is no doubting its 720p capabilities as it could churn out almost 53fps.