Having built a 5GHz video downlink, I'm now looking for portable display screen. Rather than spend money on a single-use screen I'm considering a netbook with a USB video capture device. That way, I can also use it as an autopilot ground station.Spurred on by http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-netbook-deals, I'm looking at 10.1" Toshiba NB200 (£192 after cashback, but cashback ends today!) running Windows XP Home.Is a netbook like this reasonable for running a ground station, or will I want something with a bigger screen, beefier hardware, etc.?
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I use a netbook for a ground station. Works great as a GUI and for logging telemetry data, very compact and great battery life. To echo what Marc says though the Atom processor can be a little slow and not up to the task of some things. I've seen mine stutter a bit while decoding video from my webbie and Cannon cameras (HD Video). Not a problem for me because I'm capturing to SD card, but might be an issue for you depending on how much the USB device is compressing the data before sending it to the PC.Standard definition may be just fine. I've seen where some of the netbooks are coming with hardware to assist in encoding/decoding and it seems like a Toshiba model was one of them.
Those Atom processors are not as powerful as a Pentium 4, and are not designed for the usual load of a desktop/laptop usage. You may run into problems running the usb video device, video recording with encoding, a ground station with a usb-serial port for down link and software, simultaneously. IMO a second hand Dell D600 or better yet a Dual Core like the D620 would cost less then a new Netbook and give better results (I have both).
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Brian