question about 32 bit color for watching movies

[jkac123]

WIN ME
Savage 64MB video Card
900mhz T-Bird
384 RAM

I have color setting set 32 bit. while watching movies I have some drag, or catch up. Would changing bit to 16 make a difference regarding this type of problem?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated regarding topic;)

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Can you game in 32bit? Since it is a dvd I will have to say this. If you are software rendering or basically dont have a hardware decoder card this will take a larger CPU than normal. So at those specs without a H.card it may jump some. Easiest thing to do is either get a larger cpu or get a hardware decoder like the encore. But I would get the cpu as it will help in other things aswell and set you back about the same $.

You can also try a dif. dvd player software. There are many of them and the sys requirements are dif. Some need pretty large systems while others run on about anything. But the better players usually take the larger systems. Try demos as they are available for any dvd player to see if it works on your sys. You may just need to change the player!

But as I said the cpu is hurting you more than anything.
I know how can the cpu you have now be too small. Well there is alot of decodeing going on and it is on the fly so big cpu's are important. The higher bit picture or higher bit rate sound with 5.1 or DTS sucks some real power! Also a video card like G2 MX's or G3 /4 or ATI radeon(any)/Xpert series have built in DVD playback optimizations that reduce the cpu load and that is a big help. With one of those the current setup would work.

The cost in Hardware can range from $65- little over $100 if you change video card. About $100 if go the cpu route.
About $100 for the decoder.

Those are your choices so I think I would do the CPU for sure. Then you can probly not have to change video and totally dont go the Hardware card at all. They dont like to let you send to tv sometimes. Has to do with senceing a tape recorder on the other end and distorting the pic as to avoid piracy. I just do with out them as they can misjudge some tv's as vcr's. Bad news in those I say.

Hope that helped. I'm a DVD buff so if any questions about this just ask. Been playing DVD's on pc since my p3 600/Voodoo3 days.
:D

[Lycia]

Sorry Gamer, you get to be the one I disagree with. I am running a 900mhz Duron, a Sony 16x DVD, 256 ddr, and I never get slow ups or stuttering.

He has a 900mhz Tbird! That is no slouch of silicon!

jkac, I would suggesting checking to see if DMA is enabled for your DVD drive. By the way, which DVD drive are you using?

To check DMA, go to Control Panel, system, uhm if I remember 9x correctly there should be device manager...click on the + next to the CD-Rom line, on your particular DVD drive double click it to get to properties...one of the tabs there should have a check box that has the word DMA next to it. Check that and reboot.

Do me a favour, tell me all your system spec, motherboard, DVD drive, etc...

[vibe666]

can your eyballs really tell the difference between 16 and 32 bit colour?

for the sake of 5 seconds to turn down the dpeth and try it i really don't know why you bothered posting, seems like a waste of finger exertion to me.

give it a go. if its better then you'll have your answer. most of the time its a lot easier to try these things on your own system than to ask others what they think, everyones pc is different.

***viBe***
Why not put your PC's idle time to good use by downloading the seti@home client HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html) and then joining the Sysopt.com Users 2002 Team HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Sysopt.com+Users+2002)

UPDATE: Ask users here about the command line client. its not nearly as pretty but its much faster :D

[jkac123]

vibe666

UHHH? That would be because I truly appreciate the advice I get here at sysopt. And your right about trying it myself, however not being to knowledgable about this topic, I thought a little insight into it would be appropriate:rolleyes:

[jkac123]

By the way,

Thanks to other replys!:)

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Originally posted by Lycia
Sorry Gamer, you get to be the one I disagree with. I am running a 900mhz Duron, a Sony 16x DVD, 256 ddr, and I never get slow ups or stuttering.

He has a 900mhz Tbird! That is no slouch of silicon!

jkac, I would suggesting checking to see if DMA is enabled for your DVD drive. By the way, which DVD drive are you using?

To check DMA, go to Control Panel, system, uhm if I remember 9x correctly there should be device manager...click on the + next to the CD-Rom line, on your particular DVD drive double click it to get to properties...one of the tabs there should have a check box that has the word DMA next to it. Check that and reboot.

Do me a favour, tell me all your system spec, motherboard, DVD drive, etc...

Thats cool I dont mind you disagreeing. Thats what a discusion forum is for- disuseing things. I know that cpu is decent but I get that on my Duron(morgan) 1gig with pc133mhz ram and +33 fsb /cas 2/8ns ram timeings. It's the 32bit colour that is too much for it. Too much decodeing going on and that color depth just drives it over the edge. Thats what I ment. I'm sure it does fine in 16bit as mine does too. Now if it doesnt work well in 16bit then something is WAY wrong here. OS getting sloppy or tweaks needed. Maybe defrag run-etc.


vibe666-
"can your eyballs really tell the difference between 16 and 32 bit colour? "

Yes actually you can. It depends on the video card but I know my G3 is way clearer in 32bit then 16bit. Even the desktop looks better much less the DVD's. If displaying on TV then I know what you mean but on my 19" monitor it does make a BIG difference. Peace all!

:D

[Lycia]

Originally posted by $1500-P4 gamer


Thats cool I dont mind you disagreeing. Thats what a discusion forum is for- disuseing things. I know that cpu is decent but I get that on my Duron(morgan) 1gig with pc133mhz ram and +33 fsb /cas 2/8ns ram timeings. It's the 32bit colour that is too much for it. Too much decodeing going on and that color depth just drives it over the edge. Thats what I ment. I'm sure it does fine in 16bit as mine does too. Now if it doesnt work well in 16bit then something is WAY wrong here. OS getting sloppy or tweaks needed. Maybe defrag run-etc.


vibe666-
"can your eyballs really tell the difference between 16 and 32 bit colour? "

Yes actually you can. It depends on the video card but I know my G3 is way clearer in 32bit then 16bit. Even the desktop looks better much less the DVD's. If displaying on TV then I know what you mean but on my 19" monitor it does make a BIG difference. Peace all!

:D


I meant that more as a joke, but thanks for being cool! :D


As to the problem at hand, I am still not sure it's the cpu, considering I have a lower clocked CPU and Duron to boot, am using a Radeon 7000 with 32 bit enabled and I get no slowups..

It would be interesting to see what he posts as his system spec...Hint hint wink wink nudge nudge...

[namrak]

I think Lycia is right on this issue as having DMA enabled/disabled can make a difference in performance when it comes to DVD playback. I sometimes watch DVD movies using only a 500MHz system and it playsback fine. Unfortunately, since jkac didn't mention which software DVD app he uses, I'll just throw this out that PowerDVD 4.0 has some issues that need to be worked out at least for their bundled versions. They tend to freeze and lock up your pc after a few minutes (or longer) of playback. You'll have to do a hard reboot, though this issue doesn't seem to happen when you download and pay for one of their premium versions at their website.

[vibe666]

i stand corrected :D

at any rate i would doubt very much if its CPU related, before I got my T/Bird i started out with DVD & DivX on a P233 with 96MB RAM and a 16MB PCI Voodoo Banshee in Win98se and it all ran quite nicely when it was set up properly with the right drivers and nothing going on in the background.

what I mean is that if that old system could do it in 16Bit colour then there's no reason (apart from drivers etc.) why your's shouldn't be able to do it in 32Bit with one arm tied behind its back.

***viBe***
Why not put your PC's idle time to good use by downloading the seti@home client HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html) and then joining the Sysopt.com Users 2002 Team HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Sysopt.com+Users+2002)

UPDATE: Ask users here about the command line client. its not nearly as pretty but its much faster :D :p

[$1500-P4 gamer]

All good points everyone but I still want to know what DVD software he is useing or what dvd setup he even has? Could be just incompatable with that prog or whatever,totally clueless without more info?


namrak-
Certainly DMA has alot to do with DVD playback. It takes a huge strain off the cpu as it has direct route to the device and doesn't interupt the cpu. I assumed he had this enabled already but your right I shouldnt have assumed. If DMA is off enable it and make sure the HDD has DMA enabled aswell. Also make sure system> performance> file system> is setup as Network server and cache is all the way to the right. The same goes for cdrom cache.

After that make sure you have defraged the machine recently(like this month). How long ago did you install windows? Is the dvd-rom dirty have you used a clean disk in it. Do you have the most recent Via drivers and GART drivers? How about the sound card drivers, are they updated? As you can see it can be alot of stuff. We really need to know a little more about your sys.:)

[$1500-P4 gamer]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by vibe666
[B]i stand corrected :D

"at any rate i would doubt very much if its CPU related, before I got my T/Bird i started out with DVD & DivX on a P233 with 96MB RAM and a 16MB PCI Voodoo Banshee in Win98se and it all ran quite nicely when it was set up properly with the right drivers and nothing going on in the background.

what I mean is that if that old system could do it in 16Bit colour then there's no reason (apart from drivers etc.) why your's shouldn't be able to do it in 32Bit with one arm tied behind its back."


Yes that is true but alot of the newer software decoders require heftier systems. There are some and I mean a real few that will run on that spec you staited. No voodoo card ever supported DVD hardware acceleration. So its all software with that card. Even the V3 didnt have it. I'm not sure about the 4's and up cause I never got one as I already knew they went out o buisness. Point is do a search of the more recent ones and check the requirements for the demo's. Just like games they are the bare minimals. I always like to be a bit faster for the prog to work well, you know what I mean.


"16MB PCI Voodoo Banshee "

I know someone with the agp version of that card and it was a real dog. Aside from being the first 2d/3d card it had nothing going for it. The Voodoo2 was faster in all benches. It was the TNT2 that finally bested the V2 and supported(though not well)32bit colour. Anyhow that card isn't gonna do most newer dvd playback very well. It can hardware wise but you know the whole programing thing, the requirements keep getting higher and higher. :(

[vibe666]

Originally posted by vibe666
"16MB PCI Voodoo Banshee"

guess i was just lucky with the setup I had. it was a fast little runner and i kept it going long after it should have been put out to graze, I managed to do plenty on it that by rights it had no business being able to cope with.

ah, fond memories. :D

***viBe***
Why not put your PC's idle time to good use by downloading the seti@home client HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html) and then joining the Sysopt.com Users 2002 Team HERE (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Sysopt.com+Users+2002)

UPDATE: Ask users here about the command line client. its not nearly as pretty but its much faster :D

[jkac123]

namrak

Hey, thanks for clearing up the power DVD freeze up issue. You mean to say if I have the upgraded version it wont freeze! That was another post I had a while ago and I tried everything:mad:

Well now it looks like somehow I will have to upgrade.

mainly what I was asking here was about downloaded flicks, Britney Spears, etc......

I have to think that 900mhz, 384RAM and 64MB video should be enough to process these applications.

Sorry I did not ******** that. I just was wondering if I cut down the demand on pixels or anything else would it help?

This sure does bring new light into the DVD subject though;)

[Lycia]

Originally posted by jkac123
namrak

Hey, thanks for clearing up the power DVD freeze up issue. You mean to say if I have the upgraded version it wont freeze! That was another post I had a while ago and I tried everything:mad:

Well now it looks like somehow I will have to upgrade.

mainly what I was asking here was about downloaded flicks, Britney Spears, etc......

I have to think that 900mhz, 384RAM and 64MB video should be enough to process these applications.

Sorry I did not ******** that. I just was wondering if I cut down the demand on pixels or anything else would it help?

This sure does bring new light into the DVD subject though;)

OK, thats a whole different ball game. DVD playback from a store bought movie should not have playback issues on your system. However, downloaded movies may, or may not. It depend on how the person who made the movie encoded it..etc..it's all dependant on that user, not your system..example, you could drop $10,000 on a new computer and you will get slowups, stuttering, etc if the maker of the movie you downloaded did a crappy job...

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Yes that does explain alot. Divx espesially. Are you useing Divx? Now that does take a way bigger machine than standard dvd playback. Even Vcd's can be jumpy if not ripped right. But this is getting off subject. Point is store bought yes downloaded maybe-maybe not!
I think Lycia summed it up well!Peace!:)

[philocipher]

I wonder... why no one mentions.. closing ALL unnessary applications..... defrag the drive.. freeing up like 500 Megs of Hard disk etc etc ?

[jkac123]

philocipher

I do close most everything, I even shut off my sceen saver when I go to watch a movie. As far as HD space I have over 8 GIGS clear right now.

My biggest complaint is my DVD freeze up about an hour into a movie. That may have been fixed by the the post here regarding upgrading software? I dont know yet because I have not downloaded any new programs yet.


I Defrag quite often, i try to do this once a week;)

Thanks

[philocipher]

I think Lycia is right on this issue as having DMA enabled/disabled can make a difference in performance when it comes to DVD playback. I sometimes watch DVD movies using only a 500MHz system and it playsback fine. Unfortunately, since jkac didn't mention which software DVD app he uses, I'll just throw this out that PowerDVD 4.0 has some issues that need to be worked out at least for their bundled versions.

besides i found that powerdvd (version 4)doesn't work with region free DVD drives(well atelast sometimes) so power DVD ver 3 is good enough
also i would try it with power managment disabled.(i,e shut down hard drives after 30mins etc etc) as for DIvX files. I find many times that people have like too many versions of codecs installed and that messes ups things.... what i find is If u install just DivX 4.12 (along with the default microsoft codecs. and enable automatic download of codecs from the microsift site)it can pretty much play all the movies. (I haven't found any it can't play properly as yet). and play them in windows media player (mediaplayer2) not on the powerDVD.