300MHz Min for software DVD is bull****

[euankirkhope 0]

Yes it must be true. DMA is enabled, overlay works and PowerDVD is so jerky its unbelieveable, but the sound is fine. WinDVD isn't much better either.

 

Decided to install win98 on a small 500Mb partition to see how it goes. It is absolutly fluid motion. Perfect. Until the CPU overheats after exactly 31mins on "The Matrix". Not to mention the fact that win98 needs at least 4 attempts to recognise the DVD.

 

550Mhz and win2k is permanently at 100% CPU utilisation, so what is it at 300?

 

Help!-

[euankirkhope 0]

Opps, some system stuff:

 

------------------

System Spec:

FIC VA-503+ 1.1b bios JE438

CPU Current Limiter Disabled

AMD K6-2 550 (300 when I talk to FIC tech support)

128Mb SSi PC100

STB Velocity 4400 16Mb PAL TV-Out

Hauppauge Wintv

Realtek 8029 LAN

Creative ES1371 (PCI64v)

56.6K (AkA 44k) ISA Modem

Creative 48mx CDROM

Memorex TriMaxx200(DVD/CDR/CDRW, 6,4,24)

Maxtor 91301U3 13Gb

LS120

and com and lpt i/o conflict error during bios startup.

Hardware fault caused by win2k beta3 and dodgy bios, now irrepairable.

[ParaDoX 0]

DVD's run perfectly smooth on my machine. I'm using PowerDVD 2.5

 

------------------

P2 400@516

ABit BX6 2.0

Creative TNT2 Ultra

192MB Ram

WD 8,4GB

WD 30,7GB

Teac 4x/12x CD-R

Creative 5x DVD

[FrogMaster 0]

WinDVD and Xing run OK for me. Smoother in W2K than in Win98 - maybe MPS?

 

 

 

------------------

Abit BP6 - QQ bios - 2*Celery@583 MHz - 192 MB Pc100 Ram - Seagate 6 GB - Seagate 4 GB - HPT66 IBM 20 GB Ultra 66 - Iomega // Zip100 - Toshiba DVD SD-M1212 - CDR Sony CDU 928E - HP Deskjet 815C - Philips Vesta Pro Webcam - NIC HP 10/100 - Elsa Erazor X2 GeForce 256 DDR - Sound Blaster AWE 32- Alcatel 1000 ADSL - Dual boot WIN2K Pro 2195 and Win 98

[euankirkhope 0]

Don't know what the problem is but now the DVD refuses to mount my one and only dual layer DVD "the matrix", other single layer and double sided single layer seem to work fine.

 

It lasted at least 45 mins this time in win98. I definetly think heat is a problem in win98, I deleted Rain as win2k doesn't need it, anyone know where to get it? With win2k the DVD is just to jerky to watch it runs for a half second smooth, jumps a bit then smooth again, it makes me dizzy to be honest. But the sound is perfect, apart from that "running water like sound" that the Mpeg compression seems to make in the low noise background areas. Maybe a limiter would be useful to cut it out. Then again its probably my crappy PC

[FrogMaster 0]

Anyway, the worst DVD deck is way better than the best PC hardware/software combination ... and cost no more than the drive+video card combo.

[euankirkhope 0]

True.

[sandvic 0]

PowerDVD 2.5 works flawlessly on my system:

 

K6-II 300Mhz

QDI Titanium IB+ motherboard

SBLive!

Voodoo 3 3000

Pioneer 103S DVD

Samsung UDMA2 HD (13Gb)

Win 98

[nagual 0]

http://www.cpuidle.de/

does the same thing as rain but also optimizes the cpu..once in a while (every 30 days or so :=) u might wanna delete a regkey called "statman"

[Jester 0]

Get yourself a real DVD drive, processor, and motherboard. With a Pioneer 104S and my Celeron 450 I have 35% CPU usage using PowerDVD.

 

Celeron 450

Abit BF6 (440BX)

192MB RAM

Pioneer 104S

ASUS AGP TNT1 (doesn't have any hardware DVD)

Win2k Prof

 

[This message has been edited by Jester (edited 23 May 2000).]

[FrogMaster 0]

Watching movies on a pc is pure bullsh*t when for a fraction of the cost you can get a deck with rvb direct connection to a tv set. Picture is much-much better!

 

If you can afford a 36-inch flat-screen 16/9 digital double scan set with sound fed to a real hi-fi 5+1 sound system, you just will throw your box out of the window!

In fact such a setup does not cost more than a medium range full-fledged PC.

[frojj 0]

you won't need one if you have a good tv-out card like g400dh(or max). i have no problem watching dvd or divx on my tv only got cut off on both side because my 4:3 tv doesn't support 16:9. now for that mitsubishi platinum 55" i am planning to get.......

[hammer_2000 0]

The point could be the AMD K6-2, very

slow FPU compared to equal P2/P3, but

i don't know if high Integer or floating point performance is good for viewing DVD.

[BacMan 0]

Frogmaster ... I agree.

 

 

------------------

Intel PIII 500

Soyo SY-D6IBA2 (BD2-2BA2)

128MB PC100 SDRam

ASUS V6800 GeForce256 DDR

Quantum Atlas 10K - 9.1GB

Segate Cheetah 10K - 9.1GB

Iomega Jaz - 1GB

UltraPlex 32X

Plexwriter 4/12

NEC Multisync 5FGe

USRobotics 56K Faxmodem

EtherLink 10/100 Mbps NIC

Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla

Microsoft Original Sidewinder Gamepad

Logitech Cordless MouseMan Wheel

IBM Keyboard

Microsoft Windows 2000

 

Home Theater

Sony KV-36KBR200 36" Flatscreen

Denon AVR-2700

Toshiba SD-2108 DVD

PSB Ambient II dipole surrounds

PSB 200Ci center channel

PSB 300i main channels

Velodyne CT100 subwoofer

XLO/VDO speaker wire

Monster interconnects

 

www.bolt.com - sign my tagbook

[euankirkhope 0]

I'd definetly blame the K6-2 as they're crap, along with the SS7 mobo. Next upgrade is scheduled for after the summer when I start back at uni, and get a student loan, should be about £800 I'll probably get a K7 something or other.

 

As for the DVD deck, I'm getting one this week but sadly its for someones birthday, so it'll reside in the lounge. A flatscreen TV is way way way out of the picture money wise, but instead the local superstore (Tesco) has a special deal with www.Wharfedale.co.uk where there are widescreen TV's going for £200. Good part (I think) is you can change it from Letterbox (default) to Anamorphic, so you don't lose any detail/quality in stretching etc.

 

I expect my PC to do everything, and it nearly does, this DVD watching problem and my other WinTV issue (no overlay) are the only problems I have with NT5. [as well as my PSX dual shock not working in NT5 ]

 

Ps has anyone had problems with WinDVD. It seams to make my PC reset during boot, thus resulting in 2 re-installs, and thats bad going by my standards as I can usually fix everything. But hey, its pretty stupid to re-install something that f^"^%$& the system up first time, isn't it?

 

[This message has been edited by euankirkhope (edited 25 May 2000).]

 

[This message has been edited by euankirkhope (edited 25 May 2000).]

[sandvic 0]

It's funny how people blame the first thing they have at hand when they don't know why things don't work. Well, my K6-II 300 Mhz played Matrix and all movies I've rented/purchased flawlessly on my Pioneer 103S DVD regardless of region or format under Win98 + PowerDVD 2.55 at 800*600

[wind 0]

FrogMaster, yes, for a fraction of the cost you could buy a nice home cinema setup, but who the hell buys a pc for playing dvd's alone? Its a cheap edition to a system you allready use for other purposes (work, game playing, whatever). You should be comparing the price for a dvd drive to the price of all that other crap you mentioned.

[FrogMaster 0]

I don't remember having posted any crap.

I just mean that watching movies on a PC screen is a good way to get headhache and is potential business for eyeglasses sellers.

I maintain, because it is a technical fact, that the cheapest dvd deck delivers much better video and sound than the best dvd drive+video card combination.

As far as the price is concerned, nowadays you can find very good decks for $300 and 32" 16:9 tv sets at around $450. This is roughly the price of a low-end pc rig.

Most people have also the opportunity to attach at no extra cost a dvd deck to existing family tv set and hi-fi sound system.

 

Watching movies on a crt display is like listening music on a walkman. Some people like doing so, other don't.

 

Have a nice day.

[euankirkhope 0]

Sanvic: Win98 softDVD works in my PC too (Perfectly), but the PC overheats after 30 mins. I have a 300 Mhz K6-2 also and it plays dvd's. Were talking about win2k here.

 

Others: I'm basically talking about how kack win2k is at audio\video in some aspects [ good a/v is cubase VST ]. Also my PC is loaded to the max. And thus is difficult to maintain in win98, what with its pityful IRQ routing problems, Not to mention that fact that it must be in ACPI mode for win2k, but doesn't work in ACPI with '98.

 

The softDVD in win2k is @ 100% CPU, and it's really jerky, and I can't figure out why. What help is it to say "well it works for me".

[euankirkhope 0]

UPDATE!

 

I installed directx8 today, ammongst other things and I've noticed that the DVD is much better today. Goodnews. Its not perfect, but good enough to watch. Its either DX8, or the Anti-spam app I installed. (I think the latter )

[slkh 0]

I have abandon Socket 7 platform long ago, and haven't been following up with its development since the new development of SS7.

 

But I have tried DVD on Celeron 366 and they work perfectly well. Not anything like 100% CPU utilization. Well, maybe the Geforce GPU doing the job (Motion compensation)???

[Bka32 0]

The K6-2/3 CPU's just can't decode fast enough for the video to remain in good quality. I myself got a Real Hollywood Plus card, and everything is good. But, I think the problem is the fact that the CPU has poor FPU and no cache on chip like the PII/III/K7 and most of the newer Celerons have. Those CPU's can also manage the memory they use far better as well.

[sandvic 0]

Bka32...

 

I must be the lucky owner of one of those K6-II with internal cache (*oooooh!*) which works perfectly with both WinDVD 2000 1.4 and PowerDVD 2.55 but then again I don't have any relative working in AMD so I guess anyone else with a decent mobo and a properly configured OS would get the same results:

 

K6-II 450Mhz

Epox MVP3G5 1.4 (april 2000)

Geforce DDR

Sblive player 1024

192 Mb RAM 100Mhz

Pioneer DVD 103S

Samsung UDMA2 HD (13 Gb)

Win2K with all updates (no DX8/SP1 beta)