[MPlayer-users] k62/500 / 256mb ram not enough for dvd-playback?

[D Richard Felker III]

On Tue, Apr 01, 2003 at 08:26:56PM +0200, nico berndt wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> hi,
> 
> i am having trouble getting mplayer with -vo vesa:vidix (ati rage 128) to
> play dvds flawlessly. i am using a k6/2-500 with 256mb ram, dma is active.
> it plays mpeg4-files with up to 60% cpu-usage, so i actually thought, it
> should do the job.
> 
> am i wrong?

Huh? More ram does not make your computer faster!!

Actually, in your case, it may make it slower... Most Super7
motherboards (used with K6) have an idiotic design flaw where they
cannot cache memory above 128 megs, so your system would probably get
a lot faster if you dropped down at only 128 megs of ram instead of
256.

Also, keep in mind that your system is *very* borderline for playing
DVDs to begin with. Most mpeg4 files you'll find are 512x256, 512x384,
640x288, 640x304, or at worst 640x480; on the other hand, DVDs are
720x480, and that's a lot more pixels!

You can try dropping to 128 megs, using -framedrop, or perhaps
clocking up to 550 if it's stable... My K6-3+ can play DVDs now at 500
MHz, but just barely, and it has a much better on-chip cache than the
K6-2.

Rich