[MPlayer-users] Re: best graphic card for MPlayer

[Patrice Levesque]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 09:10:28PM -0700, rcooley wrote:
> >If you don't run windows, then don't buy windows hardware? Is it that
> >hard? 
> You'd (obviously) be surprised.  Not like you can look around until you 
> find the box that says "Unix-compatible" on it.

Even then, if drivers are for Solaris, it doesn't mean you can recompile
them for GNU/Linux or BSD.


> >Do a simple google search or ask on irc before buying hardware
> >to avoid wasting lots of money. 
> 
> Info available on the web is often very unreliable, and that is even 
> more true when hardware is new, and there are only bits of info available.

Depends.  If the company who issued the hardware pretends it supports
the hardware, *at least* you'll get binary drivers.

If there are 'bits' of info, then don't risk: Windows Users wouldn't buy
something that 'maybe' would work.  Same for you.


> There is lots of hardware I've found that was reported to be working, 
> but didn't for some reason or another.  That's part of the reason I have 
> a practically useless AiW card myself.  Gatos.sf.net says it works, 
> nothing about TV-in being incompatible with every v4l app, TV-out 
> support being discontinued (I still don't think that fact is mentioned 
> on the web-site).  

That's part of being member of a "low-profile" community.  If it doesn't
work for you, _SAY_IT_ before another guy like you gets a non-working
device.  We can't rely on anybody but ourselves as a community to report
what's working and not.  Did you report this on gatos.sf.net? maybe
they'll be interested in helping you out or in the worst case correcting
their compatibility sheets.


> Even the sites 
> with this info are often designed very poorly.  Most people are taken-in 
> by the little penguin logos on the manufacturer's websites ;-).

A recipe written on a scrap paper is as much value as a recipe printed
on a "serious book".  Do your own research if you feel that what you're
reading is crap.  Some of the greatest scientific minds can't spell
correctly; do you have to be a designer to be a programmer?


> There's a limit to how much checking can be done.  We really need a 
> _good_ hardware database that says, in-detail, what works, what doesn't, 
> how often people have problems with it, etc.

http://linuxhardware.net/

Should do (at least half) the job.  If something doesn't work, for (insert
deity here)'s sake, report it.  Every trouble you report is a trouble
you save to other souls.


-- 
--====|====-- 
--------================|================--------
  Patrice Levesque
   http://ptaff.ca/
  wayne at ptaff.ca
--------================|================--------
--====|====-- "I won't say what it does because I
don't want to promote a non-free program" --- RMS

http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=260
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