[MPlayer-users] Mplayer performance on Upgraded PowerBook Wallstreet

[larrystotler at netscape.net]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ivan Kowalenko <ivan.kowalenko at gmail.com>

> It does, but the MPEG-2 decoders that it is known to use are XvMC 
(which isn't really an MPEG-2 decoder, but >offloads some MPEG-2 
decoding parts to the GPU), and the Hauppauge PVR-350's On-board MPEG-2 
decoder. >Given that this is a piece of Apple hardware (and likely 
unique to the Wallstreet PB, and never seen the light of >day on an x86 
system), MPlayer probably doesn't even know it exists.

There was a Cardbus MPEG2 for the PC called the Margi DVD-To-Go.  It 
provided hardware decoding.  ATI cards also had a daughtercard option 
for DVD playback for the PC and the Mac.  I've never had one, and can't 
imagine that it would work for any of the newer codecs anyway.  The Mac 
card was a similar if not identical implementation.

> It IS possible that your G3 does have some AltiVec support, though 
probably older. If the code with AltiVec >enabled functions, then you 
probably do have AltiVec.

Nope.  G3's have never had Alitvec support.  The G4 was the one that 
introduced that.  The G4 was more of an upgrade than the the P-III.  
All the original P-III added was SSE.  There was a rumor that IBM was 
working on a G3 with Altivec, but never happened.

Anyway, that's why I was wondering about the decoding.  I do have a 
400Mhz G4 system with a better ATI card.  I guess I will have to 
install Mplayer on it and see how well it does.  Thanx