how will the performance for a DVD player on this system?

[jkoXP]

a PIII 450MHz,
with no AT 66/100 controller, just plain old 16mb/sec
512MB PC100
16x DVD ROM
onboard sound (should i go with a Live! Value card? dont care around 5.1 on this machine)
7200RPM 30GB HD
ATi Rage Pro 128 (has all the DVD stuff)
WinXP Pro
Power DVD Player

 

[AndyHui]

DVDs themselves play at 1x, so the transfer rates are not really an issue.

It is recommended to have a hardware DVD decoder if your processor is below 400MHz. Since you have an ATi card with some DVD acceleration (as well as Pentium III SSE Instructions), playback should be fine.

Just don't expect to multitask or do anything else while playing DVDs.

 

[jkoXP]

this is my GF's PC, so i dont think she would be doing anything else besides that. would the sound and the picture be lined up though w/ the onboard sound?

DVD ROMs are alot cheaper then the players, and she wants one, so i thought id have her get a DVD ROM, her TV is a little 13" so i thought the quality would be alot better on her 17" monitor with the good vid card.

 

[Bovinicus]

Unless something goes wrong they should line up fine...

 

[AndyHui]

As Bovinicus says, it should be fine.

 

[pcclub2000]

it's fine but you can buy a better soundcard

 

[rbV5]

<< Power DVD Player >>



Unless you have PowerDVD4, you'll want to use the ATI DVD player for the hardware assist.

 

[jkoXP]

i have powerDVD 3.0..... ill check to see if i can upgrade it. i tried ati's player on someone elses PC, and it was darker, and not as clear as the powerDVD player.....

 

[Mavrick007]

That setup should work fine. It will be much better on the 17" monitor than the 13" tv. I would also suggest getting a better sound card cause the onboard one is really worse than a sb16(probably) considering it's an older system. Either get a cheap Live value, Audigy OEM, TB SC, or a Phillips and it will sound nice depending on the speakers she has for the system.

 

[jkoXP]

im getting the SB Live 5.1 sound card. thanks!

 

[jkoXP]

im getting a samsung 12x DVD player, it says it reads cd's at 40x, but dont all dvd players also read cdroms?

 

[rbV5]

<< i tried ati's player on someone elses PC, and it was darker, and not as clear as the powerDVD player >>



I use both ATI DVD 5.0 and Power DVD 4.0. IMHO, they have similar IQ and CPU utilization. If it were a choice between just using the ATI player, and Buying and using PowerDVD 4. I'd just use ATI DVD.

The point is, you want to make sure you use a player that utilizes the DVD assist, be it WinDVD 2.0, ATI DVD 5.0 or Power DVD 4.0. That brings the CPU requirement down to 266 mhz for smooth playback.

 

[jkoXP]

oh, well I have PowerDVD 4.0 now.... so i will try that out, and see how she works. thanks for all the help!