Old rig for DVD player? Help please!

[superlie]

Hi guys,

I have an old rig (it has served me well for 4 years):
Celeron 366 @ 458Mhz + 256MB RAM
3.0 + 10.0 GB HDD
DVD + CD-RW
Wireless Keyboard + Mouse

It has no value anymore, but too good to be thrown away. I am planning to hook this up to
my 29" TV using an S-Video connection from my Video Card. I have never done this before,
but sounds interesting. My questions:

First, Can I watch DVD using S-Video connection from my Video Card?
Last time I tried from my laptop, the S-Video can't play the movie.

Second, If I can, will the quality be good or bad?

Third, If I can't what else can I do with it? PC Car?

Thank you guys, btw, I'm from Indonesia - greetings from the tropical islands 🙂

Andry
andrylie@gmail.com

PS. I have 2 gmail for those who need 'em.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes, you can watch DVD. 458 MHz should be fast enough for software decoding. Quality should be like a DVD player if your TV-out is good (some cards are good, some are less good).

 

[superlie]

Can you recommend what video card is good and what is bad? I'm looking at $40> or 32MB>. Would that be okay?
What's weird is that this doesn't work with my laptop.... really weird....

 

[kaizersose]

considering that quality dvd players can be had for under $100, it's not worth it.

 

[bacillus]

If you can find an old Matrox G4xx video card then I am confident you would be pleased with its visual quality.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you don't already have the video card, just getting a $40 dvd player really is easier. Your CPU isn't fast enough for anything except MPEG2/DVD (no divx), and Phillips makes a $63 player that does play divx if you need that.

If you want to do this just for fun, old ATI (and Sapphire ATI) cards had good TV-out.

 

[superlie]

I'll look for Matrox. Quality DVD is cheap nowadays, but I am hoping to use it to play MP3 (10GB of MP3, that's alot). What do you guys think?
Thanks for responding 🙂

 

[epsilon9090]

Yeah, mp3 will work fine on that thing, you might think about turning it into a server too.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

I have a Radeon 7200 on my 366 @ 550. And yes it does play divx movies just fine. Maybe not the crappy ones you d/l from the internet that haven't be reduced in size. When I "back-up" a DVD I reduce the dimmensions of the movie to 382x288. They are less blocky and pixelated in high motion scenes. And play on lower end machines. And everyone who has seen them played on a TV, was amazed on how good they look.