Is it possible to play dvd on old hardware?
 

I tried to play dvd on my Pentium 3 800mhz and 512mb ram computer. It didn't played smoothly.

I tried with windows and linux, both on the same hardware. They both give the same results. Is there any way to make it smoother?

For information :

Windows I used Windows Media Player

Linux : Xine and Mplayer.

When I tried to play vcd, everything is ok. IN both platform.


THx

As far as I know there is no way to do this, unless there is some way you can increase the DVD drive's buffer size.

You will need to enable DMA on the drive, if possible. Try (as root)You may need to install hdparm first, and use whichever device points to your dvd reader.

Cheers,

mj

All I can add to the DMA tip is that I have it working
very well on an Athlon 600 (which is unlikely to be
any faster than the PIII 8000), and that it may help
to increase the -cache <kBytes> when using mplayer.

Another thing is to look at the various output options,
and bear in mind that the DVD doesn't require a high
screen resolution, 800x600 will be plenty fine.

You didn't mention what the results are, btw.

Cheers,
Tink

Is it really run on athlon 600 mhz? Well then I think it should work also in my computer.:newbie:

I will try to enable the dma mode. However, how to check the current status of the dma?

And which is the most lightweight player?

Thx:Pengy:

As root, hdparm /dev/cdrom or wherever your cd/dvd drive is located. As for a lightweight player, my preference is for Xine, though a commandline version such as dxr3 may be more suitable -- http://dxr3player.sourceforge.net.

Cheers,

mj