On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 04:32:04PM -0500, Dustin wrote: > I would prefer to have the option to playback DVD movies on this > machine, in the past I've had trouble getting smooth playback on a PC > versus a dedicated stand alone DVD player. This may only be an issue > with older machines, but I might be wrong in that assumption. > > Any advice on this issue, or any issue in building a newer Debian PC > would be excellent. >
I built a new Athlon64 box about 8 months ago. Sarge wouldn't work so I went with Etch sometime between beta3 and RC1 and have stuck with it now that it's stable. I already had an LG read/burn anything with a PATA interface so I use that. My MB has one PATA so I have the burner as hda and my ZIP as hdb. As for smooth playback, I went with a nVidia EN7300GT silent. My monitor is a 21" CRT drafting Intergraph. I use VLC (remember to put the debian-multimedia.org repository in your sources.list). With the standard nv X driver, I get playback that is a bit jerky and the smoothing/resizing isn't as good. With the nvidia driver (with the stock debian contrib and non-free packages) I get great performance. The screen is at 1600x1200 32-bpp. I can run vlc full screen (so it blows up the image to fit), deinterlacing-blending, no jerking, smooth motion and cristal clarity. All at 93% idle and minimal memory used. The trick here is that the video card is able to do the jpeg to screen translation in hardware with the nvidia driver whereas the nv driver has to attempt it in software. As for whether to use a PATA or SATA burner, it depends on what you have and what interfaces the MB has, and also where your hard drives are connected. Don't expect smooth playback if you have the DVD and your hard drive on the same interface or using the same bus. Enjoy your assembly job. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
