what are the requirements?

[cL0N31]

what are the requirements for pc in order to play dvd-movies and divx avi's nicely and smoothly? i have my old amd 500MHz and video-playback lags a lot on it... what has to be upgraded?

[guns1inger]

CPU would be a good start, and having 512 mb ram is also better than 256 or less.

[cL0N31]

having 128 and 256 megs of ram i noticed no difference in playing, will i with 512? does video card matter? what cpu minimum is required?

[Prot]

You are really asking a lot of your CPU, but yes, more RAM will make a difference...even upping to 384 meg. Have NO other apps running either. I'm guessing (hoping) you are running
Win 98. If you are running XP, your resources are going to be too strained.
If adding more RAM doesn't help, you are SOL with your current configuration.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I would get a new videocard(at least ATI 9200 or nVidia 5200) first,if that doesn't help then a faster CPU.IMO more RAM will have little effect on video playback.

[aedipuss]

miracles don't happen. the frontside bus on that dinosaur is probably 10 times slower than current equipment and the pc66 memory will cost you more than ddr2 for a new system. bite the big bullet and go with a new m.b./proc/ram at least. doesn't have to be state of the art but something in the 2ghz range would be good. something like this package and a gig of pc3200 ram.
http://shop1.outpost.com/{Gz6JWn01JjL5JKhXzclrpZfJ1pGCYvkwrtjs6lsLZnhtDvh8c zTv!-102492025!-1325627317!1144208073376}/product/4705559

[MOVIEGEEK]

In the meantime get the latest videocard and chipset drivers and set the screen to no more than 800x600/85Hz.

[cL0N31]

i experimented quite a while with it... i tried 128 and 256 of ram - no or minimum difference in playback... then i tried 98se and xp - no difference as well... changing video card from 16 to 64 mb doesn't matter... so basing on my experiment and your saying - cpu... will i get the problem solved on 850mhz?

[guns1inger]

Are you building from a PC scrap yard ? Your goal seems to be to find the lowest possible spec for running these videos. Is there a reason for trying to squeeze so much out of so little ?

FWIW, the minimum specs for PowerDVD are P4 1.3, P-M 1.0 or AMD 1.2, 128 MB ram and a GFX card with driect draw overlay support.

[cL0N31]

i was just wondering what are the minimum requirements for the compressed video to play good... and i had no idea they were so high... just a video... ain't no 3d game - just video... think about it... ridiculous

[mats.hogberg]

DVD/mpg will have less CPU demand, while DivX/XviD will put a higher strain on the processor (as those formats are more compressed, and need more horsepower to be unpacked).

/Mats

[jagabo]

It takes about a 1 GHz P3 or Athlon to playback full D1 video smoothly. The video card can also make a difference. A modern graphics card with YV12 decoding will work better than an old card without it. You might get away with a 500 MHz processor if you use a video card with YV12 decoding (modern ATI cards for example).