HTPC not quite there!

[deshg]

Hey guys,

I can't really call it an HTPC but i'm rigging up a very old pc so i can watch movies in bed, it's a 200MHz pentium with 64MB of ram, radeon 7000 tvout graphics card, new sony DVD-ROM running ME (it doesn't meet the system requirements of XP, i guess cos it's not 233MHz). It all works fine but when i play video files in win media play 9 (after installing all the codecs) it is just too slow to keep up with the video (unsurprisingly). do you think if i upgrade the ram a bit then it will sort out the problem? it pauses once every few seconds and the carries on and the speech is hence out of sync. if you think upgrading the ram will work then how much do you think i'll need?

thanks very much for this, i understand i should just use a computer that isn't 20 years old, but i can't afford to buy one, so it;s this or nothing!

i'd really appreciate some help,

cheers guys&gals

[snafu099]

I would suspect that among other things, the ide/hdd is not fast enough to play the quality you want/expect.

In my area I can buy a used 450mhz system for under $100
Have a look here, I know they ship within US as I bought sys for grand-daughter in NY

http://www.netseller.com

[mujahid7ia]

I think the CPU is the real bottleneck, 200MHz simply isn't enough to handle full motion full screen video.

[Nelson37]

You might try and find a Hollywood Plus or Creative Dxr3 board, at one time I had three of these. Should be dirt cheap and will solve your problem.

[gcutler]

64MB will not do much. Minimum of 128MB, if not 256MB is preferred. Most current MS operating systems take over 64MB just to boot up and if looking at 2000 or XP probably over 100MB, if not closer to 128MB (my PC with XP pro takes 180MB to boot with Anti-Virus, etc). That will leave little physical memory available before you start swapping memory to the hard drive and performance goes to pot (even with a good CPU). 256 buys you enough leeway, but more may be needed depending on resident apps and such but that will have to be determined with what you decide to use SW wise

[ofbarea]

For your hardware the Real Magic Hollywood plus or the Creative DXR3 are the best options. Just get one of these and you will be able to play MPEG 1 or 2 files just fine.