Watch a DVD in my dorm

[The_YongGrand]

My folks told me If I have a faster processor and more RAM then the DVD playback in the comp will be good and juicy.... They're correct... And I want to install a DVD drive there in my comp... But I'm wondering is there ANY glitches coming if I watch my DVD in my Athlon XP 2400+ and with 256MB RAM? What's the real comp requirements for a comp DVD drive... :D

[spyder003]

Really all you need is a DVD-ROM and a video card. I actually didn't know that some onboard video solutions won't play DVD's. Here (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=117018) is a thread about it. Here (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-118&depa=0) is a good DVD-ROM for $23. What are you using for a video card?

[glc]

All *modern* video cards and onboard videos have hardware assisted DVD decoding. Even a crusty old 8mb ATI Rage Pro has it.

For decent software decoding, a 600 MHz processor is plenty of beef. To do it with anything less, a Hollywood card is the way to go, if you can find one along with drivers.

[The_YongGrand]

Yeah, some people told me that DVDs in comps need that much: 3.2GHz, 512MB RAM and a very very good video card...

Oh I forget, my video card is ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB...Does my AMD Athlon XP computer there DVD playback looks smooth and not grainy? The ram is only 256MB...

But actually what's the best (and maximum) resolution in DVD playback in computers? I don't really know it but is comp DVD much more clearer than the
Television :)

[Zim0n]

All new video card will run DVDs. hav them running on a duron 800 with 512mb ram and a 5200 they r Crisp :)

Zim0n :cool:

[glc]

The only thing that's driving video card technology is games. I have several customers that watch DVD's flawlessly on less than 2 GHz processors with onboard Intel video - and 32mb TNT2 M64 cards. 256mb ram is a bit low for XP if you multitask but if all you are doing is watching a movie, that's fine.

[The_YongGrand]

Oooh, I'm really getting one DVD drive now... Is there a nice cheap DVD-burner too? Maybe dual-layer? :)

[BURL]

my old gateway only had 667mhz and 256mb of ram and the dvd did real good.

[Hi Ho]

The only DVD video technology that needs lots of power is Windows Media Player HD (http://www.wmvhd.com/). It requires a mininum of 2.4 GHZ, 384 MB of RAM, and a 64 MB video card because it is very highly compressed. The low res clips (1280x720) play fine on my system though and they look and sound amazing.

[spyder003]

The only DVD video technology that needs lots of power is Windows Media Player HD (http://www.wmvhd.com/). It requires a mininum of 2.4 GHZ, 384 MB of RAM, and a 64 MB video card because it is very highly compressed. The low res clips (1280x720) play fine on my system though and they look and sound amazing.

Man, those do look nice. I d/l the "Meet the Fockers" trailer. 68.5MB for 1:29, ouch.

[Hi Ho]

68.5MB for 1:29, ouch.
That's nothing when compared to standard resolution uncompressed .AVI format. That can take up almost a GB per minute. I'd say compressing compressing 1280x720 HD video to take up only around 60 MB per minute and sacrifice no quality is an amazing feat.