laptop DVD

[EdipisReks]

would a pentium MMX 266 mHz be fast enough to run a dvd decently? i am thinking about buying a laptop from a friend with this processor, but i don't want to get it unless it could run DVD's alright. it has a 12.1" screen, and 32 MB's of ram.

--jacob

 

[Gunbuster]

Without ATI assist no, with an ATI video chip maybe but prolly still choppy

 

[ledzepp98]

i can't say for sure but my guess would be probably not. i think you would really need a 400mhz+ cpu for good quality software dvd decoding (i'm assuming you can't cram a hardware decoder card in a laptop).

 

[Noriaki]

My K6-2 350Mhz was choppy. I ran in pure software mode without ATi chip assist, but I doubt ATi + 266 PMMX could do better than K6-2/350

I'm going to say no.

 

[Oyeve]

My Thinkpad 600e w/p3 366 BARELY runs DVDs watchable.

 

[Azeroth]

my opinion is no, get a better laptop if you wanna watch dvds!



<< Without ATI assist no, with an ATI video chip maybe but prolly still choppy with a 266 >>

 

[Gunbuster]

How does a pent. 266MMX have dvd anyway? you sure it's not a Pentium 2

I have never seen a pentium 1 laptop with a DVD standard in the retail/consumer channel

 

[Erasmus-X]

266MHz won't cut it for software decoding. You'll probably want to pick up a PC Card based decoder card if you still want to use that laptop to watch DVDs.

 

[YZ12569]

Get a Margi decoder card and I bet it will work perfect.
Margi Website

 

[Oyeve]

Damn. 300bux!?!?!?

 

[YZ12569]

They are pricey but they have a lot of features and they are a good card.
I'm sure there are some other brands too, maybe some of them are cheaper.
It's worth a look if your going to get the laptop EdipisReks.

 

[EdipisReks]

thanks for your help, everybody! i think i will save more money and just get a new laptop. and gunbuster, i can get my hands on a laptop DVD drive for pretty cheap, and i was going to put it in the laptop.

--jacob

 

[jcastle]

For software DVD playback, right off of WinDVD site:

What software and hardware must be installed on my computer before I can run WinDVD?


Intel CPU with 350 MHz and MMX, or AMD CPU with 450 MHz and 3Dnow! (See the CPU requirements below for more details.)
Second Generation or newer DVD-ROM drive
AGP graphics card (PCI may perform up to 30% slower) with hardware overlay support (See the Graphic Chipsets FAQs for more details.)
32 MB system memory
20 MB available hard drive space
Microsoft DirectX 7 or higher enabled graphics subsystem
Microsoft DirectX Media 6 or greater
Audio subsystem that supports up to 48Khz stereo playback (PCI desirable).


Sorry...

Here is the website:

http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Support.jsp

 

[Oyeve]

I used to run Windvd on a celeron 300 with a POS ati xpert98 PCI and it was fine. But that was a desktop, The slowest dvd laptop setup I played with was a p2 300. Played OK as long as you didnt breath on it.

 

[Schola]

Oyeve, whats up with you laptop? My PIII 366 can handle doing dvd's just fine. But then again mavbe the ATI Rage LT PRO is helping some?

Schola

 

[Oyeve]

Yeah. That laptop came with a 2 1/2 meg neomagic graphic chipset. I got rid of it a while ago. My thinkpad 600e with a p2 366 lpay fine though with the same chipset.