Windows Media Player

Okay another problem :

My cousin has a celeron, a very old one for that matter. ( the speed of a P1, i dont know the exact speed). He called me over, because he wanted to see Harry Potter, and he couldn't make his Xing Player to run itself without the frames breaking up. I played the movie in Media Player and it worked better.
But when i tried watching it in full screen, the frames still came one , stop , one. THen one, stop , one -- although not very slow but quite. I told him to get an updated RAM since he has 32 MB. He said an engineer had come and had fixed it and he had been able to see the movie that time. Now, that was a challenge. I tried fiddling with it for a long time for no use. I told him i'll come the day after (wondering if my friends here could help) :D
In any case, i dont know what the heck. If anybody has any knowledge about it whatsoeva, please contribute.

Would a video accelerator card be the best option ? ( or in short, the cheapest option , because they probably watch a movie once in 6 months, so wouldnt prefer spending too much )

P.S. - I end tasked all programs that were going on, to release the RAM, but no respite. I took half of them outta the startup, still not :(

there are a few things that might slow down playback. one is ram, 32Mb isnt very much for playing a movie. maybe the first ten minutes might be ok but after that it will become a bit slugish. another might be the cpu, and video card combo. if there is little memory on the video card then the cpu has to put in more power. so it would be best to have a high memory video card of a faster cpu.

for the ram probelm i recommend something like cacheman that controls the memory better. another thing might be that the file itself it like that and it may have happened during the ripping.

hope it helps

Had your cousin upgraded/changed OS after the engineer came? I know Win 95 on P1/32MB ran MPEG movies OK. More recent version of Windows need more CPU power and memory.

Peace always,
<jdenny>

To begin with, the file is perfect, i double-checked on my computer, and it happens not only with that file, but with every file they play on it,
Secondly, yeah the RAM is low, but somebody already made it possible on that computer with the same configurations, as i stated already.
Thanks, i'll try using cacheman, i have RAM booster already though.

Edit : jdenny, we were typing the same moment. Anyway, he's running windows 98.
i suspect if he'd like to change to 95 to watch movies, but thanks for the suggestion.

What about switching to linux running mplayer or xine..
On a p133 32Mb I've been watching Mpegs without ne trouble..
And with a bit of trouble even DivX's (from CD-ROM works better then from harddisk for that matter)

or is that out of the question..

I'll recomend a 3D VIDEO Graphic CARD with onboard memory.It will take the work load off your processor.Dont use RAM booster for watching movies as it can increase the work load on the cpu.Also, dont use high graphic settings for you monitor and make sure there is enough free space on the hard disk( defrag it as well).It will make the system run faster.


Things that slows down the computer:

1) Not enogh memory

2) Hard Disk full

3) High graphic settings (Also set your wallpaper to none)

4) Background programs running (check task manager)

5) CPU not fast enough


Good luck

Enjoy Harry Potter

Dr_Evil

Tell Him to Go to a Local Computer Store and buy a 64 or 128 MB of Ram Chip! Then Go to www.windowsupdate.com and Download Alll the Lastest Software for security and Graphics and the movie will work cause i use to have that problem cause the Harry Porter Movie to be run needs min 64MB of Ram! Make Sure he Has DirectX 8.1 and Flash 6 and all other Video Software that is up to date!

A new video card would probably help, but since it's an old Celeron, the AGP slot, if any will be AGP1x while all the cards made today are either 2x or 4x cards. Or, if it's just slightly older, it won't even have an AGP slot, only a PCI one. So you'd have to get a PCI video card, which I'm pretty sure aren't made anymore.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

directx 9 is out, might try that.
is this an mpeg? avi?
you might want to try to download the divx codecs and divx player. i've got a couple of sealab episodes that will only run with the divx player.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by the_JinX
What about switching to linux running mplayer or xine..
On a p133 32Mb I've been watching Mpegs without ne trouble..
And with a bit of trouble even DivX's (from CD-ROM works better then from harddisk for that matter) or is that out of the question..

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hmm..alright, ill try mplayer, but it's not for me, so i dont think he knows how to even use Linux.
But anyway, thank ya for the suggestion jinx.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Dr_Evil
I'll recomend a 3D VIDEO Graphic CARD with onboard memory.It will take the work load off your processor.Dont use RAM booster for watching movies as it can increase the work load on the cpu.Also, dont use high graphic settings for you monitor and make sure there is enough free space on the hard disk( defrag it as well).It will make the system run faster.

---

I think defragging is something i could have done. Didn't think about that, thanks.
Umm..i already customized the graphic settings, they are pretty low.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by qwerty_smith
directx 9 is out, might try that.
is this an mpeg? avi?

---

oh yeh, it isnt an mpeg or an avi, it is a .dat

i dont know but that's the format the movies come out in India (the CD's) -- strange, but yeah.

Well Invader, to tell you the truth.....

You can solve the problem by

sticking in a 128mb ram

and a 3d graphic card

however it's gonna cost you mate !!!

Dr_Evil

money talks,mine says 'Good Bye'

Dr_evil, i know it's money and i have ta spend to make it betta, but the problem is that the computer is my cousin's and he doesnt understand the problem, and wouldnt be willing to spend a lot of money. I think the RAM should do though. I'll try , thanks

One thing you could try is to play the file at a lower resolution. Try switching to 640x480 and see if that helps. And FYI, the .dat file on VCDs is an mpeg file with a .dat extension.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

I suggest setting the resoulution on the monitor down to 800x600. Also a new graphics card just might be the ticket. You can still buy PCI videocards. Some GeForce4's are like this. I have also seen Geforce2's for the PCI slot also. I've seen them in our local Wal-mart (I'm not sure if this has stores out of the country), looking on their website you may be able to find one. The RAM would be another part to upgrade. If it is old (72-pin Simms) this type of RAM is expensive and you have to get pairs of it. I hope I have been of some help.

melakii