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[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

CPU 605MHz PIII (AMD K6-2), 64MB video ram (nvidia geforce 420MX), which 
is supposed to let you play videos on a 400MHz cpu.


Make a script called playdvd and chmod +x it.

#!/bin/sh
mplayer -dvd-device /dev/hdd dvd://1

The above script works if I first load the sound modules, then manually go 
into Xvesa at 800x600 resolution.  I could not manage to add sound-on 
(script) or 'x8' (alias).  Is there some way to use a script or an alias 
in a script or some other way?  x8 fills the screen best.

The sound was lagging behind the lip movement, and eventually stopped, and 
the characters started to walk very very slowly.
The sound would stop after a few seconds (24-bit color) or 20 sec or so 
(16-bit color).  My card won't do 16-bit color and Xvesa won't do 8-bit. 
I will try SVGA server and 8-bit color some time.

When I exit:
Your system is too SLOW to play this!
Most common:  broken/buggy _audio_ driver
        - Try -ao sdl or use ALSA or the OSS emulation of ALSA 0.9
	- Experiment with different values for -autosync, 30 is a good 
start.
Slow video output
        -Try a different -vo driver or try -framedrop!
-Slow PCU
	-Dont'try to play a big DVD/DivX on a slow CPU!  Try 
-hardframedrop
        - Try various combinations of -nobps -ni -forceidx -mc )
- Slow media (NFS/SMB mounts, DVD, VCD, etc)
        - Try -cache 8192
-Are you using -cache to play a non-interleaved AVI file?
        -Try -nocache
Read DOCS/HTML/en/devices.html for tuning/speedup tips.

A:  27.7  V: 15.5  A-V: 12.192 ct:  1.522 457/457 32% 120% 24.2% 448 0 0%
Too many video packets in the buffer:  (4096 in 8266203 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode wiht the -ni option.
a52: CRC check failed!
a52: error at resampling


A second problem:

The characters appear to be speaking Danish.  The jacket says:
Original Language Track in Danish and Italian
English Subtitles

I will read the documentation on how to switch on subtitles, but the cpu 
is already overstressed without them.  Maybe I can turn off sound.

Top (after we switched from X11 to CLI) says about 45-68% cpu usage (Xvesa 
0% when not actually displaying). As soon as we switched back to X11 the 
cpu usage jumped way up.  The usage goes up when they talk more.

Xvesa was 39% for a second.  This adds to just over 100%, which after the 
buffer is emptied leaves no cpu for sound, and also slows down the video.

Tried the first two suggestions to fix the slowness problem:

-hardframedrop:   Mplayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
Mplayer crashed.  This shouldn't happen.  It can be a bug in the Mplayer 
code or in your drivers or in your gcc version.

-framedrop:  Cpu usage is now just under 100% on the icewm monitor.  This 
time the lips are in sync with the sound, and the picture is a bit jerky 
but it is watchable indefinitely (if you know Danish and Italian, anyway).

I presume this means we are seeing fewer frames.  Would reducing sound 
quality work instead?

-autosync 30  The sound is again coming after the lip movement and 
stopped.

-nobps   ditto

-forceidx     ditto

-mc 0

I just tried VESA one more time instead of installing X SVGA driver.
I was rewarded with a slightly larger picture than in x11 and today the 
sound is working.    The lips are in sync.  I cannot (when in VESA) switch 
vts to check cpu usage.  The previous video was not playing sound in VESA 
but it is today.  It also has problems in x11 but last time (a few days 
ago) it played sound indefinitely in x11 and not at all in VESA.  Odd.

Only hardware changes are that the DVD drive is now MA not SL and there is 
a SCSI CD-RW but no IDE CD-RW drive or IDE zip drive.  Would these have 
somehow taxed the cpu when not in use?

ESC stops it in X11, ESC ESC in VESA mode then Ctrl-C to get back the 
prompt.

Summary 
0.  K6-2 605MHz can be used with the first mplayer to play dvds.
1.  I need to look up how to display subtitles.
2.  VESA uses less cpu than x11 on my 'slow' 605MHz but you cannot do 
anything else at the same time (can't use other vts).
3.  x11 is usable with -framebuffer option, but jerky, not usable 
otherwise with Xvesa in 16-bit or 24-bit color (loses the sound, slow motion).
4.  x11 might work better with X svga and 8-bit color.
5.  fb might also work

VESA 2.0 is needed for VESA or FB modes.

Sindi