Hello
minor comments follow, mainly to qualify the windoze movie parts: 

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Robert Gammon 
> Well the spec for the processor relates to the ASSUMPTION that you are 
> buying this to watch movies on your computer. That assumption is based 
> on how Windoze performs when it plays DVD movies. Any less than a P4 
> $1.4 Ghz, and the movie has lots of flicker, even static when it plays.

  I completely agree about the basic source of the assumption but would
like to point out further the oversimplification and likely additional
assumptions within the source.  I contend that such open-ended, unqualified
"specs" further assume some average expectation of what goes
along with the average windowz box that happens to also have a P4 {at} 1.4
GHz.  I think it assumes a typical (perhaps even a Dell at the top of the
average) which commonly had 256megs ram and a rage 128 video card.  That
combination will play a DVD at a reasonable framerate.  Extrapolate down to
a 1 Ghz P3 or equivalent w/  onboard sound, 128 megs of ram and a 16meg
videocard in the old S3 Trio range of quality and a dvd movie is likely to
stutter on XP. One might do well to compare your overall system to such
overall assumptions and adjust expectations accordingly. 
> 
> This seems stoopid to me. When I want to watch a movie, I want to watch 
> it on a big screen in the living room, not my comparitively small PC 
> screen,. Well ok some folks within the Windoze world DO buy 42 inch and 
> larger TVs and hook them to their computer to play games.
> 
   I do this with Linux as well and connecting to a TV, even HDTV, is a
function of the videocard alone.  I used to have a lousy Cyrix G-Media
system running at 233 MHz that had onboard video w/ S-video out capable of
displaying nicely on a TV.  My newest system with nVidia 6600GT having DVI
out will run just about any display device out there beautifully and with
extreme 3D accelleration whether on my old 1.7GHz Celeron on a i810 chipset
mobo or the new Athlon 64 3000+.


> 
> I have DVD-ROM on this Celeron 400Mhz system. The box clearly said don't 
> use this on less than a P4 1.4Mhz system. It works just fine here, I can 
> read DVDs, and write CDs without a sweat.
> 
  I would never specify a system just by it's processor model and speed nor
generalize further as to what it can do based on only that but I do gather
that a Celeron 400 based system is not likely to have sufficient other
resources in ram and videocard to play dvd movies at an acceptable quality.
 However I would not be shocked that it could be accomplished with just a
single, but solid, generational leap on a well-balanced system maxed out
with quality ram (by the then constrained levels), with discrete soundcard
and AGP X2, 32 meg video card. Anything more is gravy.
Jimmy


 
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