recent ACube updates solve DVD playback problems on Sams

[mbrantley]

The earliest computer I have that can play DVDs is my PowerMac G3 @ 350mhz, which I overclocked to 400mhz within a few months of buying the system in 1999.

DVDs played well under Mac OS 9 using with the assistance of whatever video card was in the Mac (I forget what). But I remember when I upgraded to the earliest version of Mac OS X, DVD hardware acceleration was not yet written for OS X and DVD playback was choppy. At some point OS X started supporting this feature and DVDs started playing without frame skips again.

I think this is where we are with the Sam440 and DVD playback. The CPU is having to do all the work without any assist from the video card. The best I've managed is 2% skipped frames with one version of DVPlayer and 5% with another on my Sam440ep-Flex @ 733mhz.

It's watchable but not not ideal. My Sam lives in a room full of computers capable of better DVD playback, so this feature is not going to see a lot of use anyhow.

I wonder how the Sam460ex will do with DVD playback.

[mbrantley]

If you have a 2% frame drop at 50Hz this is slightly better than cinema (which is 24 fps). I have not measured my framedrops, but DVDs look fluid, even if I open OWB and some applications at 1280x1024x32 with compositing on. It seems however that DV-Player is taking about 70% CPU load on my Flex @ 800mhz.

And what is more: When DVPlayer is dropping frames it just continues without slowing down the system or becoming unresponsive. So I don´t see why some people gerealize this to: "You can´t watch DVDs on SAM." I can.

Hey there... I've enjoyed your Samblog.

I can see the frame skipping when there is a lot of movement in the image, and it bothers me too much to use my Sam for DVD watching when I have other choices. But I can see how others would have different levels of tolerance. I wonder if it's really dropping only a frame at a time, because it seems I would not notice that. But it's very noticeable, as if several frames are being dropped at once.

I am watching Region 1 movies in NTSC @ 29.97 fps. Does that make a difference in performance? Do PAL DVDs play back smoother with DVPlayer?

My 2% percent fame drops are with the OEM version of DVPlayer that came with the OS. It's version .72. My registered version is .65 and suffers from 5% frame drops on my Sam. Is there a later version? I must contact the author.

By the way, I recently relocated my Sam440 board into a new case and in the process switched to a different brand of SATA optical drive. That made no difference.