Multimedia in Linux

[Craig White]

If I recall correctly, the All-in-Wonder was a fairly weak video card - not
near the speed and capability of the Rage Fury.

Just because the All-in-Wonder has the ability to input/output video and act
as a tv tuner doesn't mean it's very good or very fast.

I have the ATI Rage Fury running on my windows 2K server right now while I
type this message with a Quicktime window running trailers and it hasn't
skipped a beat - video or audio.

Craig

> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Mark
> Myers
> Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 4:40 PM
> To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> Subject: Multimedia in Linux
>
>
> I am curious, why is multimedia in preemptive multitasking OSes so bad?
> I have noticed this both in Linux and Windows NT & 2000.
> For example, playing a streaming video using RealPlayer.
> On Linux, even using a 256Kbs stream, I get a tiny window with moderately
> jerky video in Linux.
> In Win2K, small video is smooth. Zooming by 2X in Win2K, video is very
> jerky. Full screen mode is horrible.
> The same video, on Win98SE, video is smooth at all zoom levels.
> Same with playing back an .mpg movie.
> On Linux, even with OSS sound drivers, the sound is good, but the video
> (the scene from Titanic that sweeps from an oncoming shot with the girl
> on the bow with her hands out, to the very stern of the ship moving away)
> is jerky.
> Same in Win2K. In Win98, video is smooth.
> Is it because seeing the multimedia is processor intensive, a cooperative
> multitasking environment is better than a preemptive one?
> The machine running Win2K & Linux has an AMD K6-2 450MHz, 192MB RAM, ATI
> All-In-Wonder Pro 8MB AGP, and a SoundBlaster AWE64 card.
> The Win98 machine is AMD K6-2 300MHz, 128MB RAM, ATI Rage Fury 128 16MB
> AGP (used to have the All-In-Wonder Pro when tests were run), Ensoniq PCI
> audio card.
> I have some home movies that I would like to edit using the computer so
> that I can burn them onto CDROM and share them with family, but I am
> afraid that I might be stuck using MS Me to do it.
> Is there a way that I can boost multimedia performance in Linux?
> Thanks!
> Mark
>