Lowest-req DVD software possible?
 

Question for the masses:

I picked up a Compaq Armada M300 laptop recently: Celeron 333, 128MB RAM, XP SP 2. It's an ultralight, but the MEU attachment/docking station gives it a full set of ports and lets it run a floppy, CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM.

Obtaining a compatible DVD-ROM for cheap was simple. However, obtaining a software decoder that'll play DVDs at full speed or appreciably close to it on such dated hardware is another story...

What's the best choice for low-frills DVD-movie playback? So far the best I've tried was PowerDVD XP 4.0, which played audio fine but had slightly choppy video.

Mediamatics DVD Express v5. I concidentally still have a copy from my IBM ThinkPad 770X, which had Windows 2000 Pro, 128MB RAM, and a PII-300 when I got it.

If you can find a copy of that (or PM me for the CD), you'll be OK. I ran through PowerDVD and that, and I was able to play the video from Fight Club and Star Trek: First Contact (the preview) with no issues on the aforementioned PII-300 with 128MB RAM.

XP SP2 on there is going to be a pain unless you get more RAM in it. That model of Compaq should take either a 128MB or 256MB module to bring you up to 192 or 320MB.

Take care,

Mitch

I think you may run into choppiness whatever you do. I use about 60-70% CPU on a 1.1 ghz system (full screen or normal size) when playing back a movie ripped to my HD (yes, it's legal, DVD is back home in CA and my Emperor DVD hasn't arrived yet). I doubt the bottleneck is the drive. This is with mplayer on Linux and I use about 10-30% CPU as I type this message.

Your best bet may be to try something like mplayer and add a framedrop or frameskip option to the command.

It's a little chuggy with 128, but once it gets past startup it's not too bad. Certainly runs better than my in-laws' Dell did with 128, which was like shit through a funnel until I upgraded its RAM. Crucial seems to think that this model only has one bay for RAM, so I'll hunt down a 256. (Wouldn't mind upgrading its HD at the same time from 6GB to 20 or so, if it's not going to be a ballbuster to do so.)

I'm not expecting miracles; it's an old-ass laptop, but it does everything else I need it to do. (I was pleasantly surprised that it handled the XM Radio player flawlessly, whose recommended requirements are 1 GHz.)

Mediamatics seems to have done the trick, though it took a little twiddling to get it to accept DVDs without a "Key exchange failed" error.

Is there a way to dupe the software and/or drive firmware (a Compaq 8x laptop DVD-ROM, I can dig up the model number as needed) into making it region-free? I do have a fair collection of Region 3 horror flicks that my wife would like to watch on the road.

EDIT: Giving <a href="http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm">this</a> a 30-day trial before buying, and it seems to work great.

DVD Region Killer :thumb: