Re: Advice on a iBook ...
On Mon, 15 Oct 2001, Derrik Pates wrote:
> On 16 Oct 2001, Michel Dänzer wrote:
>
> > Even with Linux, the choice isn't so hard, with a growing amount of
> > software supporting Altivec. In particular, watching DVDs is certainly
> > much more of a pleasure on a TiBook now than it will probably ever be on
> > a G3 Notebook.
>
> Are there any asm optimizations that can be done for speeding up MPEG-2
> decoding on a G3? Or is Altivec (and therefore a G4 PowerBook) the only
> answer? Where's the big performance optimization on MacOS for DVD
> playback? Is it using the ATI chips' hardware iDCT capability, or asm
> optimization, or something else?
I don't think the G3 will ever do DVD in software. It needs colorspace
conversion and idct in hardware. DVD playing really is a bitch. It's
just a whole lot of math and i/o.
The G4 can do the DVD playing (including colorspace conversion and
scaling) entirely on the CPU without hardware assistance, if someone takes
the time to hand-code a lot of asm, and if nothing else needs the CPU.
-jwb
>
> > Also, in contrast to e.g. the sound problems with an iBook2, pretty much
> > all of the TiBook's hardware is well supported.
>
> Well, I am using a FireWire iBook, and just about everything works with it
> now (FireWire doesn't, and DRI is unstable, but everything else - sound
> after sleep, volume control, etc. - is working). Of course, it doesn't
> have a DVD-ROM drive.
>
> Derrik Pates | Sysadmin, Douglas School | #linuxOS on EFnet
> dpates@dsdk12.net | District (dsdk12.net) | #linuxOS on OPN
>
>
>
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