Problem playing movies.. Slow motion..

[queen]

My best friend is having some problem watching anime... She just told me that the sound is okay but the problem is that the picture is moving slowly... its all messed up.. is it her computer is too old to support the video or there is something else wrong with it? Her computer is window 98 and the player she's using is Window Media Player 6... the codec she's using is cole2k... There is a problem when she installed the codec.. she says that the error show ''runtime error'' Anyone can help... thanks

[Ledgem]

If she's using Windows 98, that doesn't mean anything on its own. What's important is her hardware. If she's using Windows 98, though, then we can assume that her hardware is pretty old. It may be contributing to the problem.

Her media player and her codec are both problematic. Windows Media Player, while it can work, is strongly NOT recommended on these forums. I've never even heard of the codec she's using. I found its homepage and it seems to be a codec pack. Codec packs that install multiple codecs are bad, because they make troubleshooting difficult and can cause a bunch of conflicts as well. Here's my recommendation for your friend:

To fix the runtime errors: Uninstall Cole2k codec pack to the best you can. If it's like most other codec packs, it'll leave a bunch of garbage on your system anyway. In most cases, that garbage won't impact anything. Worst case scenario (if you're very unlucky), you'll either need to manually hunt down what it didn't remove, or reformat your system.

To install support for playback:The best and easiest method for decoding is to get Combined Community Codec Pack. Despite its name, it doesn't install numerous codecs, but a customized version of FFDShow and some other decoding tools. Make sure to download the Windows 95, 98, ME version.

To fix lagging video: What you'll want to do is boost the process priority to your media player. Under Windows 2000 and XP, you can manually set the process priority. Under Windows 98, you don't have this option. However, certain media players allow you to adjust the process priority in their options. I know for a fact that BSplayer allows you to do this; I believe Zoomplayer should also let you do this. Tweak the Process Priority from "Normal" to "Above Normal" (do not set it any higher than that!) and, unless your hardware really is incapable of processing it, or there are other conflicts in the way, the playback should be better. PLEASE NOTE that if you go with installing CCCP and BSPlayer, read this to ensure proper playback.

A final consideration regarding sluggish video is to toggle overlay settings, which can make things a bit easier on your system. However, the exact overlay modes will depend on your graphics card and the media player that you choose.

[queen]

Thanks.. I will try it out on my old computer that has the same problem.. and if it works.. it means that it works for her too.. Thank you so much for ur guidance Ledgem... if there is any problem i will ask u again ^.^

[Maceart]

Of course, if her computer is only a pentium 1 with 16 mb ram we can't really help you there... My school anime club computer is only a K6 500 mhz with 64 mb ram/8mb integrated video card and it can barely play our Mai-Otome releases.

Using Mplayer helps. Command line players always take up less resources than codecs and an GUI player.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Maceart

Using Mplayer helps. Command line players always take up less resources than codecs and an GUI player.

Is there any truth to this claim? Why would a GUI player require more processing power than a commandline one - it isn't like the GUI has any impact on the rendering of the video (unless the GUI dances around as the video plays; I'm somewhat doubtful that such a player exists, though).

Additionally, from my experience, using a codec can have reduced processor usage than using just any build of FFDShow. My 1.6 GHz Pentium M required ridiculous amounts of processor usage to play back files with some build of FFDShow (I don't recall which, but it was the latest stable build of its time, recommended on these forums) installed. The processor usage was drastically less when I just used the plain XviD codec instead of FFDShow. Using a SSE2-optimized build of FFDShow, the requirements are about the same; maybe a little less, maybe a little more. If you ask me, that's really what matters, and not the player itself.

It would be an interesting "study" though, to see what player, on average, used more processing power, and also to see if the differences were really all that different.

[TheFluff]

There was some discussion of this in the H.264 thread, and the conclusion pretty much was "Windows NT process accounting cannot be trusted". In any case, MPlayer uses much less RAM than any other player I've tested. CPU usage might be slightly lower too, but it's hard to measure.

[SSS]

Originally Posted by TheFluff

There was some discussion of this in the H.264 thread, and the conclusion pretty much was "Windows NT process accounting cannot be trusted". In any case, MPlayer uses much less RAM than any other player I've tested. CPU usage might be slightly lower too, but it's hard to measure.

in my test, mplayer only use averange 7% of cpu usage when decoding h264(x264 HQ encoded), lowest is 0%, highest is 13%,
because im using the mplayer that compiled with mmx, mmxext, sse ,sse2 cpu extension(pentium4 optimized).
this kind of special build mplayer can be slightly faster than generic build.

by the way, where did you guys download mplayer binary?
or compiling mplayer by yourself?

EDIT: just found out that running Azureus will increase cpu usage ~10% when playing video clips with mplayer...
(i check the cpu usage with the untrustable windows task manager)

[IRJustman]

Ledgem: How "customized" is CCCP's ffdshow?

Furthermore, what normal person is going to use a command line player? They need something simple to use, and mplayer command line is anything but simple, and I'm a Linux guy myself if this says anything!

--Ian.

[Kurz]

IRJustman if you wish to know, why not ask the creators themselves at their IRC chatroom (which is listed on their site)?

[Nicholi]

The "customization" is mostly just in the settings we force which are different from ffdshow's typical defaults. Knowing what options are required for compliant playback as well as support for the broadest range of users. Also we have removed specific decoders which are not required in place of their betters (libfaad2 over realaac, lavc over tremor, etc).

We don't do any specific coding with ffdshow though if that is what you were thinking. We do however report to Milan quite often, as we do extensive testing of ffdshow ourselves to ensure the latest compile we make is working correctly. Overall the ffdshow in the CCCP has removed the unecessary parts to make the pack as narrowly tailored as possible to the formats we are focused on. Rather then take the giant "Codec Pack" approach... install as many decoders/splitters/filters/etc as possible to support every format known to man.

[queen]

Its still doesn't work.. this time worst.. I tried it on my old computer by installing the CCCP Codec and the Zoomplayer but i can't play the file.. Even worst than picture slower than audio.. I'll try and see what's the problem and describe it in detail later on.