Linux has poor multimedia features 1737

Dances With Crows

*IF* we are talking about DVD playback (and I have 3 separate DVD Playback apps installed-available for 98 -- all using the same Cinema Codec to decipher(mpeg2) and tranfer (using DMA)) - then yes; I can vouch for those settings. I have a 6 yr old PII "Desktpo" that was one of the 1st 'multimedia' machines available, complete with DVD-ROM drive. Though it came with a nVidia AGP card (RIVA TNT2 (32MB)), it can NOT display DVD-ROM playback at a higher resolution than 800x600(AFAIK -- 16bit color depth). I HAVE had it up to 1024x720, and don't ask me how, but it also wasn't pleasant to watch as the CPU is a 350MHz (actually the CPU can handle it, but the 'UDMA' and m$ proprietary streaming drivers weren't that developed). I *think* that higher res was only available (at onetime), because I upgraded from micropoo's DX7, to DX8.1(?), in order to be able to play "EA Sports FIFA 2003 Soccer", so my neices could play it on win98 -- I will NEVER upgrade to any later version of windoze. No Internet Exploder 5.x even -- no way jose!

Here's a snippit of the README;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 System Requirements

Minimum PC requirements for DVD Player: Minimum processor: Pentium II 266MHz DVD drive 32Mb RAM Windows 95 OSR 2.1 with USB or Windows 98 Sound Card with DirectSound driver. Direct X 5 installed in Runtime Only mode A graphics adapter with Advance Graphics Port (AGP) support

3.0 Known issues and limitations

VIDEO PERFORMANCE The video quality and performance is highly dependent upon the speed of the Pentium II processor and the graphics card used.

NO MPEG-2 EXTENDED AUDIO SUPPORT MPEG-2 extended audio is not supported in this release. MPEG-2 audio will play in stereo mode only.

NO 16-BIT MCI INTERFACE SUPPORT A 16-bit MCI interface has not been implemented in this release. This prevents the DVD-ROM game "Silent Steel" from playing. A 32-bit MCI interface is supported for DVD-ROM games such as "SpyCraft" and "Tex Murphy: Overseer."

DIRTY-DAMAGED DVD DISCS If you place a dirty or damaged DVD disc into a DVD-ROM drive, and run DVD Player (or any application) to access it, the DVD-ROM drive may cause the system to hang while it tries to read the damaged disc. If your system hangs completely when first trying to play a new disc, reboot your machine, remove the DVD Disc, clean it with a soft cotton cloth, and re-insert it into the drive. One noticeable sign of this problem is that the DVD-ROM drive BUSY light will be on solidly, and the EJECT button on the front of the drive will not eject the disc.

32-bit DISPLAY MODES This player will not allow DVD to play when Windows is in a 32-bit color display mode. Please select a lower color depth to allow playback.

WINDOWS 98 MULTI MONITOR SUPPORT Multi monitor feature with Windows 98 works only on the AGP graphics adapter. If you have more than one graphics adapter in a system with Windows 98, and one graphics adapter is AGP, the DVD Player will work on the monitor connected to the AGP graphics adapter.

PREVIOUSLY INSTALLED VERSIONS OF DVD PLAYER If you have a previous version of a DVD Player installed on your system, please uninstall it before installing this DVD Player. This will ensure no problems arise from legacy components or settings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I *think* we're talking about DVD (Video) playback ...???

Regards