PC-DVD Performance Tuning Guide
Posted on Thursday 17 January @ 16:38:40
Find out how to increase PC-DVD playback performance with these simple tips.
What is the minimum needed for DVD playback :
PII 400 or above
64 MB RAM
2X DVD-ROM
8MB Graphics card (without acceleration)
48KHz, PCI Sound card
If you don't have at least the following, then read DVD Digest's PC-DVD Guide, especially the section about Hardware Decoders.
SOFTWARE DECODERS - General Speed-up tips :
Required Software :
Make sure the latest version of DirectX and your video card's drivers are installed and working properly.
Tip 1 :
Enable DMA mode transfer for your DVD-ROM drive. To see how, please refer to this FAQ answer
Tip 2 :
Lower your desktop resolution to 800x600 at 16bit color
Tip 3 :
Turn on Windows acceleration for your graphics card / sound card.
For your graphics card (Win98) :
Right click on your desktop, select properties. Go to the settings tab and click on advanced. Then go to the performance tab, and slide the sliderbar to the right (to full). Note : this hardware acceleration has nothing to do with the hardware DVD acceleration feature found in ATI and other cards. The availability of these options depends on your graphics card drivers.
For your sound card (Win98) :
Go to your control panel within Window 98. Click on the Multimedia icon. Under the playback section of the audio tab, click on advanced properties. Go to the performance tab and set hardware acceleration to FULL (you might also want to set sample rate conversion quality to good). The availability of these options depends on your sound card drivers.
Tip 4 :
Try a differnt software player. soft-Cinemaster (using the Ravisent player) is the fastest software decoder.
SOFTWARE DECODERS - player specific Speed-up tips :
soft-Cinemaster
Use the DVD Genie program to change the hidden options of the Cinemaster Player. Start DVD Genie and go to the cinemaster section. Change DeInterlacing to Force Weave. Also select the right preset that matches your graphics card. Note: Changing these settings might decrease quality.
PowerDVD
Right click on the PowerDVD main screen and select configuration. Go to the Video tab and set Video mode to Force Weave. Note: changing this settings might decrease quality.
WinDVD
Use the DVD Genie program to change the hidden options of the WinDVD player. Start DVD Genie and go to the WinDVD section. Click on more options. Change the NVIDIA mode if you have a TNT/GeForce card. Change Audio Mode to stereo, or anything else other than 4/6 speaker modes. Then adjust the Decoding Quality slider bar to suit your needs. Note: changing this settings might decrease quality.
