need a reccomendation for a media pc

[slimz]

i recently purchased a pc chips via 1ghz all in one mother board ;
sis chipset
via c3 1ghz
onbaord sis 630 video
onboard audio/lan/modem/usb 2.0
256megs pc 133 sdram
found here ;
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/product/M787cl+v30.html

and i can get divx 3/4 and mpeg 1/2 to playback no problem with the appropriate codecs or ffdshow.
however, i cannot get divx5 with or without ogg to play back, it is incredibly slow. horribly out of synch, and incredibly choppy, looking almost as if its only displaying 8-10 fps.

i have tried with windows 98/xp/xpsp1/redhat 9.0

i need some reccomendation on whether i should buy a video card where i wouldnt have to spend alot of money, keeping in mind the system does not have any agp slots, or maybe someone has another (hopefully cheaper ;) solution in mind.

thanks in advance for any help, i really appreciate it, as i have been busting my brain installing and reinstalling codecs and operating systems. :)

[rudeboymcc]

can you not get a geforce pci card/??

[sarahjh69]

the problem with divx 5
is it installs itself with a high post processing setting.
turn it to the lowest quality setting and all will be well.
DiVX playback is not video card dependent....the cheapest card
will play at the same fps as the most expensive.

PS
PC Chips mobos are complete dog pooh!
this company has been known to fake their BIOS
to tell you its running a 133 fsb when it only supports 100 fsb
don't use em. MSI are far better for only £15 more (approx)

[slimz]

yeah i got swindled :)
i cant find any stored with any pci geforces in my area, i looked around :\
also i tried setting the post processing setting to the lowest
with no luck,
i guess ill have to look online for one.

[sarahjh69]

let me repeat
a new graphics card will MAKE NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL.

[rudeboymcc]

@sarahjh69, so he should take his pc chips mobo back and swap it for an msi one??

[erbuk]

The problem is the CPU. If the mobo has a standard fcpga socket then replacing it with a older model Celreon (like 700 Mhz) should do the trick without generating too much heat.

Or maybe the xcard would be a solution (I haven't tried that myself though).

[junglemike]

Via processors have EXTREMELY low performance. For example in Sisoft sandra benchmark Via c3@800mhz is much like Celeron 233.
But in most cases even such performance is enough. Cpu usage depends on many things. 1st - resolution. More res. more cpu power needed. Second. Divx5 and Xvid have in their new version some new "things" like bframes, qpel, etc. As a side effect, more cpu power needed to play back such movies. General recommendations: Try to use some "good" player, that doesn't require many resources like BSplayer and use overlay mode by default that reduces cpu usage also.
, and good filter, like FFdshow. I still use as my movie watch system Celeron 266(overclocked to 400mhz)- without cash at all - the first one and cheapest one (you can find it now for 5-10$) and have no _any_ problems with playing video (64ram, 4mb video, win2k),maybe except for some _huge_ resolution, like 768x576.
Anyway if you want to check if cpu is the bottleneck - just play your divx movie that doesn't work, and see what is cpu usage in task manager - if it is 100%- it is cpu.
I would recommed you to buy some other processor ,even some celeron 400/500/600/700 - the are vory cheap now from second hand (20-40$) and waaaay too fuster than via 1ghz.
p.s. Only don' buy new 1.3ghz PIII-T(tualatin) chips, as they require special board.

[erbuk]

Yes, but one should add that the VIA-processor is the perfect CPU for some applications. Like for use in a fileserver or a machine running filesharing or Office apps. In these kind of apps it's just as fast as the Intels and AMDs on the same frequency and of course much faster than the 233Mhz Celeron. And it's very stable and cool.

With a little luck it even runs without any kind of cooler. I was a little careless a year ago when I moved my C3 (866 Mhz) to another motherboard/case. When I put the computer in place in my closet I heard a bump, but I didn't think much of it then. I noticed that the CPU- temperature was 10 degrees (Celsius) higher but I thought that it had to do with the new case. And then it ran continuously for six months, without a single restart, as a fileserver, web server and filesharing machine. When I opened the case to put in a new harddrive I discovered that the CPU fan had fallen off and was laying on the bottom of the case...

And on a computer that's on 24 hours 365 days a year it could even make a notable difference on your electrical bill.

But for DivX playback its FPU (Floating-Point Unit) just isn’t powerful enough.

[slimz]

well i dont have any time today to check out any other players, because its 30 degrees :)
if that doesent work then i guess ill have to shop around for used celerons/p3's
whichevers cheapest and fits in the motherboard.
i just really boggled me on the fact that it plays everything EXCEPT divx5, i didnt realize it needed that much more power to decode it verus divx3/etc..
thanks for the help guys and if anyones selling a p3 ~700, gimme a message :)
thanks.

[slimz]

heres something interesting,
the video files (which ive made and downloaded)which normally play and open on mineand friends pcs in virtualdub mod, dont on this system, the via c3 samuel 1ghz.
the error i get when opening is this
Virtualdub mod 1.4.13 Build 14328
Warning, incomplete mpeg file detected, last frame is maybe currupt
Mpeg import filter: Mpeg file does not contain video stream

the files im trying to open are divx5.0-5
which also contain vorbis.

when i try to playback the files, i tried what someone mentioned earlier to see if the cpu was 100% used and it isnt, the pc runs just as fast playing the video as it would when not. Its at about ~10-15% when playing back Divx5 with Vorbis. i have no xvids with ogg to try them with. Tonight when i get home ill demux the divx out of the ogm container and try to play it back without audio.

[slimz]

problem solved
got agp/video/ide drivers from the sis website
before i was trying the ones that came with the motherboard, the ones which installed with windows xp, or the updated ones from pcchips.com
none worked.
thanks for all the help anyways :)
the only thing thats bugging me now is that when i boot the pc, it says
Via Samuel 1Gigapro
and in System properties under XP SP1
it reports it as a Via Ezra 734 mhz

[erbuk]

Nice. Maybe I should give my C3 a new chance :)