Watching DVDs on a laptop - how powerful a machine?

[turbojimmy]

So how much memory, CPU, etc. do you need to watch a DVD on a laptop? I just bought a Dell Inspiron 8500 notebook to, among other things, play DVDs. I thought this would be a powerful enough machine - 2.2 Mhz CPU, 64 MB video card, and (this may be the problem) 256 MB RAM. I can watch DVDs full screen, but every few seconds the video gets a little choppy as it catches up. I find this annoying. Is it a function of memory? Or should I have gone with the 8600 with the 128MB video card? I can go to 2 GB of memory but don't want to spend the $ if it's not going to do any good.

Other than the above, it's a great machine. Dell is having a $300 off and free shipping sale on this one. It's a widescreen and is a huge step above my 5-year old Dell 733.

TIA,
Jim

 

[TurboJim]

Jim:

My 98 desktop did that. My INspiron 2500 w/ Celery 900 does not. I have 512 meg of memory in it, but it didnt do this stock (128) either. My desktop since switching to XP hasnt done it either. Same video card under both operating systems. Its a GeForce Ti w/128 meg. This machine has 512 meg of ram as well. And has under 98 and XP. (Actually, I run it dual boot because my OLD scanner doesnt have XP drivers. Yes, I'm too cheap to buy another...

So, I'm not really sure what causes this. Maybe the DVD's cache? If they cache anything....

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by TurboJim
Jim:

My 98 desktop did that. My INspiron 2500 w/ Celery 900 does not. I have 512 meg of memory in it, but it didnt do this stock (128) either. My desktop since switching to XP hasnt done it either. Same video card under both operating systems. Its a GeForce Ti w/128 meg. This machine has 512 meg of ram as well. And has under 98 and XP. (Actually, I run it dual boot because my OLD scanner doesnt have XP drivers. Yes, I'm too cheap to buy another...

So, I'm not really sure what causes this. Maybe the DVD's cache? If they cache anything....

What video card is in the Inspiron 2500? I'm not sure if the card has anything to do with it, but it seems like the DVD machines come with better cards. Based on your experience it looks like it probably isn't a memory thing. Hmmmm......could be the actual DVD player software. Maybe I'll try a different kind (using the stuff that came pre-loaded).

It's a lot better if I don't view it full screen, which makes me think it's a caching things, which makes me think memory again <sigh>.

Thanks!

Jim

 

[Jebadias]

I would think that you have enough machine to do it with. We used a laptop to watch DVDs a few years ago and it worked just fine. I don't remember the specs but it was a PIII so I doubt it was better than yours in any catergory. My 2.4ghz P4 with 64mb ATI video and 512mb RAM runs them fine, but I noticed that it would get a little choppy when I watch them on my lap. The air intake on my computer is at the bottom and I tend to block it off. So make sure that it's not overheating. Since you just bought it you shouldn't need to defrag or anything so I can't think of anything else right off. Did you call Dell's award winning 24hr tech support?

 

[Matt Weiser]

A couple thoughts: Make sure the laptop is plugged into the wall and not just running off batteries. Most laptops run at lower speeds when drawing on batteries alone. Also, if this is possible on your machine, maybe you could assign more of the available memory to the DVD player software. I forget how you do this or what it's called, but this may help. And: Some DVD movies come with their own player software, but I would NOT use this software but use whatever your laptop came with instead; the DVD-implanted software has caused problems for me in the past.

I've been able to run DVDs without any problems or any mods on the two laptops we own (both Compaq) using the software they came with. But I've found that the players in both are unusually sensitive to dirty or scratched disks, which can cause jerky playback.

HTH!

 

[turbojimmy]

Thanks for the replies.

Don't get me started on Dell's support. After exchanging multiple e-mails with multiple techs on an XP issue (same machine) they told that software isn't their problem and to go away and leave them alone. Microsoft, however, tells me that Dell is obligated, per their licensing agreement, to solve software issues. The alternative is to pay Microsoft $100 to talk to a technician. It's definitely a Microsoft bug, but I'm not paying $100 to bring it to their attention. In a nutshell, networked drives don't reconnect at startup. I have to manually click on them to get them connected at startup (despite the fact that I have "reconnect at logon" enabled and there are no user/PW requirements to access the folders). TONS of people have posted this problem on the Microsoft site, yet no one from Microsoft has stepped up to offer any help. It's a minor glitch but very annoying. Any application that uses the mapped drives fails unless I manually connect the drives every time I turn the machine on. Win98 doesn't have this "feature".

But I digress....

Both my tests of the DVD capabilities have been on battery - I'll try plugging it in tonight and see if that helps. If not, I'll goof around with the memory settings.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

[gn85]

Not saying that I'm an expert, but just to share. I was using a Sony Vaio when I was back in the states that had a DVD player. It didn't agree with playing DVDs while on battery power. However, when plugged in, it played fine. It had two DVD playing programs. One worked OK, but would get a little choppy if you tried doing anything like subtitles or other activity while it was playing. Granted, this was on a machine that was pretty slow and running Windows ME.

 

[V6 Beast]

I have an compaq presario 1200 that is at least 5-6 years old. It has a AMD cpu, not sure how fast but certainly much slower than yours, 64 MB RAM, some crappy Trident video adpater that is certainly no larger than 64 Meg.. Plays DVD movies flawlessly on battery power. Watch them on the plane all the time. Had to get a 2nd battery so I could finish a movie but plays them great. Running Windows 98. You seem to have plenty of hardware(a lot more than me at least)

Sully

 

[TurboJim]

Originally posted by turbojimmy
What video card is in the Inspiron 2500? I'm not sure if the card has anything to do with it, but it seems like the DVD machines come with better cards. Based on your experience it looks like it probably isn't a memory thing. Hmmmm......could be the actual DVD player software. Maybe I'll try a different kind (using the stuff that came pre-loaded).

It's a lot better if I don't view it full screen, which makes me think it's a caching things, which makes me think memory again <sigh>.

Thanks!

Jim

I dont recall how much video ram is in the laptop, but I seem to recall it was shadowed.

But it works fine. Maybe find out what they use for video and see if theres an updated driver?

 

[TurboJim]

Originally posted by turbojimmy
Thanks for the replies.

Don't get me started on Dell's support. After exchanging multiple e-mails with multiple techs on an XP issue (same machine) they told that software isn't their problem and to go away and leave them alone. Microsoft, however, tells me that Dell is obligated, per their licensing agreement, to solve software issues. The alternative is to pay Microsoft $100 to talk to a technician. It's definitely a Microsoft bug, but I'm not paying $100 to bring it to their attention. In a nutshell, networked drives don't reconnect at startup. I have to manually click on them to get them connected at startup (despite the fact that I have "reconnect at logon" enabled and there are no user/PW requirements to access the folders). TONS of people have posted this problem on the Microsoft site, yet no one from Microsoft has stepped up to offer any help. It's a minor glitch but very annoying. Any application that uses the mapped drives fails unless I manually connect the drives every time I turn the machine on. Win98 doesn't have this "feature".

,
Jim

Cant you simply create a batch file and put it in your startup? ie: net use \\jimshouse\desktop\c or whatever?

I did this for a friends shop under 98. He needed to use a specific printer for a program. I set it up in a batch file. Capture the printer, run the program, on program exit it restored the normal printer and exited.

Might be worth a shot, although I dont know how batch files work under XP. I've been out of it too long.

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by TurboJim
Cant you simply create a batch file and put it in your startup? ie: net use \\jimshouse\desktop\c or whatever?

I did this for a friends shop under 98. He needed to use a specific printer for a program. I set it up in a batch file. Capture the printer, run the program, on program exit it restored the normal printer and exited.

Might be worth a shot, although I dont know how batch files work under XP. I've been out of it too long.

I was thinking the same thing. A guy on the MS site created an icon on the desktop of his users' machines (he's an IT dude at a small company). They need to click the icon every morning when they start up - he says they find it annoying.

I'm not sure how the scripting works, but I'll have to look into it. Bill isn't going to fix it any time soon according to Dell (we kissed and made up earlier this evening).

Jim

 

[TurboJim]

if it doesnt work in your startup folder. Try pointing to it in the registry. I think the spot you want would be: hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run

BY creating or adding values under that "key" you can run things at startup. Thats how most of that annoying stuff sitting down in the systray starts.

If there is a different way to do it, I'm sure there is someone here who can tell you.

 

[turbojimmy]

Oh yeah - the original problem. When plugged in to the wall, DVD functions perfectly. The widescreen is awesome, though the wife fails to see the coolness of the whole thing. The LCD is really cool - I kinda wish I spent the $10 large on an LCD big screen instead of my rear projection!

I'll have to tweak the powered-by-battery settings to optimize the DVD playback.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by turbojimmy
Oh yeah - the original problem. When plugged in to the wall, DVD functions perfectly. The widescreen is awesome, though the wife fails to see the coolness of the whole thing. The LCD is really cool - I kinda wish I spent the $10 large on an LCD big screen instead of my rear projection!

I'll have to tweak the powered-by-battery settings to optimize the DVD playback.

Thanks again,
Jim

I would check that too, it may be throttling down the CPU while under battery power.