On Mon, 15 Oct 2001, Derrik Pates wrote: > On 16 Oct 2001, Michel Dänzer wrote: > > > Even with Linux, the choice isn't so hard, with a growing amount of > > software supporting Altivec. In particular, watching DVDs is certainly > > much more of a pleasure on a TiBook now than it will probably ever be on > > a G3 Notebook. > > Are there any asm optimizations that can be done for speeding up MPEG-2 > decoding on a G3? Or is Altivec (and therefore a G4 PowerBook) the only > answer? Where's the big performance optimization on MacOS for DVD > playback? Is it using the ATI chips' hardware iDCT capability, or asm > optimization, or something else?
I don't think the G3 will ever do DVD in software. It needs colorspace conversion and idct in hardware. DVD playing really is a bitch. It's just a whole lot of math and i/o. The G4 can do the DVD playing (including colorspace conversion and scaling) entirely on the CPU without hardware assistance, if someone takes the time to hand-code a lot of asm, and if nothing else needs the CPU. -jwb > > > Also, in contrast to e.g. the sound problems with an iBook2, pretty much > > all of the TiBook's hardware is well supported. > > Well, I am using a FireWire iBook, and just about everything works with it > now (FireWire doesn't, and DRI is unstable, but everything else - sound > after sleep, volume control, etc. - is working). Of course, it doesn't > have a DVD-ROM drive. > > Derrik Pates | Sysadmin, Douglas School | #linuxOS on EFnet > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | District (dsdk12.net) | #linuxOS on OPN > > >
