[goldplata]

Hi,
recently I updated my Old G3 to convert it into a multimedia machine (sonds gread doesn´t it?). My purposes are to use all the iapps like iPhoto, iTunes etc, but also watchig some divx movies.
Depending on the encoding, some I can see directly from CD the others have to be copied to HD and even this way aren´t seeable.
My setup is:
G3/300 - Radeon 7000 - OS X.2.3 - 640 MB RAM.
Is there a way to speed up Divx via CD??? A way to use the Radeon to decompress the Divx???
Thank you!

[joe]

Your cpu is more likely to be the bottleneck for DivX playback compared to your Radeon. But you might want to try the latest versions of MPlayer and VLC - both are excellent for DivX playback. VLC was recently upgraded and plays back high res DivX perfectly on some friends G3 iMacs at full screen. And that's without any need to validate or fix the DivX beforehand. They have slower Rage 128 chipsets but are a bit faster wtih 500 and 600MHz G3s......joe

[OreoCookie]

This is a no-go in your setup. In the Wintel world, you at least need an 800-1,000 MHz CPU to have really 100 % fluent video playback.

The last time I watched DivX, it was on a 500 MHz G3 and it was kind of a mixed experience. It's basically the CPU that's the bottleneck here. After some conversions, and manual start of the sound, everything was ok.

I don't think you'll have a good DivXperience on your system setup. (I have played a 320x200 mp4 video (DivX is based on an early proposal of the mp4 standard) and it utilized about 50 % of my CPU.

[galarneau]

Originally posted by OreoCookie:
This is a no-go in your setup. In the Wintel world, you at least need an 800-1,000 MHz CPU to have really 100 % fluent video playback.

False. I've run a full length DVD movie (that was encoded as a 700MB DivX) on a 300Mhz PII laptop just fine with no problems. Nice and fluid.

It really is pathetic how poorly DivX movies run on my 800MHz iBook, although I haven't tried VLC 0.5 that just came out a couple days ago.

[goldplata]

Ok, then there must be a way to play Divx smoothly on G3/300!!!
I´ve already tried the new software. Vlan and Mplayer. For me Vlan is even slower than the previous one!!!
Have someone of you heared that the next Quicktime update will have divx playback (not only mpeg-4)???

[cdhostage]

Ifyou go to www.versiontracker.com you can find ffmpeg (spelled that way)

This will allow you to change divx files into much-less-compressed movie files, which you will have more success playing. The CPU will spend less time expanding the movie and more time displaying it - it's almost like doing most of the owkr of playing a Divx beforehand. WARNING! A Divx movie is very well compressed - you will need a lot of extra HD space to handle the output. It was meant to put a 6 GB DVD movie onto a 650 MB CD.

[jdbon]

I would try Mplayer. Under preferences there are several options that may help you:use cache for slower media, and drop frames.

[BlackGriffen]

I use an iBook 300MHz G3. About the only way for me to get smooth playback is by using 3ivx under OS9. Even that doesn't gaurantee it, sadly, but it does work pretty darn well.

BG

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by goldplata:

Have someone of you heared that the next Quicktime update will have divx playback (not only mpeg-4)???

I highly doubt that Apple will ever include support for DivX with QuickTime. DivX is a hack of Microsoft's early MPEG-4 efforts, so it's kinda sketchy for Apple it include it with QuickTime. Besidles, with programs like vlc, there's no need to use QuickTime (and possible DivX Doctor to fix the files first) at all.

[goldplata]

I don´t know where I read it, but it had something to do with the probable release of the new iPod for Video. There you need a divx coded to use it fully.... I think this were only rumors! But who knows???

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by galarneau:
False. I've run a full length DVD movie (that was encoded as a 700MB DivX) on a 300Mhz PII laptop just fine with no problems. Nice and fluid.

It really is pathetic how poorly DivX movies run on my 800MHz iBook, although I haven't tried VLC 0.5 that just came out a couple days ago.

False. I've run a full length DVD movie on a 266MHz G3 just fine with no problems. Nice and fluid.

[bradoesch]

DivX movie can be encoded differently, so you can't really compare movie x playing smoothly on one configuration to movie y that plays choppy on another. You'd really have to play the same file on both machines to get an accurate comparison.

[IEEE1394]

If anything is able to play it, VLC will. I tried Mplayer on my 400 mhz iMac with 256MB and movie was choppy, bad sound sync etc. VLC played perfectly.

[sek929]

Def get VLC 0.5. the previous version had some sound issues but the new one really works flawlessly and uses about 50% less of the processor than Quicktime, which is sad because it plays just about everything Quicktime does minus .mov. Honestly, how many things that you download are in .mov?

I used to use Divx Doctor II on every Divx I would download to convert it to a .mov, so that would take an additonal half hour to convert after downloading it, a pain in the ass when you can download about 20 700MB movies a day. Now I don't even use quicktime anymore

This is on a G4 733 with a gig of RAM. But I am sure a G3 500 could easily handle VLC.

[sek929]

<damn DB errors>

[goldplata]

That´s the problem a G3/300 cannot handel it. The codecs, also Vlan are acelerated foe Altivec...

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by sek929:


This is on a G4 733 with a gig of RAM. But I am sure a G3 500 could easily handle VLC.

For sure. My 400 MHz iMac has never had trouble playing DivX movies. I usually use vlc, but even with QuickTime (after "doctoring" them) they played fine.

[goldplata]

bradoesch,
did you play it from HD or directly from CD.
It could be right. Because I neary mach to see them. I just need this little kick... probably your 100 mhz more!

[sek929]

I assume most of us are talking about playing files directly from the HDD. Playing from the CD has never worked well, even in the PC world. My friend has a Dual P3 1GHZ and it still wouldn't play Divx perfectly, even from his 52X CD drive.

I say just keep 1 gig free on your HDD and copy the movie over that you wanna watch, then delete it when your done, tedious maybe but I doubt you will ever get good results playing a Divx file from a CD.

[Ryan Heid]

I don't know if this will help you, but I play DivX movies fine with my G4/400. I use a program called DivX Validator. As soon as it validates the file, I play it right in QuickTime Player like a regular AVI file.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by goldplata:
bradoesch,
did you play it from HD or directly from CD.
It could be right. Because I neary mach to see them. I just need this little kick... probably your 100 mhz more!

Some of them play fine from CDs, but most need to be copied to the HD first.

In Toast I've noticed that when doing a speed test on my internal DVD drive, I get less than 1 MB/s most of the time. I always get better speed than that with my FireWire CD-RW though.

[goldplata]

Oh yes, I noticed it also. But strangly when I play it from My firewire CDRW, I can play some Divx better than on the internal DVD!
Really I don´t understand this. When I copy the entire CD to HD it takes only 7 minutes, but playing the entire Movie takes more than 1 hour. So I think the speed of data transfer must be fast enough.
I must have something to do with processor speed??

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by goldplata:
Oh yes, I noticed it also. But strangly when I play it from My firewire CDRW, I can play some Divx better than on the internal DVD!
Really I don´t understand this. When I copy the entire CD to HD it takes only 7 minutes, but playing the entire Movie takes more than 1 hour. So I think the speed of data transfer must be fast enough.
I must have something to do with processor speed??

Strainge ain't it? At least I'm not the only one with a "slow" DVD drive.

[goldplata]

Yep, but it happened also when I had the original CD drive in... (The DVD is from another computer!)

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
False. I've run a full length DVD movie on a 266MHz G3 just fine with no problems. Nice and fluid.

because of the DVD hardware decoder...

try it with software-based decoding.

[CIA]

Any Divx players MP aware?

[rytc]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
because of the DVD hardware decoder...

try it with software-based decoding.

Hah, the DVD Hardware decoding is not going to make a rat's ass of difference to a DivX file. It only works for DVDs on disk.
And for what its worth I found that my iBook 466 running 10.2 can play DivXs compltely smooth as long as I don't leave dozens of apps open. Quitting them and just having VLC open makes a huge difference. Choppy -> completely smooth.

[goldplata]

I think the limit for Divx must be a G3 350 and up! I can´t play them with my G3/300, but I simply need a small boost.

[goldplata]

Will there be a hardware-based solution to decode Divx for Mac?
Like this: divx hardware decoder

[BurpetheadX]

It seems everyones forgotten about DivX's new cousin, 3ivX. 3ivX (www.3ivx.com) is a spin off of Divx, still in beta stages. It is made with mac in mind, and is much better than divx on the mac platform. Its codec also doubles as a DivX codec.

DivX doctor, which can be found at versiontracker, will take any divx, and convert it into 3ivX. For best results, check on decode audio, and make stand alone movie. The file size will most likely double after being 3ivX, but expect much better speed.

Please note that you must have the 3ivX codec installed to use DivX doctor, and you must un-install any other DivX codecs you have on your system when you install 3ivX.

Let me know if 3ivX works for you.

[goldplata]

OK I´ll try it today. The problem is to doctor a Divx on my G3/300, probably I have to take a sleep for a while...

[Agent69]

VLC 0.5.1a was released today, BTW.

[goldplata]

YES YES YES! now I can see movies which previously I couldn´t watch! I doctored a Full movie in about 35 minutes, decompressing also Audio and I could watch it. It would be better to have a G4 with altivec to have better quality, but...
Thanks for you suggestion!

[BurpetheadX]

No prob, glad I could help.