Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Nov 2009 23:59 UTC
Windows 7 has been out and about for little over a week now, and as it turns out, Microsoft's new baby is doing relatively well. That is, according to the figures by NetApplications: Windows 7 already reached the 3% mark this weekend, and is already closing in on the 4% mark.
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Member since:2009-02-19
Which is also why VLC SUCKS on windows because even there it's doing everything 'the hard way' on the CPU - while even piddly little 'Media Player Classic' uses the OS specific codecs and even allows you to select your render targets. "old renderer" (aka WinG), Overlay Mixer, VMR7, VMR9, Haali, EVR... Pick whichever works best and provides the features you need.
VLC doesn't suck on Windows. It works perfectly for me, on Vista; it's played every video I've throw at it. Granted, most of the videos I've watched with it have been captured TV signals, so they haven't exactly been high-resolution, but I have trouble believing it wallows as much as you're trying to make it sound like it does.
Member since:2005-07-12
VLC doesn't suck on Windows. It works perfectly for me, on Vista; it's played every video I've throw at it. Granted, most of the videos I've watched with it have been captured TV signals, so they haven't exactly been high-resolution, but I have trouble believing it wallows as much as you're trying to make it sound like it does.
Low def signals means less likely to have issues. Are you running it fullscreen? What do you have for a processor? What target resolution? What's the bitrate of the in file? How much CPU is it consuming compared to playback with say... MPC and the Klite Mega codec pack?
You have a 2.4ghz or faster quad core, VLC probably runs fine, though the lack of vsync would drive me nutters (most people probably wouldn't notice) - so long as it's the only application running and you don't have anything else major going on for CPU use. (or have multi-core so that's a non-issue)
You go down to a sub 2ghz Celeron M with integrated video like say... many of the laptops sold over the past six years - that lack of overlay support can be the difference between smooth playback and dropping 3 out of every 5 frames and having the audio end up out of sync.
Like my HP NC8000, 1.8ghz Celeron M - VLC under windows or Linux cannot even manage DVD playback without dropping frames. Media Player Classic + proper codecs? I can playback H.264 Blu-ray rips!
Or my MSI Wind where VLC on either OS cannot even manage to play back standard def MP4 without choppy frame-skipping - While I can play DVD's off an external USB from WMP or MPC.
VLC does everything the hard way in CPU. That's not necessarily a bad thing when you've got CPU to burn since it means it's code is portable and you rarely have to go hunting for 'just the right' codec. That's a really good feature...
But it doesn't make it the best way to do something either.
Edited 2009-11-03 22:48 UTC
Member since:2006-08-02
On Linux we have XvMC and VA APIs that should do the same. Pity many cards don't support them though.
However I just tested a HD video, and found it plays perfectly on Ubuntu 9.04 with VLC and an Intel graphics card with 25% CPU usage, but on 9.10 with VLC and an NVidia FX5200 it burns 100% CPU and skips unbelievably. I'm investigating.
Member since:
2005-07-12
Old school windows has an 'overlay buffer' to which writes can be handled directly on the video card - you map a section of video memory to your desired render dimensions and then output directly to it to show the content. Removes the need for an extra blt operation.
New, most codecs can render to directX. Windows codecs are also written to take advantage of MPEG2 hardware and even MPEG4 hardware acceleration if present.
Linux does not. Hell, netbooks running XP could handle HD video if they had something marginally better than a GMA950 and some hardware MPEG assist.
Hell, imagine a netbook with a ATI HD video - it's CALLED a HD for a reason, the inclusion of HD video decompression assistance... Something linux video software doesn't even recognize/use.
Which is also why VLC SUCKS on windows because even there it's doing everything 'the hard way' on the CPU - while even piddly little 'Media Player Classic' uses the OS specific codecs and even allows you to select your render targets. "old renderer" (aka WinG), Overlay Mixer, VMR7, VMR9, Haali, EVR... Pick whichever works best and provides the features you need.
While VLC can't even manage vsync.