Accelerating Video on the 600X?

[BillG]

I like that my Windows 2000 600X can't play the more graphics intensive games - it keeps my machine a work machine (you know, discipline and all that).

But I would like to be able to sit and watch complete movies/videos. I recall hearing about a PCCARD/PCMCIA card that accelerates MPEG video. Can anyone tell me what that card is?

Also, does anyone know if the Margi DVD-To-Go PCCARD accelerates MPEG video, or does it only accelerate DVD playback???

[rkawakami]

I believe you are referring to the Margi card. I know there's several threads about these cards here.

The other thing you may want to consider is using Windows XP. I understand that DVD playback on Win2K is not all that smooth.

[BillG]

I believe you are referring to the Margi card. I know there's several threads about these cards here.

Thanks, I fixed it in my original post.

Many posts on the Margi card, but about DVD playback only. I'm looking for information on MPEG/AVI etc. playback from a file on the HD.

The other thing you may want to consider is using Windows XP. I understand that DVD playback on Win2K is not all that smooth.

Actually, my question is about accelerating MPEG video on the HD, NOT DVD (which plays flawlessly on my 600X, BTW).

[unrortit]

you can try neo magic graph japan video drivers which support
dx7 3d effects,google under sony vaio neo magic 3d drivers.
from what i remmember sony supports mpeg 2 +3 with their drivers

[tarvoke]

I don't think I've tried playing movie files in win2k, will give it a shot when I get home. one thing I would definitely recommend is remove any codecs you may have already installed and then install cccp:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
and like people have said in other threads, set to 16 bit color. and use the zoom player or media player classic that comes with cccp, not whatever junk windows wants to use.

anyway I'll try it tonight and report back.

so far I have only played videos from file under linux. works great from the desktop using kaffeine or mplayer.
works even better shutting off X and running mplayer in a framebuffer (neofb) from the console -- talk about your battery life!

also if anyone can provide a definitive link to those drivers unrortit mentioned, would be much MUCH appreciated ^_^
so far searching I have found like 700 different ones on various driver sites, downloaded a likely sounding one... but I really don't have the patience to click thru all the ads they want you to watch for a free download, multiple times. also it's not clear which is the "right" driver and I don't want to muck up registry etc. installing and uninstalling multiple vga drivers, you know how that can really piss off windows.

(only reason I want 3d support is to play one of the best free games ever created: everyextend #2
http://nagoya.cool.ne.jp/o_mega/product/e2.html
plug in a cheap usb gamepad and the hours will fly right by. yeah, it says dx8.1 but it's still worth a try....)

[tarvoke]

okie, as described above I installed cccp. tried some xvid files and some mpeg files; both zoomplayer and media player classic played them all back just fine. (and that was even with me forgetting to kill off that annoying cpu-cycle-sucking reg.exe ... what the hezmana is always running that thing anyway??!?)

didn't have any h.264 or other mpeg4 type files on hand; I would be a little less sure of those displaying perfectly, but I'll give it a try next time I have one.

[unrortit]

one of the drivers is rumored to support dx8
the date shows 2001 in xp device manager,it did not show up 3d enabled in dx8 info report.
however in sandra it showed 3d/dx7 was enabled
i guess i ought to try it out in win2k, me or 98se
anyone one needs the driver to assertain its effectivness
post us an email +ill foward em.
they are comfirmed ok in xp +vista , which both run the neo toolbar utilty switch betwween vga outputs,gamma +colours s;ide bars attached.
a dx8 supported 3d driver or patcher may enable it to comminicate with the 3d rendering software.
or uninstall dx8 from xp and install dx7
the sony models were on the market around 2001/2002
so i cannot see why the chipset cannot run 3d in xp dx8.
some made claims to 3d support reg in xp but never brave enough to quantify the precise methods and locations on how they went about it.
maybe not of relevance but i did run good dvd playback
with power dvdxp v4.0 ,disabled hware acceleration and set the
auto switching default resloution to 800x600 which was spot on for the 13in screen,all on a screaming 233mghz 600,4speed (udma2)dvd+96mbram in me. xp was slightly more choppier with 128mb.errr still ok though"just".

[vmesquita]

This is the driver:
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... rid=113152
I'm using this in my thinkpad 600E. It made the CPU usage when playing AVI videos drop by 40%. The least resource usage player I found is mplayer (the one ported from linux), I use it with a simple GUI called MPlayer launcher.
It doesn't have direct3d, however.

[pkiff]

Thanks for posting a source for the driver. I'm curious about following these reports of improved performance, but am a bit confused about what is really going on.

I installed the driver you linked to on my PIII 850MHz 600X. I can't say that I notice any difference in DivX/AVI video performance -- though to be fair, the PIII 850MHz probably doesn't need any hardware acceleration to play such videos perfectly anyways.

Unfortunately, as vmesquita notes, the driver does not show support for Direct3D.

One interesting note: when you install the drivers you linked to over top of the Win2000 drivers that I was using previously, you still get access to the Neomagic tab that installs with the Thinkpad Win2000 version. I get a tiny display corruption on the tab page, but it doesn't seem to affect any functionality -- which is the same in all other ways as far as I can tell.

What I'm trying to figure out, though, is a discrepancy in the version numbers for the files. The IBM version for Win2000 has a core file neo20xx.sys (dated 2000-01-14, version 5.39.00.2128.1, copyright 1994-2000). The Neomagic version from DriverGuide has a core file named nm2200mp.sys dated 2002-01-02, version 5.12.01.0000, copyright 1994-2000). A similiar situation exists with the dates and version numbers of the dll files in each driver set. Note that the version for the IBM files seems to be later than the Neomagic version, but their dates indicate the reverse.

I wonder if it's possible that the Neomagic version only looks like it is a later version due to the date stamps, but that the internal date just reflects the date that the package was compiled, and not the date of the actual sys and dll files.

I don't really know what to make of it all.

Phil.

[ragefury32]

Thanks for posting a source for the driver. I'm curious about following these reports of improved performance, but am a bit confused about what is really going on.

I installed the driver you linked to on my PIII 850MHz 600X. I can't say that I notice any difference in DivX/AVI video performance -- though to be fair, the PIII 850MHz probably doesn't need any hardware acceleration to play such videos perfectly anyways.

Unfortunately, as vmesquita notes, the driver does not show support for Direct3D.

One interesting note: when you install the drivers you linked to over top of the Win2000 drivers that I was using previously, you still get access to the Neomagic tab that installs with the Thinkpad Win2000 version. I get a tiny display corruption on the tab page, but it doesn't seem to affect any functionality -- which is the same in all other ways as far as I can tell.

What I'm trying to figure out, though, is a discrepancy in the version numbers for the files. The IBM version for Win2000 has a core file neo20xx.sys (dated 2000-01-14, version 5.39.00.2128.1, copyright 1994-2000). The Neomagic version from DriverGuide has a core file named nm2200mp.sys dated 2002-01-02, version 5.12.01.0000, copyright 1994-2000). A similiar situation exists with the dates and version numbers of the dll files in each driver set. Note that the version for the IBM files seems to be later than the Neomagic version, but their dates indicate the reverse.

I wonder if it's possible that the Neomagic version only looks like it is a later version due to the date stamps, but that the internal date just reflects the date that the package was compiled, and not the date of the actual sys and dll files.

I don't really know what to make of it all.

Phil.

...That's because Neomagic never released 3D HARDWARE on the products they shipped to IBM. The Sony drivers are meant for their NM2300XL equipped desktop replacement Vaios - and as an aside, their performance at DirectX/OpenGL are so mediocre that they should be seen as hardware dccelerators.

[pianoforte]

you can try neo magic graph japan video drivers which support
dx7 3d effects,google under sony vaio neo magic 3d drivers.
from what i remmember sony supports mpeg 2 +3 with their drivers

Does anyone have a link for these drivers? If I google with the suggested keywords, the fourth result is this forum

Also, I wonder if the following (already mentioned) drivers are compatible to the 600x.

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... rid=113152

According to thinkwiki.org the 600x has Magicgraph256ZX, instead the driver belong to 256XL.

[ragefury32]

you can try neo magic graph japan video drivers which support
dx7 3d effects,google under sony vaio neo magic 3d drivers.
from what i remmember sony supports mpeg 2 +3 with their drivers

Does anyone have a link for these drivers? If I google with the suggested keywords, the fourth result is this forum

Also, I wonder if the following (already mentioned) drivers are compatible to the 600x.

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... rid=113152

According to thinkwiki.org the 600x has Magicgraph256ZX, instead the driver belong to 256XL.

Yes. That's exactly my point - the Neomagic 256ZXs DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT Have 3D acceleration in their hardware at all. So even provided that you got your drivers to install (and you most likely won't), it would not help you play games. Direct3D will still use software rendering.

There are no magic drivers that would provide support for something that does not support hardware acceleration!