T43: movie files play back better through ethernet

[catback]

Hi,

I have a T43 with the following specs:

-1.8 GHz CPU with 1 GB RAM
-ATI X300 video card
-Windows 7
-5400 RPM Toshiba MK4026GAX internal drive

I have several large avi video files that are 4 GB and larger that play back real choppy off the internal drive. However, if I connect the laptop to my home network via a wired ethernet connection and use the T43 to play back the same file now located on a remote machine, it plays back just fine. Note, the T43's cpu/gpu is still decoding and processing the file, the only difference being the file is now being read from another machine through the ethernet connection.

Any idea why this is happening? My first thought was the T43's cpu/gpu just wasn't able to handle such a large file but this doesn't explain why it plays back fine via the ethernet connection. My second thought was the internal drive may be too slow but it's a 5400 rpm drive with a decent transfer rate. Plus I would have thought the transfer rate through the ethernet port would be slower than directly from the internal drive.

[RealBlackStuff]

It probably depends on which player you use.
GOM player uses very few resources.
VLC is another very popular choice.
You may also want to update your codecs, try this: http://combined-community-codec-pack.en.softonic.com/

[catback]

The player I used was VLC for both instances. Since this player worked fine when used over the ethernet connection, shouldn't that rule out the player itself as being the culprit?

When reading the file via the ethernet port instead of the local drive, what laptop resources are no longer used? Obviously, one would be the drive itself. Anything else, such as the system bus? I think whatever is no longer being used is most likely the cause of the poor play back.

[Harryc]

What happens if you boot up a Linux Live CD and run a video from the hard drive using vlc? You might want to try booting Linux from a flash drive as that would be faster.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
I just used their Universal USB Installer to install Linux Mint 10 to a flash drive this morning. Worked well.

[poshgeordie]

When checking some .avi videos we made with our macro camera system when recording the solder balls during the reflowing process, I found VLC to be choppy but very smooth with Gom.

+1 for Gom!

[catback]

I'll give Gom a try and let you know if there is any improvement.

As far as transfer rates, how does reading from the laptop's internal local drive compare to reading from a fully wired ethernet network (using a Linksys WRT54G router running DD-WRT in this case). I would think the local drive would be significantly faster.

[frankiepankie]

I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema on my systems, works great, no messing with codecs.

[catback]

I installed Gom and that seems to have solved all the choppy playback problems. Thanks to all who replied.

On a related note, what does Gom do differently from all the other players that allows it to play video files without any pauses or interruptions? Does it have a caching feature missing from the other players? Or does it have to do with the use of it's own codecs?

[poshgeordie]

I haven't found anywhere (with a quick search) that lists the technical differences, but the big downside of Gom is that unlike VLC it's not available for Linux.

On the plus side, there seems to be very few codec problems with Gom, since it goes off and finds the required one if necessary - that's always been my big gripe with any media player in the past.