2.5MHz cpu Xubuntu or Ubuntu 9.10 ?

[wannabegeek]

EDIT: 2.54 GHz duh...

hi all,

I have been setting up my first media server this summer and learning a lot in the process.
It's not the best choice of machines:

IBM A50 1.5 GB ram lots of HD space

It is running OK with 9.10 Ubuntu, but I am wondering if using Xubuntu will help me squeeze every bit of cpu power into mplayer for movies, or if Xubuntu is more of a
memory and HD resource save.

I've worded this question some what poorly :)
thanks in advance,
wbg

[kerry_s]

why 9.10? 10.04 will is better speed wise.

it don't matter base wise on how mplayer will play.

if you just want the smallest, lubuntu is better then both of those.
it comes with gnome-mplayer, which works great.

http://lubuntu.net/blog/lubuntu-1004-now-available-download

honestly dude, if you have a 2.5mhz cpu, you can probably watch 2 movies at the same time.

[wannabegeek]

honestly dude, if you have a 2.5mhz cpu, you can probably watch 2 movies at the same time.
not if movie is high or higher def...mplayer flat out says don't try to watch this movie with slow cpu...
my thinkpad does OK with those movies...

I'm not ready to de-bug 10.04 yet...how's your experience ? I heard it's faster. My IT guy at school
is testing out the server distro and likes it so far.

[Tech2077]

not if movie is high or higher def...mplayer flat out says don't try to watch this movie with slow cpu...
my thinkpad does OK with those movies...

I'm not ready to de-bug 10.04 yet...how's your experience ? I heard it's faster. My IT guy at school
is testing out the server distro and likes it so far.
As far as 10.04 goes, it's a lot faster than 9.04, and 9.10 a bit less, but still a lot faster. I have had no trouble with it, and I tinker :P. It's worth upgrading, or fresh installing

[kerry_s]

i think it's better then the 9.XX series.
i'm using the netbook remix on my nettop. i use gnome-mplayer to watch movies, got the cache all the way up for pretty stutter free playback of those 1080p's.

[wannabegeek]

cache up...hadn't thought of that...I noticed that my ram wasn't maxed even though CPU goes to
100% (conky) ....still learning basics

looking up cache increase for mplayer....any tips ?

[kerry_s]

well if i get a really badly encoded video, i'll add " -cache-min 75 " it'll take a while for the movie to start, but since it's preprocessed more i can usually get smooth playback.

[wannabegeek]

awesome.... -cache-min 75 --> buffer 75%

do you have a config file set up for your gnome-mplayer ?
was reading about it...there's a lot there as usual...

found these examples encouraging
http://everydaylht.com/howtos/multimedia/mplayer/

and may i ask about this ...no one has replied in the MM forum
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1530650

[Nican Tlaca]

Let me put it to you this way, I use Ubuntu 10.04 on a Toshiba laptop:

1.733 GHz
1.5 GB RAM

and it runs like a champ. Purrs like a happy cat.


In my opinion, XFCE has gotten a little more bloated than it used to be. It's lighter than Gnome, though.

Check out LXDE as a lightweight desktop environment.
I run LXDE on Xubuntu (select on login screen) on a 933 MHz / 512 MB RAM Gateway computer that is 10 years old. Runs like a champ.

[wannabegeek]

thanks Nican

I'll probably install it another HD to start as a safety...that's my new way of dealing with
projects that might get frustrating.

[wannabegeek]

can't get cache fill to work


mplayer -vo x11 -cache-min 75 2001 A Space ....
here's output from mplayer


Playing 2001 - A Space Odyssey.avi.
Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes)
AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [XVID] 720x352 12bpp 23.976 fps 924.8 kbps (112.9 kbyte/s)


EDIT:


mplayer -cache 500000 -cache-min 70 2001 ...

OUTPUT:


Playing 2001 A Space Odyssey.m2ts.
Cache fill: 59.30% (303603712 bytes)
TS file format detected.
VIDEO H264(pid=4113) AUDIO A52(pid=4352) NO SUBS (yet)! PROGRAM N. 1

[wannabegeek]

Got cache and buffering to work....one hi-def movie I have still doesn't play back right
even with frame dropping.

mplayer lists some ideas when trying to play hi def with slow cpu.
-vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all

does this invocation of mapyer make sense?


mplayer -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all -framedrop -cache 100000 -cache-min 99 \path\to\movie

[lucasart]

hi all,

I have been setting up my first media server this summer and learning a lot in the process.
It's not the best choice of machines:

IBM A50 1.5 GB ram lots of HD space

It is running OK with 9.10 Ubuntu, but I am wondering if using Xubuntu will help me squeeze every bit of cpu power into mplayer for movies, or if Xubuntu is more of a
memory and HD resource save.

I've worded this question some what poorly :)
thanks in advance,
wbg

2.5 MHz ? Are you sure it's not 2.5 GHz ?
With those specs I would perhaps suggest MS DOS 1.0 ;-)

Defnitely do not use Xubuntu: it's lame and it's not lighter than Ubuntu itself !! For a light Ubuntu, it's lubuntu and nothing else http://lubuntu.net/

[paulisdead]

I was never able to get completely smooth playback on my highest quality videos with the 2.6ghz Athlon X2 I have in my htpc. I just bought a cheap low profile nvidia geforce 210 card, slapped it in there, and set up smplayer to use vdpau for it's output, and I have smooth 1080p even with the highest quality files. You can do it on even cheaper cards, I just figured I'd get the cheapest that supports feature set C, so it uses the cpu even less on more different types of codecs.

[wannabegeek]

thanks paul i'll read about that...
@ Lucasart ---> yeah 2.54 GHz :) I liked DOS back when I had an XT with 30MB HD and 128 K I think it was....it had the BEST version of Word Perfect ever from which I judge all others....I miss the
text only days sometimes...

[3Miro]

I have been using Xubuntu 9.10 and 10.04 for some time now (I made the switch at Beta 1). No issues with the switch for me.

XFCE is smaller and faster than Gnome and it has almost all features. I cannot give good advice on lxde, but it looked like too much of a sacrifice for me. If you already have Ubuntu, you can try xfce and lxde without reinstalling everything:

sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies
will install xfce for you and then you can select log out of Gnome and select to log in xfce. If you like the Gnome look, then you can install:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
which will get xfce along with Gnome look alike default settings. (you can do the same for lxde, use synaptic to find the exact package name)

That way you can test xfce to see if you will like it or not.

[wannabegeek]

thanks for reply 3Miro,

I once added a desktop from the repo to check it out and found that I had a ton of duplicate programs and lots of stuff I didn't want. So I am leary of doing that again.

I thought that the kernel would make a big difference not just a lighter desktop. True ?

I'll need to try a live CD of Lubuntu since many people are talking about it in good light.
thanks folks