From CRT to LCD

[dethadol]

James Gray wrote:

>> Sorry to show my ignorance but can anyone explain why 3D accel is  
>> needed
>> for video playing please?
> 
> Generally speaking, it isn't.  However, many video cards with 3D  
> accelleration are also capable of off-loading much of the video- 
> decoding from the CPU as well.  This will allow your system to remain  
> responsive while you play back gitter and stutter free video.   
> Without the decode off-load (using 3D accelerated video cards) your  
> poor CPU has to do all the work.  Given that modern CPU's are quite  
> powerful you probably wouldn't have any problems without the OpenGL  
> acceleration, but why waste CPU time on something like video when  
> your graphics card spends most of its life idling in the background?
> 
> Multi-core CPU's are even more adept at handling multiple tasks (such  
> as video decode and "other" stuff at the same time)...but why not  
> utilise a resource that will provide you with some significant  
> performance benefits?  FWIW, I've noticed that enabling OpenGL  
> options on video play back generally results in better images and  
> smoother play back (at least in mplayer anyway).  YMMV.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> James
> 
> 

Thanks much appreciated


Dethadol


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