[Geek] Shock!

[azekeil]

I don't know how many of you have discovered VideoLAN VLC media player. It operates without codecs (they're built in; all the main formats are supported), and because of this, the player is far more efficient than say Windows Media Player 10 with codecs.

As an example, on my Athlon 2800+ I played an Xvid in WMP and VLC. Couldn't really see much difference in Task Manager - both were bumping along the bottom.

So I tried on my Athlon Thunderbird 1GHz media PC. It went from an average of about 40% CPU usage with WMP to... 5% CPU usage with VLC!!!

So I tried it on a Pentium-II 350MHz machine. This machine can't normally play DivX/Xvid. It played, full screen, at 40% CPU usage! Incredible! It didn't manage to play properly with image post-processing turned up to maximum, however. Not that I can really notice a difference between it on, and it off (the default in VLC).

So, if you have a slow PC but want to watch a MPEG-4 video, and don't want to worry about the hassle of video codecs, download VideoLAN VLC media player now!

Comments

[synthclarion.livejournal.com]

The streaming output feature's also great for watching video on a PDA, streaming from a PC via a wireless network.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I actually re-stumbled upon it while looking for video streaming solutions after tripping over a D-link DS-320 MediaLounge in PC World. Turns out VLC doesn't do UPnP (as far as I can see), but was interested in the efficient CPU usage claims.

[As an aside, I decided that although TVersity looked like the (closest to) ideal streaming server solution, after reading a few user reviews I decided that although it was the best solution currently available, it wasn't really quite ready for the mass consumer market, due to problems with the wireless, interface and ability to handle all systems. Instead we opted to go down the original route of upgrading the media PC so it could continue to cope with the latest high-bitrate video codecs.]

[synthclarion.livejournal.com]

TVersity looks...well, astounding, to be honest.

How much was the DS-320?

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

It's also very nice for video/sound grabs from DVDs.

[emilydongray.livejournal.com]

I found it had better sound. I also found it was more likely to open ramdomformatpr0n.

[meltie.livejournal.com]

It's the de facto media player for OS X, so yeah, i've heard of it ;)

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

I always tend to use MPlayer (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/) myself. It's definately far faster than windows media player too!

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I typo'd - it was a DSM-320, and it was £139.99 inc VAT.

[air-bizkit.livejournal.com]

I've been using it as my main player for ages.

Especially as most of the anime I get lately seems to be in the .mkv format, which I cant seem to get to work with DivX,WMP or WinAMP