Computer Benchmark for Video CDs?

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I intend to upgrade my computer system but I don't know what computer sustem is better for playing video CDs or recording video CDs. For example, is a 400 MHz Celeron better than a 400 MHz AMD K6-II or K6-III? or what about a comparison to a 400 MHz Pentium II? Is there a computer "benchmark" that I can use as a reference guide that is applicable to playing video CDs or recording video CDs? Thanks Vic Chan

-- Victor M Chan (vchanpe@2xtreme.net), November 06, 1999

Answers

Gee Victor I really do not think its the computer you should worry about, I am still using an old Pentium 233mmx (64M sdram) but I have just updated to Windows 98SE to cope with the ADS Pyro full frame NLE firewire board. I believe its all in what software/hardware is actually used to process the vcd from the source vision to playback - let me enlarge on that just a little!

Choice of hard disk sizes depends on what the source is. If your coming from a dv full frame NLE you need 3.6M/s of storage space and since a vcd is up to 74 minutes long thats a lot of capture space (16000M actually). If your coming in from the correct frame size avi's you probably do not need any more than about 1.5M/s capacity. If your capturing direct to the hard drive at vcd mpeg size and data rates you need only about 0.17M/s of space. In my view those are more important questions than what computer system you might need because in the end they are the limiting factors and only the NLE choice will allow you to include video tape operations. So if you only want the output to be a vcd then you have a much easier choice.

Here is a short list of my process specs as outdated as they are:

Video hard drive maxtor 10G (7200rpm), System drive 4G Fireball (5400rpm). Capture cards all fullframe NLE - Miro DC20 (4+ years old), Pyro Firewire. Editing programs: Capture AV_IO, Adobe Premiere 5.1, Hollywood FX, Ulead Video Studio 3, Photoshop 5.5, Timeline playback to video tape by ddclip v2.31. Norton Utilities 4 for video drive maintenance. KTX 9600 "scuzzy" scanner (3 years old). Encoders - LSX 2.51 & 3.0, Panasonic 2? (only for its ability to accept any type of input including LSX mpeg2 archive files). 24x CD player, Ricoh 6200A burner, Winoncd 3.5, Adaptec 3.5 and Nero 4 (the best of those but without interactive facilities) burner software. Philips DVD player model 725, Cyberlinks PW PowerPlayer and vcd player, Windows media player with LSX plug for mpeg2.

Mostly 2 years old or older and in need of updating most would say - why should I? processing time is not a problem and the computer does the job, until I have to update due to computer failure I will continue to make this system work and had it not been for the Pyro card requirement of w98se I would not be using anything but W95.

Hope this helps with another point of view. Finally its a lot harder to achieve analogue PC editing on a computer than the system requirements to achieve a VCD.

-- RossMcL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), November 07, 1999.


Yeah Victor, you should be able to play and record VCDs with a 400Mhz system. I can play VCDs on my 486/50Mhz w/ 8MB RAM (and MPEG card) and I can play and record on my Pentium MMX 200Mhz w/ 32MB RAM (didn't need an MPEG card, but it came with the DVD drive I bought). Just make sure when you upgrade that you get a Creative Labs Dxr3 DVD decoder card. It'll let you put the VCDs (as well as DVD) on your TV, and it has Dolby Digital and DTS output, so you can get that theater experience from those DVDs.

-- Mr.Ian Roswell (cyberlien51@juno.com), November 11, 1999.

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