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Technology Stocks : RAMBUS (Nasdaq: RMBS) - THE EAGLE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Norman who wrote (385)	12/15/1999 1:17:00 PM
From: richard surckla	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2039

You_Glenn Norman... like I said... YOU WERE RIGHT AND DON GREEN WAS WRONG! Maybe a few computer tips from you to Don would help him out.

To: Glenn Norman who wrote (385)	12/15/1999 2:39:00 PM
From: Alex Fleming	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2039

Hi Glenn, Unfortunately you will still need a decoder card under NT. Heres why. DVD is a type of MPEG2 stream with audio. The audio is multiplexed into a file with compressed video that is defined by a certain standard. See mpeg.org for details. An Mpeg2 datastream usually has a datarate maxing out at about 25mbits per second but most DVDs are recorded at a much lower rate. This file gets transfered in much the same way as any file. To view MPEG2 or DVD in this case you have two choices, either hardware decompression via Sigma or a C-Cube chip or software which uses direct X, the video card driver and silicon on current video cards which assists in decoding MPEG2 streams. SoftDVD solutions run into problems under NT because most are not compatible with direct X 3 and more importantly the protected nature of operating system does not lend itself to doing this well. Hardware solutions work by intercepting calls to the mpeg2 file and rerouting them to the hardware decoder sitting on the PCI bus. This bypasses Direct X and the OS making MPEG2 playback possible under NT with almost zero cpu utilization. The Toshiba DVD-Rom transfers data much like any other storage device. To imply that you can play DVDs with no additional hardware also implys that the drive can decode MPEG2 streams directly. Even then there would have to be a secondary means of linking this MPEG2 stream to the system. Sometimes you can decode MPEG2 streams without hardware assistance under NT and sometimes not. It depends on a lot of variables. So the definitive answer is YES! NT can play DVDs but not usually without additional hardware that offloads decompression from the CPU and the OS. Hope this helps clear up any confusion, Alex