Postby HisPetsMaster » 23 Nov 2008 11:34
So I have a specific example, in fact I have two, of where 8.6i is better than 9.x version. In playback of h.264 files on an older system, the systems specs are as follows:
cpu: 1.8 ghz Athlon XP
Memory: 1 gig 333 mhz ram
Video card: 9500 ATI series 128mb on card
chipset : nforce 2 (the really good version of it, forget the exact designation)
PATA drive: 320gig x2, LG GSA-H55N burner
SATA " : 750 gig x2 Seagate drives.
Running windows 2k fully updated and running ubuntu as secondary dualboot OS.
First example: When skipping back or even forward in the file, with 8.6i I have no issues (except if I have some PDF document running also, since adobe is bloatware central), but with 9.x, even with the system completely lean, I usually get a few seconds of the previous scene still on the video.
Second example: Using that system I have some real problems playing back a h.264 encoded mkv format file at 720p resolution. I run the same file using the 8.6i (even when it arguably isn't supposed to run that file well) and I have no skips, no lags, no noticeable frame drops.
I would like to mention that I was loading the system down with the 8.6i, using emule, folding at home, antivirus and browser on regular pages and whatever else is normally running in the background. Yet with 9.x (newest version) the file was visually stuck while the sound kept going on, even though I had stopped everything else that I could stop from running.
AGAIN: having said all the above, I like the total feel (with some exceptions) of 9.x and I have found some files that do not play on 8.6i at all that 9.x series can play. But it seem to me that the decoding is not optimized as well as in 8.6x series OR that your using different "services" from the system that are less optimized than the ones used by 8.6x series.