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aside from a DVD-ROM, what other hardware specs (CPU speed, RAM amount, etc.) are required to play a DVD on a PC computer?
older technology is the s---; keep it running

If all you want to do is play DVDs without fancy image quality improvments or SRS sound enhancements, any Pentium/Celeron at 450mhz with an 8mb video card should do.
If the video card provides good DVD acceleration, you could probably get by with a 266mhz Pentium II processor.
Ram doesn't matter much when it comes to DVD playback, but if you have Win XP, you should have 512mb of RAM.

jackbomb arent you the one who thinks that XP is the best OS for anything that it will run on, even like old Pentium MMX based systems and stuff???
the system particular in question:
- 500mhz Pentium 3
- 256mb PC100 SDRAM
- 32mb 3D graphics card (Trident Blade 64)
- 20gb 7200rpm hard drive
- 4x DVD-ROMany way the actual promblem was: i attempted to play a DVD movie on this machine and the sound was all distorted and alienated. it was not the movie because i tried two others and they did the same, and i dont think it was the drive because i just cleaned the laser lens with rubbing alcohol (on a q-tip) and then dried it with a q-tip (other end of the same one), plus the guy i bought the drive from (for $10) said it was in perfect working order.
playing was attempted through CyberMedia PowerDVD 5.
what is the issue??
thanks
older technology is the s---; keep it running

Yeah, I've got XP running on a Pentium-133 with 96mb of RAM and a Radeon 9800 Pro video card, lol
That system you listed definitely shouldn't have probelms with DVD.
Do you have DMA enabled on your DVD drive? If you don't, that's probably your problem.I've played movies under Windows Media Player 10 on a Pentium II at 233mhz with a DVD-accelerated graphics board. It occasionaly chokes, but is fine for the most part, so a 500mhz system shouldn't have problems.

btw, you may wanna check this out:
http://computing.net/cpus/wwwboard/forum/12641.html
Make sure you have images on and enjoy :P

how did you get XP to run on a 133mhz P1 with no MMX?? from my experience XP chokes and refuses to install if it sees a CPU with out MMX???
and why on earth have such a decent video card in THAT machine???
LOL
older technology is the s---; keep it running

and how does one enable this DMA setting you refer to??
older technology is the s---; keep it running

Did you see the picture? It's a Pentium 133 MMX.
I don't really need that 9800 Pro anymore...I ditched most of my AGP machines and am using PCI-E video cards now, so I just decided to install the 9800 Pro on the old machine for fun.
To enable DMA:
Right click on My Computer and click properties. Choose the hardware tab, click on Device Manager. Look for the ATAPI/IDE controllers, select whichever IDE channel controls your DVD drive. Right click on it, select properties.Go to Advanced Settings, select your DVD drive (Either Device 0 or 1)
From the Transfer Mode drop down menu, select "DMA mode if available"
click ok, and reboot windows.

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