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Topic: processor maxed, lousy playback sound< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
gnuts Offline





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Posted: July 04 2004,04:41 QUOTE

I've got a HD install of DSL on pentium 120 Mhz 48Mb ram toshiba satelllite pro. I finally got the mp3 files into a directory and can play them with xmms, but the cpu meter reads 100% and the sound is crappy static crackily. it used to play them on Winamp just fine. Can anyone help me out? (I'm a total noob, so simple and clear would be great!)  thanks.
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dbarl Offline





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Posted: July 04 2004,16:13 QUOTE

My Satellite Pro 420CDT (99 mhz) chokes on anything encoded higher than 64kbps.  Perhaps a different player would help, especially a non-gui one.  To rule out any config issues, I'd try to play a low-bitrate mp3, either one you have or Apps > Sound/MPEG/VoIP > XMMS > Download Low bandwidth mp3 streams.
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cbagger01 Offline





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Posted: July 04 2004,16:59 QUOTE

You could try a few things:

(1) Try the command line mp3 player.  Type "mpg321" inside an xterminal window.

(2) Try upping the CPU priority of your music player.  Some of them contain menu options to do so. Otherwise you will need to use a command line utility like 'nice' to do the job.

(3)  "Doc, my arm hurts when I bend it backwards.  Doctor: Then don't bend it backwards"  Apologies to the Marx brothers, but don't try to do more with your computer than it is capable of doing.  For example, I don't use my Pentium 3 computer for software HDTV decoding.

Good Luck.
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gnuts Offline





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Posted: July 04 2004,21:56 QUOTE

I'll try those, but it ran winamp in windows 95 and played 128kbps just fine. would converting to .ogg help? do you know how I can get command line not in a window from a HD install? it doesn't give me boot options anymore.
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cbagger01 Offline





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Posted: July 05 2004,16:19 QUOTE

Converting to .ogg will just make things worse.

ogg is a great format because it is an open standard, but it is more processor hungry than mp3

I would expect that you could get similar performance out of mpg321 when you run it inside an Xterminal window.

However, you should be able to get into a command prompt by editing your lilo configuration file and adding the "2" boot appended boot command. Search these forums for more details.

Also, you could set your default init runlevel to init 3  or init 1 by assuming the "root" user authority and editing your /etc/inittab file

But the quick and dirty way to get to the command prompt is to either:

"Exit the Window Manager" from the menu, or

press CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE

When you want to return to the Xwindows, just type "startx" on a blank line and hit the ENTER key.

Good Luck.
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