Tuning X window server for high definition

[David Backeberg]

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004, Robert La Ferla wrote:

> 1.  How can I set the priority of the X window and font servers so that they 
> are run at nice -10 every time they are started?

How did you decide this is desirable?

> 2.  Has anyone succesfully played a full-screen WMV-HD movie using mplayer? 
> I tried some small clips but it dropped frames and then the audio quit out. 
> It takes a lot of CPU to handle 1080 lines of progessive video.

How did you create the video? Perhaps mplayer could convert it to a 
friendlier format first, and then play it just fine. I don't know anything 
about WMV format, and I don't really know what HD means affixed to it, 
other than it was probably a high-res capture.

> 3.  Any other performance tips?  I am running Fedora Core 3.

What are the specs of the system? Your video card drivers might be 
something you could improve, and you might want to run some hdparm tests 
to make sure you have DMA enabled, etc. Roughly how big is this video 
you're trying to play, how is your screen resolution set, etc?

Are you trying to play the file directly from a 4x cdrom, or have you 
copied the file to your hard drive with no improvement?

If the video is huge, and your physical ram is small, your system might be 
swapping and thrashing. Did mplayer bring the whole system to its knees?

Can you slice the film into chunks with cinelara or dd and see if a short 
ten-second or so segment plays okay? I don't know if a wmv format file can 
take the abuse of a dd or not.

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