[rave]

Well, here are some of my thoughts, observations and tips on how we can improve WMP performance:

* First off, WMV is not MPEG1. That is why we cannot truly and fairly compare the performance of WMP and Pocket TV. WMV is newer and more optimized than MPEG1, and so requires a little more processing power. What you do get out of it is smaller file size and higher visual quality.

* If you can, always encode in WMV version 7, instead of V8 or V9. The latter two require more processing power than WMV V7, and may be the cause of skipped frames. I still prefer it over MPEG1, since the encoding tool is freely available and its ease of use is ideal for casual encoding tasks. If your copy of Windows Media Encoder has options for MS-MPEG4 V3 and ISO-MPEG4, you can try these as well for even faster performance.

* If you store your media in storage cards, do some research on the card's maximum data throughput and never encode at a bitrate that is higher than this value. There are some times in which the performance bottleneck is not in the processor, but in the card's data bus. Specifically, give special attention to the maximum data rate when encoding in VBR.

That's all I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[rave]

Well, here are some of my thoughts, observations and tips on how we can improve WMP performance:

* First off, WMV is not MPEG1. That is why we cannot truly and fairly compare the performance of WMP and Pocket TV. WMV is newer and more optimized than MPEG1, and so requires a little more processing power. What you do get out of it is smaller file size and higher visual quality.

* If you can, always encode in WMV version 7, instead of V8 or V9. The latter two require more processing power than WMV V7, and may be the cause of skipped frames. I still prefer it over MPEG1, since the encoding tool is freely available and its ease of use is ideal for casual encoding tasks. If your copy of Windows Media Encoder has options for MS-MPEG4 V3 and ISO-MPEG4, you can try these as well for even faster performance.

* If you store your media in storage cards, do some research on the card's maximum data throughput and never encode at a bitrate that is higher than this value. There are some times in which the performance bottleneck is not in the processor, but in the card's data bus. Specifically, give special attention to the maximum data rate when encoding in VBR.

That's all I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts.