Poor Performance

[Jason Bradley Nance]

Hello everyone.
     I just downloaded and installed vlc.  I tried installing from both 
the Red Hat RPM and from source to see if I could get some better 
optimizations, but both have yielded the same results.  I also read what 
there is of docs.
     I am running Red Hat 7.1 on a PIII 600 with 256 MB RAM and a 32 MB 
nVidia TNT2, yet the DVDs do not play at a watchable rate (sometimes not 
at all).  I have a DVD decoder card for my drive, but I can't find in 
the docs what plugin to load or even how to load it.
    I am thinking that maybe my problem is the lack of support for my 
sound card (a Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla (Vortex 2 chipset) from 
experience with other players (Xine, OMS), the the quality is much lower 
than I expected.

So my questions are:

1) Are hardware decoder cards supported (I read the FAQ entry about SDL, 
but is that for DVD decoders or vid cards)?  If they are, how do I load 
the correct module for my decoder card?

2) How do I load other sound modules to try them out?  (ie. ESD)

3) I have a set of Altec-Lansing ADA880 speakers (Dolby Digital 5.1) 
with the SPDIF connector to my DVD decoder card.  How can I get the 
SPDIF to work?  (I tried check the "SPDIF" option, didn't work.  I tried 
vlc --spdif, didn't work)  I also have a digital audio out plug on my 
sound card if the DVD decoder card isn't supported.

Thanks.

j


-- 
Jason Bradley Nance
jbnance at tresgeek.net
http://www.tresgeek.org/

-
When we walk to the edge of all the light we have
  and take a step into the darkness of the unknown
  we must believe that one of two things will happen:
         There will be something solid for us to stand on
          or we will be taught to fly.

                 -Patrick Overton, "Faith"
--