Hey guys.
So, here are some recent tests I made.
Using only DOS you can actually download a video from youtube and watch it in a Pentium 1. You just have to use www.keepvid.com and, using Links, download the video you want in "3GP" quality, you can pick either 144 or 240. The trick is that you save it with the extension "mp4". Quickview will play the file just fine. File will have a mix of divx and aac.
In my machine, I got these results:
1. "preload sound" "grayscale" "no scaling", the video will play in full screen (800x600) with proper framerate. Of course, you lose a bit of detail, due to resolution and lack of color, but the video plays nice, and the image is big enough to be enjoyable.
2. "preload sound" "8 color bits" "no scaling", the video will play in full screen (800x600) with proper framerate. BUT the image is shitty, the low amount of color will make it look pretty bad and I would rather watch it in B&W.
3. "preload sound" "hicolor" "no scaling", the video will now play in it's real size (very small) with proper framerate. Looks good, but small. Some videos won't play image, and I had to choose "TrueColor" instead.
4. "preload sound" "hicolor" "2x zoom", video will be bigger and color will be good, but the framerate is wrong (drops many frames) and sound gets out of sync. Don't like it. However, if the video is 144p, I get it to play ok using "preload sound" "hicolor" "software full screen". However it plays at 640x480. Still, the best I got to use with color in big picture.
So, I can get a totally fine framerate and fullscreen picture if using grayscale in a 240p video, or a 640x480 Hi color video with proper framerate. All in all, very good considering I was doing it with a Pentium 1. Back in the day when divx appeared I was told that "no that machine won't play movies". Indeed, people who wanted to watch a movie (using windows and all the codecs of the time) needed a pentium 2 with MMX. Funny how future brings back old technologies.
I am actually very pleased with the results, and I can do it all in DOS, which was the objective. I have cheated by using Linux with Links (linux version) to download the test video files (don't have internet in old pc). But I expect the same to work in pure DOS.
How about someone tries it out in a 486 66/33 ? Would love to hear the results! 😀