AFAIK, Windows did not support hardware accelerated video until Windows Vista or so. It didn't had a dedicated API until DXVA appeared... and I remember that DXVA 1 was almost useless (or unsupported).

I mean, a generic application (like Windows Media Player) won't use hardware capabilities on those system. Some applications (like PowerDVD) did support those capabilities, so you should check your driver disk and do your tests using the application that came bundled with your card.

I have a RealMagic Hollywood Plus in one of my P3 systems running WinMe and of course Windows Media Player supports hardware accelerated video. When playing MPEG 1/2 files or a DVD with WMP, it will use the RealMagic card. The only requirement for this to work is that the drivers come with a DirectShow filter for the hardware.

@386SX:

Make sure you have DMA enabled for your DVD drive, as otherwise the CPU load comes from PIO transfer of the data from the drive.

derSammler wrote on 2020-04-06, 13:41:

I have a RealMagic Hollywood Plus in one of my P3 systems running WinMe and of course Windows Media Player supports hardware accelerated video. When playing MPEG 1/2 files or a DVD with WMP, it will use the RealMagic card. The only requirement for this to work is that the drivers come with a DirectShow filter for the hardware.

@386SX:

Make sure you have DMA enabled for your DVD drive, as otherwise the CPU load comes from PIO transfer of the data from the drive.

I was thinking that too and fact is that the dvd led seems blinking a bit too much. But the flag is on on DMA. And all chipset drivers are the WDM already installed by Windows ME. For these cards I always used their own video players apps cause I don't know any other (beside I remember in linux mplayer) apps that used it natively or without directshow filters (and even in that case it wasn't easy If I remember it). Not to mention they need the correct version for the correct driver. Could you test the original video player app with a modern dvd high quality movie to see how much cpu usage your P3 is using?
Thanks!

derSammler wrote on 2020-04-06, 13:41:

I have a RealMagic Hollywood Plus in one of my P3 systems running WinMe and of course Windows Media Player supports hardware accelerated video. When playing MPEG 1/2 files or a DVD with WMP, it will use the RealMagic card. The only requirement for this to work is that the drivers come with a DirectShow filter for the hardware.

@386SX:

Make sure you have DMA enabled for your DVD drive, as otherwise the CPU load comes from PIO transfer of the data from the drive.

PowerDVD or similar apps did indeed use hardware acceleration (motion compensation or idct) of the video cards back then I remember clearly that when ATi cards resulted in similar final quality I decided to use these instead of the dvd decoder I did like but were always quite complex to find a stable and compatible enviroment (like different chipsets, other cards, IRQ, etc..). The LCD monitor came and basically destroyed these cards that were totally CRT oriented were they shine for their results.
But LCD are very sensible and it's difficult to have one resulting in a good vga input. The G450 is the only card after the G400 that have imho the only output capable of saving as much as possible of these pass trough connections. Also if the vga to H+ cable would have been a better larger one it would have helped a bit.

386SX wrote on 2020-04-06, 13:56:

Not to mention they need the correct version for the correct driver. Could you test the original video player app with a modern dvd high quality movie to see how much cpu usage your P3 is using?

For mine, I had to mix the player and drivers from two different versions, as in one version, the driver was buggy (did not work with the card), and in the other one the player was buggy (didn't play any movies, it would just stop a few seconds after pressing play). So I took the best of both worlds, since player and drivers came on separate disks anyway. 😉

I don't think I have any modern high-quality DVD. Apart from some BBC documentaries, I only have Star Wars Ep. 1 to 7 on DVD. Not sure if these have higher quality. But I can test it, the system is set up and ready.

btw, graphics card in there is a G450 as well.

Zup wrote on 2020-04-06, 13:09:

AFAIK, Windows did not support hardware accelerated video until Windows Vista or so. It didn't had a dedicated API until DXVA appeared... and I remember that DXVA 1 was almost useless (or unsupported).

I mean, a generic application (like Windows Media Player) won't use hardware capabilities on those system. Some applications (like PowerDVD) did support those capabilities, so you should check your driver disk and do your tests using the application that came bundled with your card.

Windows had accelerated video since Video for Windows on Windows 3.1 with DVA. DXVA should work even in Windows 98. But it's not what you are looking for with Sigma Hollywood+ DVD decoder, since it not an "accelerator", it's a full decoder. The drivers should install a DirectShow Codec, make sure you software is using it to decode the video.

derSammler wrote on 2020-04-06, 14:41:

For mine, I had to mix the player and drivers from two different versions, as in one version, the driver was buggy (did not work […]
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386SX wrote on 2020-04-06, 13:56:

Not to mention they need the correct version for the correct driver. Could you test the original video player app with a modern dvd high quality movie to see how much cpu usage your P3 is using?

For mine, I had to mix the player and drivers from two different versions, as in one version, the driver was buggy (did not work with the card), and in the other one the player was buggy (didn't play any movies, it would just stop a few seconds after pressing play). So I took the best of both worlds, since player and drivers came on separate disks anyway. 😉

I don't think I have any modern high-quality DVD. Apart from some BBC documentaries, I only have Star Wars Ep. 1 to 7 on DVD. Not sure if these have higher quality. But I can test it, the system is set up and ready.

btw, graphics card in there is a G450 as well.

UPDATE: As suggested I focused on the IDE ports and tried to put a different UDMA66 cable on it but nothing even if the two IDE channels on the computer properties showed FIFO I don't remember if this was ok, I activated both IDE channels into the few options inside but still getting same results.
So I decided to put a cheap VIA SATA-IDE raid PCI card (VT6421A I think the chip is) and the dvd with it and as imagined the internal IDE of the mainboard is the problem. With that cheap IDE controller can you imagine, even with another cpu I tried to change meanwhile (a P3 500 Katmai), now the cpu usage goes from 2% to 8% most of the time 2/4% sometimes 0% impressive, just as expected and with a smoothness that even my home dvd players seems not to have! This card still surprise me in the 2020. 😀
But still, now the question is why such common and well installed chipset should show DMA enabled and still working that bad probably in PIO mode? The mobo is a ECS P6BX-A+ v1.2.
I tried to install the Intel INF installer but it says I don't need it cause Win ME already has it.
Considering that PCI controller is really far from good how to try save a PCI port and use the internal IDE ports as they should work?