watchin' tv

[jaggedaloc]

Hello, my named is jaggedaloc, and I am a noob.

Yesterday I got a lovely little toy, a MadTux Live PC. Really cute, pretty quiet, COOL RUNNING PC that comes without a hard drive. Knoppix is included on a USB stick.

Now, I seem to have a problem with playing .avi files (which is really what I use my computer for in the first place, as it's cheaper than cable). Speciffically, all included video progs seem to show picture reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll slow, and, for lack of a better word, skip py.

Is this due to the lack of codec? Lack of memory? Lack of skill?

I thought maybe memory, so I installed knoppix on the old hard drive I ripped from my old, dead HP. Yes, I'm a noob, have read the warnings, and installed Knoppix in idiot mode on a hard drive. What can I say? I was drunk.

If I sit down and run a Debian install will this still happen?

Or, is the video processing not as good as one might hope in my new box?

any help is appriciated, and any flames are deserved.

[knoppixknut]

Hi jaggedaloc, I too am a noob.

First question, have you got the most up-to-date codecs?

My experiences far are that Kaffeine and Totem video player can handle most everything that I throw at them but be warned there are 100's of various on the theme of AVI format.

It would seem that quite a few people have had a go a writing a better compression ratios/format (hats off to the coders who can!).

It might be worth looking into a conversion program that could manipulate the AVI file to a more standard format e.g mpeg?

Just my two pennies/cents worth! :D

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Quick search on google has expanded my knowledge of the AVI format!

Not wanting to give a lesson here but as far as I can tell AVI is a "container format" not a codec. :shock:
The AVI container can support pretty most everything, so I would first start on getting the right codec for your specific type of AVI.

referenced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVI

Sorry this probably doesnt help much but it would be I would first start looking :D

[jaggedaloc]

That's great, and, yeah, in retrospect that probably had a lot to do with it.

But, I learned a lot in a few days.

What I learned was this...
DON'T use KNOPPIX to INSTALL ANYTHING (short of a persistant /home, I suppose.).
(What they tell the noobs is true.)

But, why shouldn't we? That is, can't we repackage so's you can run the net-install of sarge, sid, what-have-you?
Does anyone do this? I mean, really, the INSTALL button is so bright and shiny, why not give a noob an unloaded gun with which to shoot himself.

Does anyone do this?

[knoppixknut]

My mum always told me not to plays with guns :)

If you wanna install Knoppix onto your hda1, why not try it? I did and it when realtively smooth for me, sorted out most if not all problem, i.e. Speedtouch Modem, printers, sound etc.

I tried seveal methods, persistant home, PMI (poor mans install) and a total HDD install (onto a old laptop 64MB ram running Icewm instead of KDE).

My advice, go for it, how esle will you get to know your OS if you dont get close up and personal with it?

Once you done that then launch your fav package manager (mines apt-get) and upgrade upgrade install install away!

No one is gonna shoot you if you try it, you might find you like it!

[Dralnu]

I think alot of the reason not to install Knoppix is its a LiveCD. Want a persistent OS, get Debian (from which Knoppix is based) and install it, but if you want to keep using Knoppix, good luck to you.