First, thanks to you, Peter, and David for your helpful replies.  (And to
anyone who comes along later with other advice.  (^&)



> The cpu is fine, IDE/SCSI is fine as long as we're not talking pio.

dmesg.boot records this on my 1.5.2 kernel:

cd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2
cd0(pciide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (using DMA data transfers)
wd0: drive supports 16-sector pio transfers, lba addressing
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5
wd0(pciide1:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 5 (using DMA data transfers)

...note that it *does* say "using PIO mode 4", but I'm not sure if that
just means "if it has to ever fall back to PIO, till use PIO mode 4".  I
assume that everything is alright, there.  (^&  I just need a DVD drive,
"any old thing will do"?


> You may want to use an AGP card.  PCI cards can (and do) work for DVDs,
> however, there will be some stuttering in the picture, and stranger things

(mutter)  I *really* wanted to wait till DRI was close to being an option
before buying a real card.  (Getting a VCR and a TV begins to sound
preferable.  (^&)

Okay, then...AGP recommendations?  Something that works nicely with NetBSD
and XFree86?  Preferably something that is likely to work well with DRI..?
As I recall, ATI's boards (at least for PCI bus) have too-short connectors
and are a major pain to install, so I'd like to avoid ATI if I can.

Or does it much matter w.r.t. NetBSD, DVD and basic (non-DRI) support, as
long as it's just AGP?  Does it run comfortably up to 1600x1200 for you?


> have been known to happen (lip-sync problems, where the picture isn't synced
> with the audio, very stuttery movement especially when panning, etc...).
> I, too, have an interest in getting NetBSD's DVD support up to par, as I'm a
> big home theater buff.  I've been [in my copious spare time (tm)] looking at
> how hard it would be to add deinterlacing and complex aspect ratio control to
> ogle (as well as getting some good spdif audio out), but I'm kind of at an
> "I've untarred it" point :-(

How do you mean "good"?  Ogle already supports audio, doesn't it?  Is it
just that you're a perfectionist (you said you were a "big home theater
buff", so you may be more concerned than I about this)?


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu