> "mplayer" builds and runs on NetBSD 1.5.2. To play most DVD's from
> the drive, you must download and install (to root, with --prefix=/)

From what I've been gathering, I *could* play "most" DVD's since I'm in
"region 1" and "region 1" is well-supported (read: if I buy or rent a DVD
movie, it will be a "region 1" DVD, almost certainly).  Is that wrong?


> By the way, the "mplayer" FAQ explains that DRI has no benefit for
> playing DVD's -- what matters is how fast you can dump raw bits, so
> AGP *is* better than PCI, but the brand of card isn't critical.

Thanks.  Though I think that you (and the other one or two people saying
this) misunderstood my concern.  I didn't imagine that DRI would improve
DVD support.  (Actually, on reflection, it's possible that it would, if
exploited.  One feature of DRI is to reduce the number of buffer copies to
get data into the frame-buffer...  But the player would probably have to
either use the OpenGL API or be written against DRI directly to benefit
from that.)

The point was actually kind of 180 degrees away.  I was concerned (and the
concern is now layed to rest), that some specific cards might be better at
playing DVD's, while others might be better supported (or rather I should
say, supported at all) by DRI.  This would be a conflict between the
interests of DVD movies and DRI---and for me, the latter would win out in
general.  (^&

It seems that the answer is that (excepting MS-WINDOWS), systems do not
exploit DVD-related features of graphics cards, so there is no reason to
prefer one AGP 4X card over another, w.r.t. DVD.  One is fairly free to
pick the card based on other features, then, such as DRI support and cost.
(^&


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