How Can I Speed Up Ubuntu Without Reducing Movie Quality ??

If you play your movie in a smaller screen it would not appear as pixellated as it would be if played in a full-sized screen.

That would not be very satisfactory though, would it.

You may have to consider an upgrade of some components on your machine.

First of all increase RAM size to increase responsiveness, then upgrade your graphics card to one which has its own RAM.

If you currently have a computer that shares graphics RAM with system RAM then the addition of a separate graphics card and a RAM increase will work wonders.

Hi, Andre. I really don't know how much video ram versus system ram I have. I know I got 1.5 Gigs of ram in total. I don't know where to stick anextra graphics card in my laptop. I don't know if it's at all possible to do that in the first place. For whatever it's worth, here the output of lspci. Let me know if it's possible to insert an extra video card. Thanks.

x@xx:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
02:07.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
02:07.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
02:07.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
02:09.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

I failed to consider that you are using a laptop - my mistake.

From the data you sent you can see that you are using an "integrated graphics device" (as well as integrated audio) and in fact do not have a separate graphics card. All peripherals are controlled via chips on your motherboard.

I do not know of any way of fitting a graphics card into a laptop where space is at a premium.

Your RAM at 1.5 GB is quite enough.

Laptops are not made to watch videos and although it is possible to do so on some of them, it is beyond the capability of others.

You might consider an upgrade to Hardy Heron although I could not say with any certainty if that would improve matters for you.

Thanks andre, I had figured that an integrated motherboard isn't flexible for my ends. I am, however, thinking about upgrading to 8.04. The problem with upgrading is that since I got XP as guest through virtualbox closed edition, I don't know if upgrading will prevent me from accessing my USB. If you think the contrary, please let me know. Thanks!

Like you, I run XP in VirtualBox on Ubuntu.

When you say upgrading to Hardy Heron, I suggest that you save your entire Home directory, including hidden files (Ctrl+h), to a USB device so that none of your files are lost.

As for VBox, the options are:
1. install the OSE version from the repositories and live without USB support. You can establish a shared folder that is accessible from both XP in VBox and Ubuntu - this works remarkably well and then you will not need USB connectivity.
2. install the Sun version for Hardy Heron from Sun Microsystems (Innotek has been bought by Sun) which does have USB support.

Good Luck.

Ok, it sounds like I can't upgrade to 8.04 without accessing USB in virtualbox. I can't live without the USB because I need it to connect to my printer and other peripherals in XP guest that ubuntu host can't access.

So, let me get this right. You're saying that I can't upgrade to 8.04 without accessing USB in vbox? Is this what you're saying? Is there a workaround that you know of?

If you can access USB now, you do not have the "closed" edition of VirtualBox but you do have the version from Innotek that works with Gutsy.

If you upgrade to Hardy Heron, you will also have to upgrade your version of VirtualBox. There is a version specifically for Hardy Heron available from Sun Microsystems with USB support.

If you decide to upgrade or do a clean install and rely on the "open source edition = OSE" available from the Ubuntu repositories which will make updates available to you automatically, you will not have USB support.

You could buy a printer that works in Ubuntu rather than relying on VirtualBox and XP.

Since you original question has been resolved, would you mark this post as "Solved" please.

OK, I solved the issue. I had done a clean install of 8.04 and installed vbox with usb from scratch.