I tried the altbinarieshdtv site - very helpful ... thanks!

The matter of codecs appears to be a mysterious art. I have been using the NVIDIA codec for DVD playback.

Is there a way to check which codecs are floating around the system?

Sounds as though it is not solely a matter of CPU speed, but CPU speed plus a combination of other factors. If I start with a reasonable CPU, then perhaps I could work on the other elements.

I'm currently using a stock 1 GHz Dell with a Panasonic AE700 projector for home theater. Love the combination except: (1) the Dell isn't quite fast enough to play Windows HD WMV files, and (2) it is a bit too noisy for home theater. Microsoft indicates that a "3.0 GHz processor or equivalent" is ne...