MDA Vario V's M500

[Guest matcrads]

Myself and a friend recently invested in a MDA Vario and a M500 respectively and although I was led to believe that the Vario was the superior model it would seem that the M500 performs better with video capture and playback among many other things.

Is this down to the Vario running the 2005 O/S? I had a similar problem when I upgraded my XDA2 O/S to PPC 2005!

If this is the case, is it possible to install PPC 2003 on the Vario and still have the keyboard functionality etc?

[Guest matcrads]

So i take it that out of the 180 people that have read this post no one has noticed how crap the camera is on the MDA vario?

(i still think its the best PPC i've owned!)

[Guest Pondrew]

Hey there, I can only give you my THEORY on why the M500 might do video capture and playback better. The processor. I believe the TI OMAP 850 at 195MHz in the Vario isn't able to perform in this area as well as the Intel 416MHz in the M500. I suspect it's the same reason why the MDA Compact II struggles to record decent video as well as it uses the same processor as the Vario.

EDIT: oh, and no I don't think it's possible to downgrade your Vario to WM2003SE, even if it was I doubt it would help and I think you'd be MAD to want to downgrade!

[Guest matcrads]

My personal opinion is that it's PPC2005 that is causing the issues with the camera as the video capture, as my XDA2 was fine running PPC2003 until I upgraded to PPC2005!

I’m gonna try the rom upgrade for the vario and see if that improves anything?

[Guest peterweg]

My personal opinion is that it's PPC2005 that is causing the issues with the camera as the video capture, as my XDA2 was fine running PPC2003 until I upgraded to PPC2005!

I’m gonna try the rom upgrade for the vario and see if that improves anything?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I beleive the problems stem from MS's move to pesistant storage. Its much much slower than ram and probably the root of all the WM2005 issues.

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archiv.../29/498154.aspx

[Guest Pondrew]

Hmmm. Well, maybe persistant storage is the reason for the slowdown but I doubt it. Is flash rom really slower then ram? Cause I did'n't think so. But if it is something to do with WM5 code then it should improve with future updates.

Don't you think the slowing of the Pocket PC OS might be down to the halving of processor speeds in the new Pocket PC Phones like the Wizard compared to previous Pocket PC Phones?

[Guest matcrads]

I was lead to understand that the new processors were akin to the old AMD vs. Intel thing, with the newer "slower" processors out performing the older "faster" ones?

Anyway, I’ve flashed my ROM with the new T-mobile update and it seems to run a bit smoother and there is another update rumored to be released in March, so we’ll see what that brings.

Although I’m considering de-T-Mobile-ing (not the Queens English, I know!) my Vario and installing the K-jam ROM to see if that’s any better.

Anyone know where I can find it?