Dumb DVD Question

[thejammy]

I am looking at purchasing the Sigma Designs REALMagic Hollywood Plus MPEG DVD decoder Card, because I heard this a very good video decorder card to have.

But I play alot of video games and currently have a LEADTEK WINFAST GEFORCE2 MX SH 64MB. Will this interfere or be able to play dvd video?

Thanks I know this a dumb question please don't flame me.

 

[happie23]

It isn't a stupid question. Perfectly valid.


It shouldn't give you any problems with your vid card.

I personally don't have a hollywood card, but when I was researching about it, I came upon lots of reviews.

From the reviews, they say that the card DOES degrade image quality, so be warned.

Happie

 

[mellondust]

I have the same question. Is the decoder card going to be better than dvd playback from a video card, or does it depend on the video card. I was mostly wondering about a decoder card compared to playback from a geforce 3 or 4 since that is what I am planning on upgrading to.

Happy23, are you talking about degrading dvd image quality or video card image quality?

 

[Operandi]

Hardware DVD decoder cards are an obsolete piece of technology in relation to today?s CPU and video cards. Any 400 MHz CPU or faster is going to have enough power to decode DVDs. The video card can have hardware features that help improve image quality and also unload the CPU such as ATi?s cards. And yes the cards can/do degrade image quality since analog video signal from the video card is run through the decoder. I?m not sure what happens to the video signal once it enters the decoder but it?s a general rule that the more components you run an analog signal through the more degraded it gets.

 

[Rand]

<<
Happy23, are you talking about degrading dvd image quality or video card image quality? >>



It'll degrade DVD image quality slightly. It's a trade off, you get slightly less image quality by using the HollyWood card, but the HollyWood card can off-load virtually all rendering duties from the processor, somewhat more then even ATi's graphics cards with have the best hardware DVD playback.

If your running other applications at the same time as your running a DVD then it may be worth it, but otherwise it's not worth it.

 

[Huma]

Sigma's got a new mpeg 1,2, and 4 decoder card coming out soon with spdif passthrough too. Also claims to have hardware support for divx 4.12

Should be around $100.

 

[thejammy]

So basically everyone is saying that any video card can do dvd playback.

Are there any suggestions for a video card? That are under $150?

Or should I just get the software?

 

[rbV5]

You could get a OEM Radeon 7500 for under $100, 64 MB DDR, dual head, excellent gaming and great DVD with tv-out and an excellent DVD software included. Hard to beat that.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I think I had a leadtek MX before and there was a dvd player application on the cd. If I remember correctly it was Winfast DVD. So as long as you have above a 400mhz processor I would think that you should be fine.

Good luck with it.

Will

 

[AA0]

Not all videocards can DVD decode, only some can. All ATI cards do, but nvidia cards don't (except GF4MX), you're cpu will do the playback, its a software DVD decoder, not hardware. The hollywood and ATI decoders are much better looking compared to any software decoder I've seen.

 

[Workin']

AAO's not totally correct. All nvidia GF2 and GF3 cards (including MX's) have partial hardware support for DVD playback - they perform motion compensation in hardware, which is ~20% of the processing load. Practically any recent PC (i.e., CPU faster than 500MHz) can easily play DVD's using software decoding.

Using PowerDVD 4 with my GF3 looks just as good on the monitor as my ATI Radeon does.

Bottom line, you don't need to buy a decoder card.

 

[AA0]

I know they have partial support, at least its better than 3dfx was...

 

[thejammy]

I think you were right about the winfast. I just downloaded Powerdvd 4.0. SO i shall see. Thanks everyone

 

[artemedes]

Well I can understand why some people would think that the H+ is outdated, especially if you are wanting to watch DVDs on a computer monitor. The Pass through cable on the H+ does degrade quality a little bit.

However, if you are wanting to use a computer to send a tv-out signal and AC-3 audio out to a reciever it does a wonderful job.

I have one in a computer hooked to my tv and home theater reciever. I just happened to have a bunch of old computer parts and bought a used H+ (Thanks Byte). Not only did it save me from purchasing a more expensive dvd player, I can also use the computer to send mp3 audio to my reciever and I think most of us would agree that winamp is easier to use than most stand alone dvd players that support mp3s.

Anyway, my point is, I use mine to replace a stand alone dvd player in a home theater setting and it does a superb job for that. I would not use it to watch DVDs on my comptuer monitor. I have a seperate computer with a radeon for that.

 

[rbV5]

<< However, if you are wanting to use a computer to send a tv-out signal and AC-3 audio out to a reciever it does a wonderful job( the H+) >>



Yea, thats completely true, but he has a XP1700 and a GF2 MX, in other words a powerful processor and a gaming card with perhaps not the greatest 2D already, the pass through cable does degrade the 2D enough to certainly notice and connecting/disconnecting the cable can be a hassle. His setup should play DVD's quite nicely actually.