DVD Question

[Johnnie]

My System:
K7 500@700 w/GFD
SD-11
384M Ram
10.2 DiamondMax 7200
20G 7200 WD Caviar 7200
Voodoo 3000 w/TV out
Soundblaster Live!
52X CD-ROM
Creative CDRW 8X4X32
ActionTec Call Waiting(soon to have DSL)

I want to get a DVD player... what will I need to run it.. ?? I have seen posts about a decoder?? Help me out

 

[Workin']

You will need the DVD drive and a software DVD player like WinDVD or PowerDVD. If your drive doesn't come with a player maybe your video card did or else you can buy, borrow, or steal either one I mentioned.

Whatever you do don't waste your money on a decoder card. There is no reason why you would need one. Your system has plenty of power to decode DVDs in software.

 

[Henry Kuo]

right, there is NO need for you to get a decoder card. your system is good enough to play DVD directly using software decoding.

just get a DVD drive. I heard Plextor is pretty good and QUIET!!

 

[Yza]

Why not get a decorder card?
Buy.com has there free shipping deal right now.
They have the toshiba 12x $110, (excellent dvd drive if you plan on copying cds)
its $150 with the hollywood + decoder card. -$30 coupon it comes out the $120 shipped, Thats +$10 more for a card that can output video to your TV, and DTS OUT. (with the latest drivers). You can also output dvds on tv while using your computer no problem.
For $10+ its tempting, In all the reviews I heard the quality is better too! (over software decoding)
Downside is it takes up another PCI slot.
If you dont want output to your tv or output sound, (dts)
then dont tye up the extra PCI slot. But for the extra $10 IMHO its worth.

 

[jimmybobob35]

I have a system close to what you have and when I bought a hollywood plus dvd decoder card the pass thru svga cable seemed to make my text very fuzzy on my 21" monitor. using software decoding is a better trade-off than having very fuzzy text all the time in my opinion. I dont think this is the case for everyone, it is possible i did not have the card working correctly but sigma website says this fuzziness is normal??? I would try a software decoder first and maybe get a decoder card seperately if you feel it is necessary. Just make sure you can return it!

 

[Comp10]

<< Why not get a decorder card? >>



Simple, due mainly to the pass-through cable on a hardware decoder a software decoder will always give you better picture quality. And as for the DTS sound, the Dolby Digital which can be directed through you soundcards SPDIF using a software decoder sounds just about as good.

 

[Technonut]

I have a Hollywood+ with a pass-thru cable in my system, and have no problems with fuzzy text, or picture quality in games or anything else.

EDIT: I have a 20&quot; Trinitron monitor.

 

[Workin']

The simple fact is that you don't need a decoder card. Whay add the hassle and potential conflicts for something that you will get absoultely no benefit from?

You already have a video card that has DVD motion compensation on-board.

You already have TV-out.

If your SB Live! has a digital output, you have all you need to output a Dolby Digital signal if you need it.

If you run at a screen resoulution greater than 1024x768, chances are good the decoder's pass-through will degrade you image. At higher resolutions, it will degrade your image.

So why bother? Well, I suppose if you can get the decoder card for $10 like someone here suggested, you could sell it for $40 to someone who needs it.

 

[Yza]

Yeah.. well anyways I heard reports of the fuzzy text @ high res. I probally belive thats true, most cards with pass-thru cables seem to suffer from the same problem.
!!!sorry didnt see the TV out, thought only the 3500 came with tv-out. Well theres no good reason to get the card notless you wanna sell it to someone else!
sorry bout the post earlier.

 

[Zucchini]

I've had a decoder card, albiet a rather lousy one, the creative dxr 2. It was the worst picture quality i've ever seen. The image was kind of fuzzy, tv like i guess. The only reason to get a decoder card is to output a tv signal. I also don't know why decoder card manufacturers insist on using external passthroughs. My tv card doesn't use a passthrough and its image quality is just fine. Passthrough cables DO degrade image quality, ofcourse you might not notice if you have a 15&quot; monitor, but then again you probably shouldn't be watching dvd's on a 15&quot; monitor.

Software dvd decoding is superior if you have the right equipment.. watching dvd's at resolutions of 1024x768 and above is a great experience. Personally i have a 19&quot; Sony g400, Geforce ddr, and play dvds at my native res of 1600x1200. Use only WinDvd 2000 2.1 or PowerDvd 2.55, there are differences in quality between players, and some older players were bad.

 

[IamDavid]

I've been using my Creative DxR3 board for about 6 months now and love it. I used to just use Power DVD software thinkin with my K7-700 256mb system it was fine. Then I installed the card and noticed everything runs much smother and I can still run another application in the background w\o any decrease in performance....I say go hardware

 

[TegSkywalker]

If you got a fast PC, you don't need a hardware decoder card. If your processor is above 400 mhz, you should only be fine with just a DVD drive.

From my best experience, the Software Cinemaster software encoder works wonders for me. You can grab it at DVD Utils.

 

[Zucchini]

Iamdavid,

Software dvd playback depends on not just your cpu/ram, but your video card also. If your video card can't handle overlay at the resolution you play video at, it won't be as good Also, there should be no way that your system was suffering from dropped frames or bad decoding. Were you using windvd 2k 2.1 or some old junk?

A p2 350 can play dvd's just fine. A p2 333 can play dvd's just fine if your video card has some acceleration.

 

[Zucchini]

I forgot to add, make sure your dvd drive is running in dma mode As for multitasking, a athlon should be able to multitask (powerdvd 2.55 does that better then windvd) pretty darn well.. then again, why would you be multitasking during a movie? I'm not talking about downloading or other small appz, those are fine.

 

[Grizzy7]

I've built 2 system: 1st, a P3-366 MHZ with a Voodoo 3500 paired with a Hollywood Magic decoder($60) &amp; a Pioneer 10X DVD ($115), and a 2cd system, a P3-730 MHZ with a Voodoo 3500 without a decoder card and also using a Pioneer 10X DVD. By far, the 366MHZ is smoother and without any dropped frames. The P3-730 MHZ is using Power DVD for the software drops frames (The Green Mile)and is not always smooth, especially when the action and sound gets frantic. Also, in &quot;The River Wild&quot; in some of the raft scenes in the rapids the music breaks up badly on the software only system, even though it's running at 730 MHZ. It does not break up with the Hollywood Magic decoder, which also has great onscreen controls for color, contrast, and brightness. Air Force One &amp; Breaker Morant play great on either system ... so I think some movies stress your system more than others.

Griz

 

[Zucchini]

Not really, i've watched more then 200 movies on my system and that doesn't happen at all. What version of powerdvd are you using? 2.55? Older versions really sucked bad u know. Thats why i keep stating that only powerdvd 2.55 or windvd 2000 2.1 are good. For decode comparison i also have a sony 530d player. Maybe the voodoo 3500 really isn't very good. Remember if the card doesn't support overlay at the specified resolution, your playback will suck.

I guess its Geforce or Ati for good playback, 3dfx = suck!

 

[AMB]

You only need Power DVD 2.55, for the DVD Player, get a Pioneer 105S. For DD 5.1, if you have this type of speakers, Power DVD will output DD5.1 through the Live Digital Out

Power DVD 2.55