leadtek geforce and DVD drive

[Verruckt]

I am looking into buying a DVD drive and I want to spend as little as possible...but I still want a good setup (as anyone would...).

I have a Leadtek GeForce DDR rev.A, which does have hardware DVD decoding...but I do not know how much. Leadtek's website says the card has these forms of "video acceleration":

-DVD and HDTV-ready motion compensation for MPEG-2 decoding
-DVD sub-picture alpha blended composting
-Hardware YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 color space conversion support
-Multi-tap X and Y filtering
-8:1 up and down scaling on video overlay
-Industry's first 5-tap horizontal by 3-tap vertical video filtering
-Supports planar YUV12 (4:2:0) to /from packed (4:2:2) conversion for software MPEG acceleration
-Video acceleration for DirectShow?, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1

Can I use this video card as a hardware DVD decoder. Or would I benefit from buying a decoder card too. Is there an advantage to using a decoder card over using my videocard?

Also, my videocard came with WinFastDVD packaged - is this a good DVD playback package?

I am running all of this using the 6.18 detonators under win2k. Will DVD playback work under win2k? Does WinFastDVD work under win2k (sorry...this is a software question).

Finally...looking at it from a price to performance thing, which is better:

Creative Labs 12xDVD/40xCD with Dxr3 decoder card and bundled software for $200

Pioneer 16x slot loading DVD drive ~$135
My video card for DVD decoding $free
Bundled WinFastDVD software $free

Leadtek Geforce DDR revA
Creative Labs 12xDVD w/ Dxr3 decoder

thanks...

 

[Auric]

The Geforce has motion compensation which reduces CPU load. The rest of the mumbo jumbo is not really important. With a peppy enough CPU (400MHz-ish) it will do the job. The Geforce quality is not near the level of ATI and is less than S3 but it just depends on what you want. You already have the Geforce and it is easiest and cheapest to keep it so unless you would consider replacing it with a Radeon stick with it...

It does not make sense to buy a $200 CL kit since you can get a standalone player for that much. Plus, it is just plain overpriced. The Hollywood Plus decoder card alone can be had for less than $40. The card has the advantage of good video out (interlaced only) but is only for DVD and not other movie formats, or games and such. The on monitor quality is poor and the playback software is only okay. You can get a cheap remote for it but you can also get an infrared receiver and software that allows you to control any app on your PC from a standard remote instead. Pioneer slots are pretty much the best available. Fast drives are noisy though, and that is getting away from spending as little as possible. You can pick up a slower one for $40 or so -only 1x DVD is required for movies.

To make the decision EZ and answer all the questions about compatablity before you spend your scratch, download a VOB (DVD format) trailer that you can playback with the Geforce on TV and see how you like it (I'm assuming "WinFast DVD" is a branded version of WinDVD which is a good player, otherwise fetch WinDVD, PowerDVD, or Cinemaster to try).

Here's one place from my fav's ... try a google search otherwise:
http://www.angelfire.com/movies/dvdtrailers/

 

[AMB]

If you do have 400Mhz+, I would get the Pioneer 105S drive and just use software decoding

 

[Verruckt]

I have a p3 cumine (secc2) 650 @ 933 (144FSB) and 256MB RAM at 144MHz on a soyo sy-6vca via133a mobo.

There are only two places which I am looking to buy from. Only one of them carries Pioneer DVD drive - and they only carry the one I've already mentioned.

Auric - what do you mean by loud? How loud?

I think I'll prolly go with the pioneer then...I do not mind spending that much...and I do want a good drive...

Yeah, WinFastDVD is WinDVD... version 1.3.4 I believe...

I am having trouble getting VOB files from that site...know any others?

thanks for all the info...

 

[AMB]

Vobs files