New Matrox G450 OEM. Where's my DVD decoder???

[bupkus]

New Matrox G450 OEM. Where's my DVD decoder???

My "Mark" machine in My Rigs has had my Matrox G450 dual head with 16MB of SDR for a few weeks. I just installed my new DVD drive but when I installed my new Gladiator DVD I was told there's no DVD decoder installed.
I think when I installed my nephew's Matrox G450 dual head with 16MB of DDR different and more "stuff" seemed to install from the installation CD.

This cd says 20076 LE CD Bulk on the front.?

Man...
Shouldn't the G450 come with a DVD software decoder?
I couldn't find a download on the Matrox site.

What to do... what to do.

I've got my nephew's new video card with accompanying CD here. It's a RADEON LE, the one from NewEgg for $78. Do you think that has something I can use? Seriously, what do I need and where can I get it?

 

[Tonec]

The radeon le has a hardware decoder. The red ati installation cd will have ati dvd player 7.x on it. The matrox card will need a software decoder like powerdvd or windvd.

 

[IaPuP]

uhhh.. the G450 isn't a DVD decoder.

The DVD software should be the DVD decoder.

The G450 can help with inverse cosine transforms and such, but won't do ALL the work. = -)

Eric

 

[bupkus]

WTF
I wish I could find a link to explain what I need, and what should have come with the hardware I bought.

Well, time to shut down. It's wait til tomorrow.

 

[TCool]

<< uhhh.. the G450 isn't a DVD decoder.

The DVD software should be the DVD decoder.

The G450 can help with inverse cosine transforms and such, but won't do ALL the work. = -)

Eric >>




No, he was asking about the fact that he had no software to use to play his DVD's with.

BupKus, you might want to check out the Matrox support forum also and ask there too.

http://forum.matrox.com/cgi-bin/mgaforum/Ultimate.cgi

 

[BCYL]

bupkus:

You need a software DVD player... something like PowerDVD or WinDVD... Your Matrox does not do hardware DVD decoding, that's why there's no software DVD player included on the CD...

 

[RC7]

I have a question which is similar to the topic. I have tried Power DVD with two cards, Viper II Z200 and the Radeon LE, both of which have hardware dvd playback. However, Power DVD greyed out the 'Enable Hardware Decoding' box with each card. I've tried reinstalling Power Dvd each time I changed cards as well. As for the ATI dvd player that came on the red driver cd, the picture quality is horrible, and the framerate is choppy as hell.

 

[RC7]

Sorry, I should note that I'm running win2k, and would my problems go away if I switched to WinME?

 

[00Milhouse00]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread.

Most advanced video cards provide hardware support for DVD playing. This includes cards like those based on Radeon, Geforce and others including the G400 and G450. Each chipset provides different types and levels of hardware support. The Matrox support is actually pretty good. The cards in and of themselves are not &quot;hardware decoders&quot;. That would be something like the Sigma Designs Hollywood or the Creative DXR3 cards.

Matrox does bundle a DVD viewing program with their G450 hardware. It's plainly listed on their site. Perhaps the OEM package only includes drivers.

Third party software players do provide support for the hardware features of the Matrox cards. Many DVD-ROM drives are packaged with software that works well. If however you want fancier features supported (like more than 2 speaker support) then you will have to pay for the more advanced version of the player.

Contact Matrox, they will probably ask for the serial number of your card. They may be willing to send you a copy of the player bundled with their hardware.

 

[Packet]

Grab WinDVD or PowerDVD, they are the best HW Decoders out there.
Your G450 should have DVD assist, but looking at your systems you wouldn't need it anyways.
In general, when using monitors software DVD decoding looks better anyways.

Readon has its own software dvd decoder, that I beleave is based on the cineamaster code, which is supposed to have the lowest system requirements for software dvds. It, like many other video cards has dvd assist, which helps take some load off the cpu.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

A DVD player shoulda came with the driver CD. I'm not sure, but I think Matrox included the DVD Player with their OEM G450's. But I'm absolutly positive Matrox includes their DVD software with their Retail G450's.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

I have this same card, OEM, and it did come with the DVD Player (and it does support DVD decoding onboard). It's a crappy player anyway though, the one that came with my DVD ROM is better. Matrox's is the Cineplayer, PowerDVD is much better.

 

[RC7]

I have a Radeon LE, and I'm running win2k. Does anyone know why I cannot select 'Use Hardware Acceleration' in power Dvd? Would switching to winME help?

 

[Schola]

<< Grab WinDVD or PowerDVD, they are the best HW Decoders out there >>



I think you meant Software decorders, not HW, because WinDVD and powerDVD are not Hardware Decorders.

schola

 

[bupkus]

Here is the post from Matrox Tech Support in response to my question.


<< Yes the G450 decodes DVDs using software, not hardware. Do you have a DVD decoder card in your computer?
Your package is the LE which does not come with the full software package, including the Matrox DVD player. This can be purchased from our online store.
When you have the DVD player software, you do not need to install PC Friendly. Some DVD movies when inserted, will ask you to install the software, simply by-pass this.

Can I ask, which operating system are you running, and if there is any service packs?

Did you have any previous video cards in your system, and if so, was it uninstalled properly?

We support DVD playback with a display resolution of 1024x768 16bit. Please verify these settings on your end.

------------------
Vicken
Matrox Graphics Inc.
Technical Support Representative (Multimedia Group) >>


Fortunately I now have PowerDVD and it works just fine. It plays, decodes, and looks very cool.
Thanks, S*.