Software DVD program question

[Broncho]

I was wanting yalls advice. I just built a new system and put a bare DVD drive in. The system I'm upgrading from is almost five years old, so I never paid attention to DVD on PC stuff until now. I was wondering which software DVD player yall would recommend. I've heard of WinDVD and PowerDVD but don't know anything about them, or any other program for that matter. So, what do yall think?


By the way, I'm running Win98SE, 256 MB ram and an XP 1800+ and the drive is a Pioneer 116 model.

 

[BCYL]

Both WinDVD and PowerDVD are good software DVD players... I personally prefer PowerDVD though, but u can't go wrong with either one...

 

[richleader]

I have both his suggestions, my experiences with them:

Windvd: Better skins for your interface, better quality visuals during low movement scenes, but when you're scaling to full screen, sometimes get scanlines during fast motion

Powerdvd: slightly better sound if you have dolby and fancy stuff, I don't, but I've heard. Less visual definition, but smoother pixture when scaled (like say, you're running full screen at 1280x960 resolution).

Both are good, get whatever's on sale. But having both, I tend to use Windvd.

 

[corkyg]

We all have our experiences. I used WinDVD until I got XP Pro. Then it gave me a hard time about an upgrade patch it was unable to install because it was too stupid to ask me where the program was when it couldn't find it. It simply aborted the upgrade and the nag screens would not go away.

So, I switched to the new version of PowerDVD and no more problems.

The one program I do not like is the one from ATI that comes with my Radeon. That is usually a lockup after a movie starts.

As for skins, etc., I pay no attention to that stuff. Only performance counts with me.

 

[Beatles]

I'm using Zoomplayer and the video filters from Cineplayer combined with the audio from WINDVD. The best of both worlds.

 

[richleader]

Some of the windvd skins are vertical. If you watch non-letterboxed dvds, like say, tv shows, it's helpful because you can have a large window with the player off to the side.

My windvd 2000 came with my Gainward card and isn't the latest version (I'm running XP Pro now). I'll try upgrading it and see if it changes any of the drawbacks.

Dvd genie is also useful:
http://www.inmatrix.com/genie/

 

[Danlz]

Read WinDVD's EULA - it gives them the ability to collect data on you and your equipment to the hilt!!! PowerDVD may have something very similar during setup when it monkeys with your IE browser. DirectDVD (shareware) has no such spyware-speak in their EULA. As always, read first!

 

[richleader]

Hey, collect my data all you want. I paid for my %@%@ Gainward Goldensample, might as well advertise it to the poor sap who has to read through that data.

 

[Broncho]

Thanks for the help guys. I figured yall might be able to give me some advice. Are there programs out there besides the ones I mentioned that are any good? Like I said in the first post, those were just the two I had heard about. Thanks again.