WTF? Software DVD Decoders are NOT free???

[CuriousAndy]

I just bought a nice Toshiba 12x DVDrom for $56 shipped.. it's bare drive.. nothing else..

I don't know too much about DVDroms.. I know I don't need a hardware decoder card because my comp is fast (750Mhz, Geforce2) and thought I'd just DL the software decoders from the net. (like powerdvd & windvd..)

But someone told me those are NOT FREE???? WTF?? is this for real?? Why is such simple SOFTWARE decoder have a price? How much do they go for? This is ridiculous

And all this time I thought they were free.. like winzip (it's shareware but fully functional.. u know what im saying)

~mOo

 

[Wingznut]

I know what you are saying!

I just went to the local CompUSA and picked up High Heat 2002, and that wasn't free either!!!

What's this world coming to?

 

[oxide]

I believe windows media player 7.1 plays DVD and it's free (I maybe wrong though)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp

 

[CuriousAndy]

how reliable is WMP @ playing DVDs?

and is there quality difference between such decoders?

how much do those WinDVD, PowerDVDs go for? any links???

should i just buy a hardware one? is it a PCI device?


*still can't get over the fact that software decoders are not free*

~mOo

 

[Jex]

Ha ha. LOL Wingnut.

 

[Mapidus]

WinDVD is from intervideo. You can get the 2 channel version for 29.95.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

<< Why is such simple SOFTWARE decoder have a price? >>

It's NOT a simple software.

 

[LukFilm]

Why should it be free?

 

[CuriousAndy]

PowerDVD = $49.99

WinDVD = $59.99


I laugh at these prices in shock.. the DVDROM was $56.. u want me to spend another $50 so I can play a DVD? u f#*$#n $hitting me???

 

[Noriaki]

If you have WinME or Win2000 you can use DVDplay.exe, it's a low quality player but it is free.

A software DVD decoder is not really that simple, and there are licensing fees associated with making them. There is no licensing fee to use Zip files.



<< u f#*$#n $hitting me??? >>

No we are not. DVD playing software is expensive. You should have bought a retail box that came with a software player.

Where did you get WinDVD at 59.99 from?
The 2 channel version is 29.99 and the MC version is 49.99.

Neither is $60.

 

[CuriousAndy]

I'm shocked because I got that Toshiba 12x DVDrom for $56 shipped from PCcentry.com

I was referred by hotdeal forums..

OK what kind of vendor sells DVDroms without OEM decoder CD??????



alskjflskjdflsjdl;fajfl;ksajdlfk;j

:|:|:|:|:|:|:|

 

[Wingznut]

That's like saying that I paid $2000 for a PC, and now they expect me to pay for Windows!?!?!

People put in effort and resources to design software. And you think they should give it away?
It's actually quite surprising that ANY shareware exists anymore.

 

[Brian07]

Players are very very easy to come by.......

 

[Noriaki]

<< OK what kind of vendor sells DVDroms without OEM decoder CD?????? >>

If you buy it bare drive obviously it comes bare drive.

Would they call it bare drive if it came with the decoder?

 

[CuriousAndy]

That's like saying that I paid $2000 for a PC, and now they expect me to pay for Windows!?!?!

u know.. windows Do come free..

I simply thought playing DVDs were as easy as playing video files.. like how Windows Media Player is free...


=( =(

my order hasn't shipped yet, ill call tomorrow and modify my order

I hope it's not too late..

thx anyways everyone.. except u Wingznut

~mOo

 

[Viper GTS]

I got a DVD player with my video card (MSI GF2 Pro), works fine for me.

Hadn't yet thought about what I'll do when I sell the GF2... Maybe a Matrox G450 comes with one?

Screw it, by then I'll just buy a real DVD player with component outputs for my 27&quot; Wega.



Viper GTS

 

[splice]

Move to Linux, then you can get a Free DVD player.

 

[Noriaki]

LOL you have a 27&quot; Wega and you're worried about whether or not you PC will play DVDs.

hehehe that's very amusing.


Yeah I sorta understand where you are coming from with that...and if you have WinME or Win2000 try DVDplay.exe

It's not the best but it's free.

 

[Wingznut]

&quot;thx anyways everyone..&quot;

You're welcome. I just do my best to help.


&quot;except u Wingznut&quot;

HEY! :|

 

[Mapidus]

<< If you have WinME or Win2000 you can use DVDplay.exe, it's a low quality player but it is free.
>>



how do you get DVDplay to work? I tried it on w2k and it just says that I need a decoder to play DVDs. I upgraded to WMP7.1 to see if it could play DVDs and it looks like it plays mpeg2, but not VOB files. WMP7 does play the VOB files fine through the WinDVD directshow filters when I have it installed, but I'm just looking for alternatives to the OEM WinDVD 2.3 I have that does not seem to support the motion compensation of the Geforce 2. Does powerDVD support GF2 motion compensation?

 

[Noriaki]

What speed is your CPU?

Typically using motion comp on nVidia hardware lowers picture quality...no offense to nVidia intended they make great video cards, but DVD playback is not one of their strong points.

Go pure software mode, unless you need the motion comp because your CPU is too slow.


Does DVDplay.exe not come with it's own CODECs installed? I didn't know that...I tried DVD play once, but i have a license to WinDVD2000...so it was probably using the WinDVD codecs without my noticing.

All the free DVD players I used had that no-CODEC problem...I didn't realize DVDplay did as well.

Though I'm not surprised...as I said before licensing the DVD CODECs costs money....that's why you don't see much in the way of Free DVD players.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Go buy the oem version of powerdvd from mwave for 5 bucks plus shipping.

 

[Mapidus]

I'm running an athlon 900. I was wondering about the quality thing also. I had a Savage3D on a much older system and the MC on it was great. Offered very high quality and low CPU usage. The quality scaling on the S3D helped also. Hardware Bob interlacing was also a cool feature of the savage. Do the GF2s have this? The WinDVD software bob does not look too good. Weave mode just looks awful for scrolling text. I guess this is not too much of a problem since I think most newer DVDs are progresive scan encoded. I guess if you want a good card for DVD these days it would a a Radeon, since S3 has not released anything in a while. At least Nvidia finally added somewhat decent hardware scaling into the GF2. The scaling on the TNT2 was just awful, probably just blew up all the pixels with no interpolation.

I guess I will stick with the WinDVD that came with the drive -- only two channel version though.

 

[Wah]

I think power dvd comes bundled with some hardware. I think my gf2 card came with it as well as with my herc gtxp. I think... I don't have a dvd drive...yet.

 

[koolhead]

FYI, I got a 10XDVD box at Fry's last month at price $39(after $20 rebate). There is a full version WinDVD inside of that box.