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Can someone explain this DVD DECODER business to me?

A

Alphathree33

Platinum Member
OK So lets say I purchase a DVD Drive for my new system.

I hear it all the time "DVD Decoder" this and that. What, exactly, is a DVD-Decoder, and what does it do for me, and what if I don't have one, and does it usually come with a DVD Drive? (Wow that's a run on sentence,...)

Thanks for the info.
 
Some drives (more expensive ones) come with hardware decoder cards. However, if you have a fast system, you will be fine with software decoding like PowerDVD. You need either a software or hardware decoder to play DVD's.
 
Some software like PowerDVD can decord the DVD's video signal. Can it decord the AC3 signal too?

Can powerDVD play AC3 sound with sound blaster live 5.1 and dtt2500?


 
A decorder card is a PCI card that offloads the calculations of watching a DVD from your CPU to chips on the card. If you have a slow computer, you need it because your CPU can't handle it without help. If you have a fast one, you're probably ok, and most video cards can do it by themselves. ATI's cards have the best decoders around, in most people's opinions, but of course the cards have other issues...
 
Here's the basic breakdown.

There are two types of decoders, hardware and software.

Hardware decoders are exactly what they sound like... a piece of hardware.
The usual case, it comes in a PCI card format and it usually has a TV out, audio out and digital out options.
Like many have mentioned here, you probably will not need a hardware decoder card if you are running a 400+ mhz computer since one of the main reasons for a decoder card is to have the card be used as an accelerator instead of the cpu. Faster CPU does not benefit from this as it has no trouble decoding it. Probably the only benefit is that it has less CPU load when you use the hardware card.
Another major reason and personally this is my reason for using a hardware decoder card is because it has superior TV output when playing DVDs. Quality is very good using the TV out (atleast in my Hollywood Plus) as it's made to output DVD movie and sound only.
If you were to use your hardware decoder to play on your PC monitor, there is little or no difference in picture quality in comparison to a software decoder.

Software decoder is basically a third party software that uses it's own decoding but uses the CPU power... not much to explain there.

If you plan to view DVD movies on your PC monitor only and you have a 400+mhz CPU, dont bother getting a hardware decoder card... no benefit for you there. I believe tne newer version of PowerDVD (a software decoder) has dolby 5.1 output (could be wrong...) if needed and like I said, there is no picture quality difference if you are watching it on your PC monitor.

K, I've ranted enough, need sleep now.

Hope that helps.
 
I have the Hollywood Plus decoder card and i hooked it up to a tv and the picture quality was not good. It had lines in it. Can someone tell me what could be wrong?
 
Even if you have a powerful system..I still recommend to get Hollywood plus decoder which I have. 😉

It is awesome, especially hooking up to my 27" Sony TV.
 
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