Creative Dxr3? DVD Decoder Card better?

[VFAA]

Creative Dxr3?

Is it any much better than my GeForce3 DVD hardware acceleration?

Thanks.

 

[mrbios]

Firstly, Geforce 3's don't do DVD hardware acceleration.

As for that card, its really a Sigma Designs Hollywood+ card with a different name. After looking at your rig, I'd say stick with what you got, unless you want the TV-out or something from that card. Or, you could get an ATI card and it'll do DVD acceleration for you.

Russell "Mr.Bios" Sampson

 

[GTaudiophile]

I compared the DVD picture and sound quality of two computers side-by-side, one using a Creative Dxr3 and the other using an older ATi Radeon 32DDR with WinDVD 2000. The Radeon solution was clearly superior in both areas. Save a PCI slot and get the latest version of either PowerDVD or WinDVD (they also support DTS while the Dxr3 does not).

 

[VFAA]

Ok, how about this card Sigma Designs REALmagic Xcard??

I really want the best DVD playback. I also want to watch some DVDs on my TV.

 

[GTaudiophile]

A Radeon-based videocard combined with the latest version of WinDVD or PowerDVD will do most of what that Xcard can do at a lower cost most likely. The Radeons also have decent TV-out, so I've heard. If you can't decide, test both solutions and return the worse of the two cards.

 

[VFAA]

I have the latest PowerDVD. I was also under impression that my GeForce3 vid card had DVD Hardware Acceleration.

 

[Insane3D]

The decoder cards like the Hollywood Plus, DXr3, and the new card do one thing better than any video card can....TV output. I have a H+ card in my main system solely for use to output to the TV. I would suggest getting one for TV output, but any DVD watching on your PC would be better with Power DVD and a Radeon based card.


Also, you can just use the latest H+ drivers for the DXr3, and they do support DTS....

 

[rbV5]

The decoder cards like the Hollywood Plus, DXr3, and the new card do one thing better than any video card can....TV output.

With ATI's new component video-out(8.xxx cards), that may no longer be true. IMHO, your GF3 will do a fine job with DVD's on your PC since you already have it, just pick up a decent/cheap standalone for your TV set.

 

[Insane3D]

With ATI's new component video-out(8.xxx cards), that may no longer be true.

True, I didn't think of that. I know for a fact though that the S-Vido output from my AIW 7500 or my 128mb 8500 is ok, but no where near the quality of the H+.

 

[iluvdeal]

Originally posted by: rbV5

The decoder cards like the Hollywood Plus, DXr3, and the new card do one thing better than any video card can....TV output.

With ATI's new component video-out(8.xxx cards), that may no longer be true. IMHO, your GF3 will do a fine job with DVD's on your PC since you already have it, just pick up a decent/cheap standalone for your TV set.

I don't think the type of output matters as I've seen other video cards which have the same output as the DXR3(Hollywood+), S-Video, and none of them look as good. The tv output chipset used is of more importance. Hopefully someone will finally match or surpass the H+/DXR3 tv out.

 

[VFAA]

So how about this new Sigma Designs REALmagic Xcard?? Any scoop on that? Is it better than the older H+?

 

[rbV5]

I don't think the type of output matters

Of course it matters. Quoted from Anand's 6-18-2002 review on the ATI Y/Pb/Pr Dongle

the picture quality was quite impressive with 480p output enabled. We were looking at the best PC output we had ever seen on a TV. Since the adapters do nothing more than just reprogram the RAMDACs, the output quality is governed by the Radeon RAMDACs and not an external transcoder.

Anand has reviewed the H+ card as well, so "the best PC output we had ever seen on a TV" carries some considerable weight, especially considering the dongle was freshly released. The RAMDAC quality of the ATI cards is very good, and the fact that the signal needs no transcoding surely makes it the cream of the crop.

 

[Antoneo]

I have the Creative Dxr3 decoder card and I have compared it to my set top box Sony DVD player (NP700). There are some anti-aliasing problems with the Dxr that are visible in scenes with many lines. I have spotted this problem in movies such as Gladiator where the camera does a flyby of the Coloseum. It is not annoying but it does catch your eye after you watch the same dvd more than once. Color is actually quite decent on the Dxr. Another problem I have gotten with the Dxr is the captions... half of the text would be in green, and the other half in white.. wierd. Oh and these obsverations were made using the TV-out. Well, one thing is for sure Creative's drivers suck, they update once a year and win2k support sucks. Not too sure about XP drivers but I would think those would suck too. People have recommended using the drivers for the hollywood card but I haven't tried that yet.

 

[Insane3D]

Well, one thing is for sure Creative's drivers suck, they update once a year and win2k support sucks. Not too sure about XP drivers but I would think those would suck too. People have recommended using the drivers for the hollywood card but I haven't tried that yet.

I've got two DXr3 cards here that both work like a charm with the latest Sigma Designs drivers...in Win2K and WinXP.

 

[Antoneo]

Insane3D: Hmm... Looks like I will have to try those drivers out .

 

[VFAA]

Originally posted by: VFAA
Ok, how about this card Sigma Designs REALmagic Xcard??

How about this one gang?

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: rbV5

I don't think the type of output matters

Of course it matters. Quoted from Anand's 6-18-2002 review on the ATI Y/Pb/Pr Dongle

the picture quality was quite impressive with 480p output enabled. We were looking at the best PC output we had ever seen on a TV. Since the adapters do nothing more than just reprogram the RAMDACs, the output quality is governed by the Radeon RAMDACs and not an external transcoder.

Anand has reviewed the H+ card as well, so "the best PC output we had ever seen on a TV" carries some considerable weight, especially considering the dongle was freshly released. The RAMDAC quality of the ATI cards is very good, and the fact that the signal needs no transcoding surely makes it the cream of the crop.

It matters only if it's another option on the same card. If the output looks like junk, giving it a better connection isn't going to magically fix the output. As far as Anand goes, don't ever trust his opinion on visual quality as it has always been suspect. He has praised the quality of multiple products that in no way deserved it. The H+ does not do TV-out in the sense that Anand is disussing there, as it is not capable of outputting anything your video card displays.

The current method video cards do TV-out will never look as good as the H+. The H+ is basically a set top DVD player in a PCI format that reads the DVD and dumps the picture straight out to the TV. With video cards, the DVD is read, then has to be reformatted to display properly on your monitor which almost always means resizing the picture as no one runs 720x480 on a computer. Then the TV-out chip has to convert the picture from a progressive monitor output to an interlaced TV output which always messes with the colors and causes bluriness. 2 unwanted conversions is never better than none.

 

[Antoneo]

VFAA: The Xcard looks good... can't imagine it doing worse than the Dxr3/H+ and it also does hardware DivX decoding which is nice. Here's a review I found a while back at Tom's. If the price is right for you, go for it is my advice.

 

[VFAA]

Ok, thanks .

Here's another question though .
Do I have to plug my monitor to the back of H+/Xcard and run a pass thru cable to my video card if I only want to use the card for TV/Out? All I need it for is to plug it back to the back of my TV, since I can't find a 'special S-VIDEO' TV/Out cable anywhere for my G3 card.

 

[Antoneo]

VFAA: Well if you want to watch the dvd on your monitor, then you will have to connect your monitor to the H+/Xcard and then a pass through to youy video card like you said. I have tried this and noticed a drop in 2d video quality, enough so that I was irritated and had to stop using the pass through.

I do not know if this is the same on the H+/Xcard but I would imagine there would be a similar drop in 2d quality. You might now find it annoying as I did so try it out if you chose to buy it. If you want to just get the output on the TV, the S-video out on the H+/Xcard is the one (no need to do the pass through). Hoped this helped.

 

[TNTrulez]

Why you want this?

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: TNTrulez
Why you want this?

Well, he wants to watch DVDs on his TV and he doesn't have TV-out (s-video port) on his GF3 and the decoder card does...

 

[iluvdeal]

Originally posted by: MistaEng

Originally posted by: TNTrulez
Why you want this?

Well, he wants to watch DVDs on his TV and he doesn't have TV-out (s-video port) on his GF3 and the decoder card does...

Get a cheap ($60) standalone dvd player if you just want to watch on TV. It's a much better solution.

 

[Auric]

I don't "get" the Sigma cards. As said, a stand-alone DVD player is better for the same price as an Xcard. Neither will handle the multitude of MPEG-4 and other codec and transport variants so I find a Radeon TVO is really ideal.

 

[VFAA]

Originally posted by: MistaEng

Originally posted by: TNTrulez
Why you want this?

Well, he wants to watch DVDs on his TV and he doesn't have TV-out (s-video port) on his GF3 and the decoder card does...

I do have a S-VIDEO TV/Out on my G3 card but the connector is a 'round 9-pin' and I can't find a damn cable anywhere that converts that 9-pin to 4-pin standard S-VIDEO.