Do DVD Drives need a decoder card??!?!?!

[x86]

I have been wondering if DVD drives require a decoder card, or can you just use a DVD program like Xing Player.

Thanks for the imput

-x86

 

[sathyan]

No they do not. The decoder card was introduced when PC's were still underpower (as low as P-133) to play DVD movies. If you have at least a Celeron/K62 450MHz its not necessary. Now DVD decoder card do have nice features like s-video and coaxial digital audio out that not all sound/video boards offer. Of the decoder cards the Hollywood Plus is my top pick.
You could go the software decoder route with a fast enough system. PowerDVD and WinDVD are popular choices. ATI bundles a player with its boards that takes advantage of hardware-assist. I can't comment on the Xing player. Here' what I use for DVD:

Display on TV/send to VCR - Hollywood +
Display on monitor - PowerDVD 4 XP (used to use ATI but it doesn't work with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and has less options)

 

[MWink]

You don't need one but I remember my old DXR3 looking a lot better than any software decoder. Also, the DXR2 looked a lot WORSE than any software decoder.

 

[Mavrick007]

I have a Hollywood Plus card hooked up to my tv and it has digital coax out so I can get awesome sound to my receiver. I also have a remote control for use with it as well. This makes it so much easier to output video or mpegs to the tv. I can be in bed and control the dvd from there.

Like they said, you don't need a hardware decoder card(alot of video cards have hardware decoding anyway now) unless your machine is one of the slower variety since the cpu will take up most of the slack in fast systems.

 

[HouRman]

Well if you like making dvd windows small and multi tasking it might be a good idea to get a dvd card. The movie might not skip then.