Do DVD Drives require special add-in cards to view DVDs?

[Ludacris]

Hello! I am building a new system for someone and I ordered a CREATIVE LAB DVD-ROM 16X OEM for them. Does this drive require a special add-in card or should a typical NVidia video card suffice? I'm hoping that all I need to do is plug the drive in and it works right off the bat. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[MrCoyote]

You don't need a hardware decoder card, as long as you have a fast processor. But you still need some DVD player software.

 

[ojai00]

It should say on the box of the video card or in the product description if the video card supports DVD playback. Which card are you considering? As long as you have a video card that supports it and a software decoder, you should be fine.

 

[Ludacris]

Well I have a spare TNT2 Ultra and a Matrox G200 laying around, so hopefully those will work. If not, I'll look at the Geforce2 MX cards. Software decoder will be Microsoft Media Player 8.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Virtually any videocard will work w/ a software DVD player. Typically the CPU requirements are about 500MHz or so for smooth playback.

...just make sure it's DX3 compatible (most are) to take care of any overlay issues, you may have to turn down the resolution to make it work.

 

[Slogun]

Yea, you should have no probs.
I have software DVD decorder that came with my vid card. For curiosity's sake I tried to open a DVD with Media Player 8. It automatically downloaded the patch it needed and it worked fine for playing the DVD.

 

[Ludacris]

Thanks guys. This will be my first experiencing delving into DVD Players on the PC and you guys will make it a smooth experience. If everything goes well, I'll get me one of those slot feed DVD Players for my own PC later on down the road.

Happy Holidays!