DVD DECODER CARD QUESTION

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

I have a video card with TV out right now, I was thinking of selling it , getting a GeForce and a decoder card with TV out. My question, will a decoder card(with TV out) let you pipe other things through it besides DVD. Want to understand how it works.

 

[MGMorden]

Many of them will let you run VCD's and MPEG 1/2 video files through them, but that's about it. You'd probably be better off getting a Radeon All-In-Wonder for your requirements. It's got a lot of hardware DVD acceleration built-in and the Tv-out is quite nice. You also get a tv-tuner with it so that really helps.

 

[Noriaki]

I have a hollywood plus. You can't put a general signal out through it no.

Any file format that DVD station will play can be output, but not general graphics. Since you are using a passthrough cable anyways I really don't think it would be that hard for them to do it...but hey what do I know? Anyways DVD station will play Avi's, Mpegs, VCDs, DVDs...that's about it.

Just a note on TV-out, the Hollywood plus has excellent TV-out quality much better than the brooktree chip (featured on my roommates V3-3000 and most (but not all) nVidia based boards with TV-out). The ATi Rage Theatre chip (Radeon Vivo, AIW) is an excellent TV-out chip though, nearly as good as the H+, and the Radeon has hardware DVD assist. Less than 10% CPU usage playing DVDs on my older 550 Athlon...

I think you should consider a Radeon as well (either the AIW or the Vivo) excellent 2D and 3D quality, very fast 3D and excellent DVD features. I'd ditch my Voodoo3+Hollywood Plus for a Radeon Vivo in a second, but I'm a little broke ATM...

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

Both very good replies, a little over my current buget though. I think i'll just stay with my setup until prices go down.

 

[Noriaki]

Yeah...that's why I'm still at my V3 + Hardware Decoder :frown:

 

[Pluto]

I have an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 card in my DVD machine, but I still use the Hollywood Plus card for DVD playback, simply because I always watch DVDs on the TV and sometimes the computer with the DVD drive is being used while I want to watch DVDs. If you are using the AIW TV out to watch DVD you can't use the computer.

The only other solution would be to get a Dual Head card like Matrox G450 or Radeon VE, although I'm not too familiar with either of these products.

BTW, I don't have the VGA loopback cable of the H+ card hooked up because I am only using S-Video output. I find that with the VGA loopback cable hooked up the quality of my display while working in windows is degraded.