DVD: Hardware or Software decoding?

[danielshoes]

Folks, I was wondering if it's worth to buy a Creative Encore DXR-3 12X and go for hardware decoding. Once I saw a friend doing a software decoding with a (256Mb/Duron 750/TNT2 VANTA 16Mb and the result was below my expectations. Quite broken image and slow frame rates. I don't remember the software.

If I use, let's say... an Athlon 1000 + TNT2 ULTRA 32Mb (I already have a TNT2 ULTRA) and software decoding, is it possible to achieve an undistinguishable result than from hardware decoding? Who has experience with software DVD decoding?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

not this again...

Seriously, you will find partisans for both software and hardware. I'm not sure how good the TNT series are, though. As you know, PowerDVD will allow you to use the hardware acceleration on your card...

As far as I'm concerned, I use both software and hardware. I tried to copy the video stream from the decoder onto the HD (through a DVCam and FireWire, Macrovision off!) Perfect copy, not one single frame was lost.

So, if nothing else, a hardware decoder will allow you to do amazing things in terms of freeing system resources. A decoder and a TV-out videocard in the same machine will also be capable (using nice little proggies such as RegionSelector) to combine and output PAL, SECAM and other TV formats to a standard NTSC-only set.

Let's see what others will have to say as well.

 

[Workin']

I say you should try reading the Anandtech FAQ's, where this is covered in a rational manner!