Hitachi 6X IDE DVD & Hollywood+ DVD Decoder Card $99

[db]

C Geeks

 

[tiejiba]

TTT

 

[Knocks]

are these any good?

 

[hkssupra69]

Hollywood+'s have TV out right? Also, any other way of getting this down into an even nicer price range?

 

[PG]

This is a good deal for the drive and decoder card together, but stand alone DVD players are getting so cheap it is hard to justify having DVD in your computer vs. having a stand alone player. It used to be that having DVD in your computer vs. a seperate player would save you money, but that isn't so much true anymore. The difference is pretty small.

Yes the H+ has TV out, but it is only DVD movie out. It will not put your desktop or games out. It will also not go through a VCR to your TV unless you find a software hack to disable macrovision protection. You need to hook it straight to your TV, so you better make sure your TV has video input connectors.

PG

 

[noxipoo]

movies liek matrix has computer only content. a good standalone still costs a lot more than dvd-rom.

 

[dc]

this drive is region free.

dc

 

[Interiot]

It looks like a very good card (see here for review and pictures) worth $60 by itself.

• converts PAL to NTSC and vice-versa
• displays non-interlaced full motion video at full-screen or in a resizable window (from 16 x 16 up to 1600 x 1200) in 24-bit colour, even when the VGA card is set at a lower colour depth.
• external connectors: orange Audio Out (3.5mm), S/P-DIF Out, S-Video Out, VGA Out, and VGA In (for passthru in order to overlay DVD picture).
• internal connectors: Line-out and Cd-in

TV Out is achieved via the S-Video connector with an S-Video/Composite converter cable that's supplied (see here for explanation).

Linux drivers

Region-free and macrovision hacks here.

A remote control was created by the same people who made the decoder card. (here)

Apparently the Creative DXR3 decoder card is almost exactly the same as the HW+ card.

Reviews:

• epinions
• epinions
• GamersDepot (says pass-thru cable is crap)
• review-zone
• AudioReview (some negative opinions)
• SysOpt (some problems with screen shifting)

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yeah, the Hollywood cards were always rated pretty high. The good thing is that it's compatible with a lot of video cards which is important... I went with a Creative Labs setup(buying the OEMs) and my card required that I had a certain AGP video card before it would even work... If you plan on getting a card, this one is good. As for the drive, I would buy it and maybe see if you could dump it on an unsuspecting friend. There are much better drives available for little money these days. I went with a brand last summer called Actima which is a Pioneer, but without the high price. Do some research and buy a 29" monitor like I did and you'll be ready for some nice DVDs....

 

[atom]

Well, I just received mine and they really fubared my order. First off the site lists the drive as GD-2500, but the drive I got was a IBM badged Hitachi GD-3000. Plus they didn't ship a Hollywood + card with it. I'll have to call them up tomorrow..................

 

[Dennis]

Hollywood + card is great! I bought a kit last year with a Toshiba DVD Drive (it's crappy). I also bought the remote control. I don't use the passthrough cable (audio or video), since I prefer not to watch a movie on my 17" monitor. The card's video output is stunning. I have it connected through my VCR to the TV and have had no problems with macrovision, only time I disable it is when I'm going to tape a DVD to VHS.

Personally, I feel that the remote control is a MUST have, MUCH more convenient that having to get up and use the stupid mouse (only downside is that the IR detector takes up a serial port).

Dennis