Need accelerated H.264 playback - but without PowerDVD

[imported_BikeDude]

I have a LG driver that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. However, I experience some stuttering, because my old Opterons and 7800 GTX can't cope with the load.

However, I also have various issues with PowerDVD. Currently nearly all my optical drives are disconnected, because otherwise PowerDVD gets stuck. (it starts playing from the wrong drive, and everything almost grinds to a halt)

So, I need a beefier GPU. And I desperately want a different player.

Are there any decent alternatives to PowerDVD for playing blu-ray and hd-dvd titles? (that also utilize GPU acceleration)

PS: Cyberlink support suggested that I check my DVI cable (!) when I reported about my SCSI issues... They did not care that older versions of PowerDVD worked just fine with these drives... So, I tried to report this issue, but no go.

 

[nenforcer]

Well I haven't used it myself nor have I seen a review of it but Corel took over WinDVD and it looks like they have added Bluray and HDDVD support to WinDVD 9. Let me know how it is if you try it out.

 

[tommo123]

or use mpc-hc. that with anydvdhd anyway

 

[imported_BikeDude]

Without AnyDVD HD I would not get very far at all... My "old" 30" Apple Cinema monitor, for some "strange" reason, does not have a HDCP implementation. Nor my old 7800 GTX graphics card. One of these components I will likely replace soon, but it ain't going to be the monitor... So I love AnyDVD and I am impressed with how often I get an "update now" e-mail. I thought it was a bit pricey at first, but it turned into a very nice investment.

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/ looks interesting. I will give it a whirl later today.

I am a bit shy about paying $100 for a player. PowerDVD came bundled with my drive, and from what I can tell from the forums, the newer version has not been improved much (in some areas it is even worse according to some).