purchasing DVD, need help

[rondeemc]

I need to play DVD's from a computer but haven't a clue as what to get. Any suggestions?

 

[chuckieland]

get a toshiba dvdrom
if it is retail box, then it would contain dvd playing software
if not, just go download it.
or look for stuff in your computer that can do dvd decording
for me I use v3 plus windvd and toshiba 5x dvdrom.
and i heard my sb live value can decord dvd too, and they have included the software in liveware

 

[rondeemc]

I had noticed Onvia has a toshiba for $62 as a bare drive. I will go back and see what a kit will run. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[lilstevo]

toshiba dvd drives are great drives I must say. I have a 12x drive and use gf2 gts, sb live and powerdvd 3.0.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

I have a Samsung 12x DVD drive with PowerDVD 3.0 and have had excellent results with it.

 

[rondeemc]

Well I just finished pricing some kits and the cost difference seemed to be about $100 over the bare drive. Found PowerDVD at mwave for only $5 so I plan to do the Toshiba 12x and then get the PowerDVD.

 

[Zapple]

Thinking about a DVD as well. I have heard very good things about the Pioneer 115 DVD? any comments? What about Creative LAbs Ovation?

ZAPPLE

 

[rondeemc]

mwave had the creative 12x with a decoder card for $95 but the driver's for 2000 were only a beta per the manufacturer's site so I just skipped past that one.

 

[Zapple]

Thanks for the advice. What DVD works well with WIN 2K and can play SVCD?
ZAP

 

[Doug117]

rondeemc What Video Card do you have? This will make all the difference in DVD playback (unless you have a superspeedy CPU). If you have a slower processor and a vid card that has no DVD decoding options (iDCT) you will have to invest in a seperate DVD decoder such as Creative Labs Dxr3. I used one of these myself and it worked beautifully in 2000 (even with the beta drivers). I'm surprised though, that Creative has not released a final version of those drivers.

 

[Zapple]

Doug,
Thanks for the reply, here is my rig;

KT7A RAID
1 Ghz T Bird
Win 2K
512 CAS 2 RAM
Enermax 431W PSU

IDE1: Kenwood 72X CD Master
Zip 250 MB Slave
IDE2: Plextor 16/10/40
IDE3: (2) IBM DTLA 45 GB in Raid 0 ( Master and slave)
IDE 4: empty
AGP: G 450 32 MB Dual Head
PCI 1:empty
PCI 2: Hercules XP
PCI 3: WIN TV PVR
PCI 4: empty
PCI 5: empty
PCI 6: Linksys 10/100 NIC

I would love to hear your recommendations for a DVD

 

[rondeemc]

Doug117
I will be using a 1ghz 266fsb AMD for the CPU. I have not purchased the card yet because I was waiting for Hercules to release their new MX card for PCI which came out today. The system needs two video cards because of a software program they are using that does not function with the dual heads. Unfortunately the Hercules does not include a decoder. I was also thinking about Innovision MX card which does come with the following:
InterVideo's first product is a softwre DVD decoder/player which capitalizes on the growing demand for DVD playback on the PC. WinDVD's excellent video quality and complete DVD feature set. InterVideo's software DVD decoder/player includes integrated MPEG1 and MPEG2file playback, a powerful VCD 2.0 player, MP# audio file and SVCD playback.
but have some concerns about their quality based on a review that had trouble with installation. The other option was a Radeon but again the performance in one of Anand's review with 2000 was pretty disappointing.

Any suggestions for a video card that has both a PCI and AGP version?

 

[AncientPC]

Toshiba 12x DVD rom's are great, a lot of people (incluiding myself) like them. Some people don't like them as much as Pioneers, but Pioneers are louder.