Raite 8x DVD-ROM $49.95, Decoder Card $24

[Katana]

Computer Geeks has a Raite 8x DVD-ROM drive for only $49.95 and a decoder card for only $24. Shipping is very reasonable; $6 UPS Ground, $12 UPS 3 Day Select, $12 UPS Second Day Air. This is to N Illinois.

From their website;
"NOTE: This is a Video Inlay Decoder Card, & uses the 26-pin VGA Feature Connector (Video Port) to ''Inlay'' the high-resolution video data from the decoder card directly to your graphics card for display. NOT ALL GRAPHICS CARDS CARDS SUPPORT THIS TYPE OF CONNECTOR!"

If I had to choose, I would rather have this kind of decoder card because you won't have to change the monitor cable when you want to watch a movie. Yes, I know the regular decoder cards have pass through cables, but the picture quality is really bad when using it.

Link

 

[thegreatjeff]

Eight speed is yesterday's technology...come on, get with the times!

 

[Katana]

You don't need any faster than a 1x if you are only watching movies, the 8x is if you are using dvd-rom software, which there really isn't any. It is rated at 40x cd-rom, which is the same as the Pioneer 16x dvd-rom drive.

 

[DaSinical1]

Yesterday's technology? According to your system specs...4x generic cd-rom...now that's what I call yesterday's technology. Come to think of it, your whole setup seems to be worse than yesterday's technology (more like the day before). You shouldn't speak unless you can back it up.

Personally, I have this drive and it's pretty damn good. It works with cd-clone, blah blah blah. It's pretty damn good for $50. Fry's sells the same drive for $90 retail.

DaSinical1

 

[amitarora]

Thanks for the link, I just ordered this. Price looks good!

 

[koolio]

I wanna get 1 card but too bad....no win2000.....

 

[impulse]

looks like a nice drive

 

[LukFilm]

Does the decoder have TV-out?

 

[UberNeuman]

I have a Raite 8X - and let me tell ya, the door is slow to open when you hit the eject button...

It's about ten second pause before it finally opens... If that doesn't bother you, then this is a good deal...

 

[Katana]

<< Does the decoder have TV-out? >>



Yes, it has both composite and svideo out and also spdif out.

 

[Capstone20]

word out there is that DVD-ROms past 8x are not Region-free, that is, if you care about ur DVd-Rom being region free

 

[yellowperil]

I got the drive from Comp Geeks last month. DVD playback is fine (as good as any other DVD-ROM), DAE is fine (between 13-20x), noise level is fine (quieter than my last 50x). Drawbacks are a slow spinup time (takes >5 sec to recognize a CD after it's put in the drive, even longer with cheap CD-R's) and the transfer rate isn't top of the class. As far as speeds go, I think the difference between 8x and 16x is only going to be noticed in DVD software and forwarding/rewinding (16x has faster seeking). This drive comes region-unlocked, BTW. Just download DVD Genie and you should be set.

 

[freeman]

Frys has EPO DVD-rom 16x for $49 after $20 rebate. It's region free. It comes with PowerDVD software decoder.

I bought one two days ago, very quite.

 

[polotek147]

Price looks good, better to get something with a name than any old generic dvd drive. Go with the name you know, or know of.

 

[unhuman]

Make sure you update the firmware. Raite actually has firmware upgrades available. Dunno what they do, but they can't hurt, I'm sure.

-H

 

[Sept1967]

The REAL word is, that every drive made after Jan 2000
is region locked. So it really doesnt matter the speed now, just
manufacture date.

Just my 1/2 cent worth, if your DVD player is 2x -4x or more, and you have a video card that does great DVD assist (ATI-S3), then more speed isnt going to help.

I have a generic Afreey 8x DVD ($49 after rebate) on my Intel PC, and it plays movies just as smooth as my 16X ACER DVD (Toshiba drive) on my Tbird.

 

[apoppin]

A little help here please (I'm new to DVD).

Is a DVD Decoder Card actually required?

I currently have a ASUS SDR with software DVD decoding and plan to get an ATI RADEON. Will these work with this drive? Is this drive really region-free?

 

[StormRider]

No, you don't actually need a hardware DVD decoder if your system is &quot;fast enough&quot;. In order to play software DVDs well, you need a system that can enable DMA on the DVD drive, have about a 300 Mhz processor or greater and a graphics card with motion compensation support.

I was able to play DVDs with excellent results using an AMD K6-2/300 and ATI Rage Pro (which has motion compensation). When I had a Banshee (which doesn't have motion compensation) in there, playback got a little choppy in some scenes.

Any DVD drive should work with any hardware or software decoder. They are just like CD-ROM drives. They use supply information -- they don't have anything to do with decoding.

Regarding the CT7160 DVD decoder. These are picky about which video card you use. You have to have a graphics card that has a feature connector and have drivers that support the VPE interface (overlaying video data directly into the graphics memory through the feature connector). The image quality played back on the monitor is highly dependent on the drivers for both the DVD decoder and the graphics card.

TV output quality was excellent however. In fact, I use this card to make back up copies of HK DVDs that I have bought so my uncle (who doesn't have a DVD player) can view them. I then give my mom the original DVDs to play on her DVD player.

For viewing DVDs on a monitor, the best results I had were using the Luxsonor reference drivers on an ATI Rage Pro. The quality was probably a slight notch below the Sigma Designs Hollywood+ but was still excellent. For some reason, the Creative Drivers don't produce very good monitor DVD quality (lots of aliasing effects) on many of the graphics cards I tried.

Other graphics cards that I've gotten it to work with are those based on the Riva128, Banshee (but only the Creative Labs version), Savage3D, Savage4, and my new Cardex Geforce2 MX card.

The Cardex Geforce2 MX card seems to be the best card to use with the Creative Labs drivers.

For Win2K, there are WDM (originally written for Win98 but works in Win2K) drivers that I have gotten to work with the Savage4, ATI Rage Pro, and Geforce2 MX cards. Image quality on the monitor was not good on both the Savage4 and Rage Pro but was surprisingly good on the Geforce2 MX (except for a horizontal red flickering line on top of the screen).

Luxsonor (the company that made the chip in the CT7160) has release their WDM source code so hopefully somebody out there will be able to write better drivers for it. I personally think this is an excellent DVD decoder -- it just needs better drivers. I love the idea of using an internal ribbon cable to digitally overlay the video data into the graphics card. This avoids the video degradation that is experience with the Hollywood Plus cards and their pass through cable.

 

[Shudder]

THanks for the deal.. Now, where to get decoder software? (Free preferrably)

And for anyone who's used this, how loud is it? I cant' stand my CDRom now, even though it's not THAT bad.. hopefully this thing isn't rediculous.

 

[LukFilm]

I got the decoder just for the TV-Out, so I can watch movies on a big screen TV instead of 17'' monitor. Got a Radeon card, so it should work OK, I think.

 

[vlbbvlbb]

I recently purchased the EPO 12x DVD-rom from FRY's and the dvds that i am playing seems choppy.
I am running Althon K7-600 and have 128 ATI PRO RAGE. I do not know what is the problem can someone help me out?

 

[StormRider]

Make sure DMA is enabled for your EPO drive. From my experience, enabling DMA is the single most important thing in order to get smooth software DVD playback.

 

[Sept1967]

ATI has the BEST DVD assist on the market. With a good CPU, no decoder card is really needed.

Try powerDVD or Cinemaster software. Works great.

 

[ohrock]

I tried several combinations of hardware and OS. My conclusion is that you don't really need any extra card if you have a good DVD drive and at least a 300Mhz CPU.

I've seen k6/3-400Mhz w/Voodo 2500 w/windows98 and 2000) and it works great.
Celeron 500Mhz w/TNT2 w/2000) Perfect...
K7-600 w/Savage 4 and w/98 and w/ME... Perfect... (actually this is my entertaiment center and I use this thing constantly to watch DvDs with no problem)

 

[apoppin]

I just picked up my Raite 8X DVD-ROM today at Computer Geeks in Oceanside (I was passing right by on the way to San Diego and thought I'd save the shipping charge). It is a HUGE operation. However, although they have Will-Call and I ordered the day before it took a full hour of waiting in the lobby to actually get the drive.

The door takes only 4 seconds to open (about as fast as the CD-ROM it replaces). It takes about 10 seconds from insertion to begin playing an audio CD (15 seconds for a copy). It is very quiet. I have an ASUS SDR VideoCard and the ASUS software DVD-player and the DVD playback is a total joy with no choppiness whatsoever (P3 600E@800Mhz/256MB RAM).

I just ordered a Radeon 64 VIVO, so perhaps I will notice a difference - at least I can watch DVDs on my TV. But for the money, it is an excellent DVD-ROM. Thumbs-up!

Just a quick question however, how do I know it is region unlocked? (What is DVD-Genie?)