Software or hardware DVD decodeing...

[Marksels]

Ive been experimenting with both PowerDVD and WinDVD software to find one that works best for me and have ran into trouble on both fronts. What i like to know is wether going and getting a hardware decoder is better or more flawless, flawless as in no compatibility issues. If hardware is the better wich decoder would be better. Ive heard people talk about a Hollywood something something(forget the name) thats real and then i find at Fry's for 60$ a Cendyne made by Realmagic (i think) or are the Creative Lab's Dxr3 any good? All advice is welcome, thanks.

 

[Comp10]

If your processor is at least 400mhz then you shouldn't even consider switching to a hardware decoder. Hardware decoders seriously degrade image quality due to the pass-through cable they all use, so they are really only good for directly outputting to a TV, not for watching DVDs on your monitor. So assuming your proccessor is over 400mhz, then I would suggest that you just try to solve the problems your having with your software decoders.

 

[DieHardware]

Digital-Digest offers good software DVD decoder trouble shooting info.

 

[hotrodder]

i've had a dxr2 and now a dxr3 and have had no problems with image quality
at all let alone any serious problems. creative has refurb for 60 or new for 80.

 

[Blayze]

I am using a DXR3 card from Creative in Windows 2000.
The Creative Beta drivers didn't work, but since its the same card as a hollywood + I used the Hollywood Win2k drivers
No problems at all.

Personally I think the Hollywood drivers do a better job.

 

[Supergax]

have you ever seen recent hardware decoding comp10???

I have a hollywood+, and the quality is fine, there is no loss in image quality in either dvd's or tv-output.

Plus, hardware decoding has many advantages, the main being that I can output to my tv with almost no resources used on my computer, and it's a P3 500. It's nice being able to use things such as photoshop or play a game with a dvd going, your not going to do that with software decoding. Also, hardware s-video out is much better than some video cards, such as my Voodoo3 3000 AGP.

Oh yeah, you can purchase a hollywood+ card if you already have a dvd player for about 55 bucks from mwave.com

 

[Marksels]

Thanks for the advice, seems its 50/50 on wether software or hardware is better.

I noticed that in the link Supergax gave that the Hollywood+ is made by Realmagic? Now i say this because at Fry's the decoder card from Cendyne was a repackaged Realmagic card for 60$. So i would assume that it is a Hollywood+?

 

[Supergax]

Same thing. Both this CenDyne and the Creative Dxr3's are really Hollywood+ cards.

 

[Marksels]

Great I beleive il pick one up this week when i get some money thanks.

 

[Marksels]

Just thought of something, with a decoder card can i connect a older monitor of mine to it instead of having to use the pass through cable? I would hook my TV but it's to far from the computer.

 

[WhiteMouse]

If besides DVD, you also want to view other formats (like mpeg4) of movies on your TV, you will have to have a TV-out on your video card.

 

[Comp10]

<< have you ever seen recent hardware decoding comp10??? >>


No, but likewise have you ever seen the recent software decoding? I was repeating what I have read on numerous PC DVD websites regarding the quality of hardware decoders due to the pass-through cable problem comparing to software decoders. I'm sure hardware DVD decoders are great for some applactions such as multi-tasking on a slow CPU, I just think someone would be making a big mistake buying one before they exhausted all thier options in trying to get a software player to work.

 

[Marksels]

I have seen both PowerDVD and WinDVD, both and came packaged with my DVD drive or Video card. However, both had their problems. PowerDVD would have bad image quality and would crash sometimes. WinDVD bad quality images until you patch it then it improves, but still need to use a tweak program to get it to work right. I even had to reinstall Windows cause from all the playing around with the players kinda left a mark on my system. As good as they were, PowerDVD i wasnt impressed but WinDVD was pretty good, i wasnt to happy with the fact i wasnt able to explore the web and watch my movie. Even on my Tbird 750, with 128 ram and Gefore2MX i found it taking more of my systems resources than i wanted it to. Thats why at this moment im thinking about hardware so my system be a little more free while i watch movies. Im not to worried about image quality, i had a G200+V2 combo for awhile and didnt notice a problem. However, what i do want to know is, do you have to have the passthrough to watch DVD through the card on a TV? or can i hook a second monitor up to it so i can watch them on that without using the passthrough? Thanks.