What is the best dvd hardware decoder card out there?

[KennyH]

My twin brother has a Geforce 2 MX and was wondering what the best add-on card for dvd playback these days.Please help me out guys and gals. Thanks. 🙂

 

[Bluga]

Hollywood Magic.

 

[PG]

He doesn't need an add on card as long as he has a fast enough CPU. If he has a GeForce2MX, he probably doesn't have a slow CPU. I say try a software DVD player first. You only need about 400 Mhz for decent playback with a software player.

 

[Yzzim]

I've got a Celery 366@550 with a TNT2 16mb flavor and software playback runs fine when I played DVDs on my computer.
Save the $50+ and try the software way first 🙂

 

[Noriaki]

Even if he has a fast enough CPU if he wants to use TV-out the TV-output from the Brooktree chip is very ugly compared to a DVD decoder. On monitors there is no real need for a DVD decoder, but only the Radeon comes close to the TV-out quality of an H+.

There are really only 2 DVD deocders to the choose from.

The Sigma Designs Real Magic Hollywood Plus or the Creative Dxr3. But Sigma makes the Dxr3 it's the exact same hardware as the H+ just with a different BIOS and drivers. And the H+ can get a remote control for it that doesn't work with the Dxr3 🙂

Get the H+ it's really the only choice in hardware decoders.

 

[gnognugs]

Hands down, I like the Radeon better than anything else.

 

[Shmorq]

Just be warned that because of the pass through cable needed for the hardware decoder, image quality at high resolutions ( > 1280x1024) will be noticeably blurry.

 

[divinemartyr]

Don't get a hardware decoder card, the quality of your other pictures (outside of DVD images) will be terrible. I tried the Hollywood Plus card and the 2D was never stable, very fuzzy, and almost unreadable at higher resolutions.

The problem is all your video will have to come out of the decoder card in order for you to use it at all. The pass through obviously introduces distortions and things, not a good idea to use one if you like quality images on your computer.

dm

 

[StormRider]

How do you want to watch DVDs? If you watch DVDs on your monitor then I would recommend a software DVD player like WinDVD 2000 or PowerDVD 3.0. The Geforce has very nice features (great scaling quality and motion compensation etc.) for DVD playback.

If you want to watch DVDs on a TV then if your brother's Geforce 2 MX card has a feature connector, one possibility is the following DVD decoder:

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=205-7160

This works fine with my Cardex Geforce 2 MX card and the nice thing is that there is no pass thru cable degradation like you get with the Hollywood Plus or Dxr3 cards -- my 2D desktop and text are very sharp.

The TV output quality of the CT7160 is outstanding -- and it has SPDIF output so you can connect it to a Dolby Digital Decoder later.

 

[gnognugs]

The Radeon has no pass throos and the best DVD features.
It has VIVO if you want, or AIW (which add TV and DV).
It has the best 2D image quality of any vid card.
Especially at HiRes!

 

[Noriaki]

<< The Radeon has no pass throos and the best DVD features. >>

Only compared to other video cards, the DVD quality of a Radeon's TV-out still doesn't match a Hollywood Plus. I had a Radeon Vivo and a Hollywood Plus side by side. However the Radeon does do very well and allows a bit more flexibility in that you can use any software player you want with it, where as the Hollywood Plus is limited to one. The Radeon's TV-out quality is good enough that unless you are flipping between one and the other you probably wouldn't notice any problems in the Radeon's quality. The Radeon is truly an excellent DVD playback solution (I recommend you use WinDVD 2000 with it, only WinDVD 2000 and the ATi player fully support all the Radeon features, and WinDVD has much better sound options than ATis. You can use any player that you want, but WinDVD is the best choice for Radeons I think).

A Radeon is alot more expensive than a hardware DVD decoder...but it would also give you better 2D and 3D quality and speed than your MX. I don't know if you want to consider that option or not, but it's certainly not a bad choice. I personally hate the Radeon, but it does do a good job of DVD playback. I would take a Hollywood Plus and GF2 over a Radeon any day. But that's me.



<< It has the best 2D image quality of any vid card. >>

That's actually not true. The Matrox G4x0 series are still better. But they do lack in 3D quality and power.

 

[gnognugs]

Completely subjective.
The other cards have better driver support.
And I agree about winDVD.
I disagree with Matrox.
Completely subjective.

Oh yeah << He doesn't need an add on card as long as he has a fast enough CPU>>
I agree with this too, PG.

 

[geeman]

I have a radeon Le $82 now which gives superb DVD quality, I use to have a geforce 256 32mb sdr, which use to hang up all the time on my pentium 111 733 mhz system, I added a ati tv wonder ve card $43 which gives you video out, video in, sound in, and tv, so $138 including shipping, you get great video, dvd, and tv capabilities.

 

[iluvdeal]

You don't need an add-on card to watch DVDs bp6. Just download PowerDVD or WinDVD and you should be in business. I was watching DVDs with a Celeron 300/TNT1 setup and it ran just fine. Now if you want to watch on a tv, then I would consider a dvd decoder card. The only choices there are the dxr3/hollywood plus, they are the same card. But they both require the use of a pass through cable so your monitor video quality may be reduced for everything, especially at high resolutions. However if you do want to watch only on tv, I'd just go ahead and get a standalone player as they are pretty cheap nowadays.