Good Quality Graphics Card for DVD Playback

[linkiat]

I'm in the market looking for a graphics card that can better my GF3 Ti200 @ Ti500 speed... I know it sounds weird that I already have a good card and still trying to look for a better one.
But what I really want is good DVD playback quality. I'm using my Leadtek card with PowerDVD. So some questions I have are...

1) Will the ATI cards do better ?
2) Will changing software to WinDVD or other programs help in improving the DVD quality ?
3) What are your recommendations ?


Thanks.:beer:

[Morpheusman]

Software can make a difference, so you might try a different DVD player. However, I've heard some people complain about the picture quality of DVD playback on the Geforce 2 and 3 cards, so you'll have to use your better judgement.

I really like the ATI cards for DVD playback. If you want a bargain, the best deals right now are probably the 8500 LE cards. The 8500 LE should perform better than your Geforce 3, and still have excellent DVD playback. Also, most of the LE cards can be overclocked to Retail speeds. Some do even better.

If money is no object, the 9700s will be out VERY soon. It won't be cheap, but they look like very nice cards.

[AmigoThree]

I have always heard from people that ATI card do generally play back DVD's better than Nvidia and I also think that Power DVD is the best computer DVD software out there and you should stick with that.

[Morpheusman]

Originally posted by AmigoThree
I also think that Power DVD is the best computer DVD software out there and you should stick with that.

Good point. If the TI playback doesn't look good with PowerDVD, it's probably the card, not the software.

ATI rocks for DVD playback.

[CrystalMethod]

For DVD play back, ATI is definately ahead of Nvidia. Like Morpheusman stated, the software can contribute a lot to quality of image. Different driver versions also play a big part in the quality of the playback image.

[linkiat]

thanks guys, I'll probably get an ATI 9000Pro or 9500 and sell off my GF3 Ti200. :)

Any problems with ATI and WinXP ? Previously I had an ATI 7500 64mb SDRAM card and it keeps hanging upon startup. The 'infinite looping' problem but seemed to go away after I changed to the GF3.

What do you guys think about Matrox ? The G550, not the recently released Parhelia (or however you spell it)

:)

[PhobMX]

parhelia sux, matrox is about to blow

[Maxvla]

hold on a minute. you don't need ANYTHING special for dvd playback.

my k6-2 550 machine with the onboard 8mb agp video played dvd's very well.

you don't need to spend more than 40 bucks for a video card if all you are doing is watching dvds.

don't listen to these people telling you you need a high dollar graphics card to play dvds. those cards are for real-time rendering (or creating the video on the fly) while dvd's are already rendered and it is just playing the video, thus the work is much much lower. minimum requirements for an acceptably dvd capable machine should be about a p2 300mhz and 2mb video card. thats all you need. it doesn't even hafta be an agp card, a pci card will do fine.

any software decoder will look about the same no matter what system you have it on.

to get the best quality you need a dvd decoder card like mine which is a dedicated board specifically for dvd's. you can pick up one like mine for about 40 bucks.

[Lochreas]

I alway hear that DVD decoder software is much better than a hardware card...though it does seem like it should be the opposite.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by Lochreas
though it does seem like it should be the opposite.
thats because it is. hardware kicks software to the curb. no competition really.

hardware: hollywood plus
http://www.3dspotlight.com/reviews/hardware/hollywood-plus/2.jpg

software: power dvd
http://www.3dspotlight.com/reviews/hardware/hollywood-plus/4.jpg

its all in the details. :)

[CrystalMethod]

Hate to break it to you, but I don't have a decoder card. This is my screen capture using WinDVD 2000, with an Aopen Geforce2 MX-400.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/keith_lee/matrix.jpg

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by CrystalMethod
Hate to break it to you, but I don't have a decoder card. This is my screen capture using WinDVD 2000, with an Aopen Geforce2 MX-400.
how do you take screen caps of dvds?

thats alot better quality than the power dvd shot i posted. i still think the hardware edges yours but software has definately come a long way.

if you tell me how to take caps i'll post one of my setup for grins.

[CrystalMethod]

Screen capture is a feature of WinDVD. Should be something simmilar in Power DVD as well.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by CrystalMethod
Screen capture is a feature of WinDVD. Should be something simmilar in Power DVD as well.
nah i'm talking about with my hardware setup... i know it can be done... just wondering how.

[Cisco Kid]

Originally posted by linkiat
thanks guys, I'll probably get an ATI 9000Pro or 9500 and sell off my GF3 Ti200. :)

Any problems with ATI and WinXP ? Previously I had an ATI 7500 64mb SDRAM card and it keeps hanging upon startup. The 'infinite looping' problem but seemed to go away after I changed to the GF3.

What do you guys think about Matrox ? The G550, not the recently released Parhelia (or however you spell it)

:)


7500 64 DDR is a much better card than the 7500 64 SDRAM you had, but the 7500 falls behind the G3Ti200 in performance but is way ahead in DVD playback.

I stongly suggest a 8500LE 128 DDR card before the 9000 PRo as it outperforms the pro by quite a bit. Check out www.anandtech.com for a complete review. The 9000 Pro is cheaper than an 8500 LE 128 DDR card.

As far as DVD playback goes that is a strength of the ATI cards over nvidia as ATI uses has hardware dvd decoder built inot the card (more softweare based than hardware but better than anything nvidia has).

I owned an Asus V6800 32 DDR Deluxe card and it did not compare to my Radeon 64 DDR vivo card for DVD playback.

As far as software goes windvd and powerdvd seem to be the ones although ATI's newest DVD player is very good, I am using it now myself and it works well.

Cisco kid

[Maxvla]

wow... i'm glad i skipped right to the part we are looking at on windvd 4.0 they only let you watch 5 minutes then you hafta pay for it. what a crock!

i am impressed by windvd4.0 its now on par with the hollywood plus (which is a 3 year old design :rolleyes: )

but try getting that quality on a tv or bigscreen. thats where the decoder card really takes it to the software decoders. frankly i don't watch any dvds on my monitor. they look a million times better on my tv though the decoder card.

[CrystalMethod]

That's most likely what the decoder card was actually meant for. I have a Creative DXR2 decoder card somewhere around here, but I have no use for it anymore as the software decoding nowadays works well enough for me.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by CrystalMethod
That's most likely what the decoder card was actually meant for. I have a Creative DXR2 decoder card somewhere around here, but I have no use for it anymore as the software decoding nowadays works well enough for me.
actually the use was for slow pc's who couldn't handle the decoding... but since they put video out on them there is life still in them in ways software can never touch.

[MospeadasDark]

Originally posted by PhobMX
parhelia sux, matrox is about to blow

Says who? Oh you must be talking for the 1% market share that enthusiast gamers compose of.

It's like Mac users saying MS will die.

As far as DVD playback goes that is a strength of the ATI cards over nvidia as ATI uses has hardware dvd decoder built inot the card (more softweare based than hardware but better than anything nvidia has).

Actually the only thing ATi has over nVidia is MC and hardware iDCT. Now the GF4's have hardware MC.

But the problem is...software iDCT is better than hardware iDCT now. Processors are so fast that they do it better.