DVD, what do I need?

[cyber mouse45]

I would like to get a DVD drive for my new pc that I'm making, and I was just wondering if I need to get some sort of decoder card to go with it, or will my graphics card be able to take care of that?? I haven’t even looked at DVD stuff in over two years, so I’m kinda behind the times. Also, if anyone has a favorite drive that they would recommend, I’d really appreciate it. I’m thinking about the Black Lite-On 16x DVD Model LTD-165. Is't $43 at newegg.

Thanks!

 

[plizzo]

thats an excellent dvd drive. most software doesnt require any kind of dvd decoder card. my lite-on came with power dvd which works fine.

 

[Heat]

I'd stay away from ATI cards, b/c they have had some gamma issues w/ dvd viewing.

Most graphics card w/ 16+ mb of ram would be enough. But more is better.

That sound like a good dvd drive. Plus Powerdvd is one of the best.

 

[cyber mouse45]

Kinda thinking about getting a GF4 4600. I'm not 100% sure on what brand yet. Maybe Asus, but they're a little pricey. I've got an Asus GF4 4400 on my other pc, and I'm really happy with it. I don't know....

 

[BaldHeadedDork]

This is old school, but the best DVD decoder solution is still a hardware card like the Sigma Hollywood.

The procs are now fast enough to handle software decoding without creating stop action effects in the picture. But the picture quality is still notably better through a hardware card.


BHD

 

[FarEast]

Yeah i agree i have a Creative Mpeg2 capture card which is designed for DVD play back and the quality is awesome although im using it for creating music video's rather than watching DVD's .......although i do that also. DVD drives have come down in price and any of the new generation drives plus some good software like Power DVD or Home theatre are good with excellent play back

 

[cyber mouse45]

Ugh, I just checked Newegg, and they don't sell decoder cards.

 

[CaptBill]

Just don't use the Creative Lab Dxr3 card, it won't work in XP

 

[---X---]

Whatever you do, don't get a Pioneer. They're loud, hot, and have low transfer rates compared to most others. I had one for a year and a half; eventually, I switched over to my CD-RW drive for primary use so I could have some quiet

 

[cyber mouse45]

Great! Ok, so I just ordered that Lite-On one from newegg, and now I need to find a Sigma Hollywood decoder card if I want really good quality. But, I *can* use the drive without the card, it just wont look quite as nice right?

 

[Heat]

http://www.buyrealmagic.com/

Its up to you. You still would/should get good vid quality w/o it as long as the processor's fast enough, but this might be good if you want to output some things to the TV and receiver. But the main reason why most people use that card is b/c its has zero cpu usage so you could do other things and still have smooth playback. But for that much I'd just get a dvd player for the TV.

 

[Calavera]

I have a sigma hollywood card on my old comp mated to a pioneer dvd.

I just bought the ATI radeon 9700 pro and liteon 16x dvd. Does this mean I'll run into problems with gamma...etc?
I'm getting a P4 2.4mhz+ cpu within two weeks. You think I should use the sigma card on my new rig?

 

[JigPu]

Um... I have a ancient ATI Rage 128 video card that says that it has built in hardware DVD decoding. Wouldn't this be just like having a decoder card, except that it's built into my video card? I haven't checked CPU usage while playing DVDs since it said it had the decoding, but you're starting to make me wonder...

JigPu

 

[Heat]

I'm sure ATI worked out the bugs with their drivers for ther 9700.

With the Rage and Radeon chipstes, there has been a lot of complaints, like sometimes w/ hardware accelerator enabled, the oolor would be out of proportion and even go black and white.

DVD decoding for your Rage card doesn't mean that its totally doing all the decoding, it still would depend on the cpu to do the decoding, like hardware motion compensation but yes, it'd use less cpu if HWA is enabled. It also depends on your DVD software. WinDVD uses more resources but people say the quality is better. But PowerDVD is more popular these days, b/c people say that it uses less resources and playback is good. I'd say to try out the ATI dvd player as well if you have an ATI card. But personally, I just use PowerDVD w/ HWA enabled.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56346

 

[Oni]

I'd stay away from ATI cards, b/c they have had some gamma issues w/ dvd viewing.

No problems here w/ my Original Radeon 64DDR VIVO. Plays DVDs great.

You don't really need a decoder card anymore if you have a fast system and a good video card. You can get one, and I'm sure it'd make the DVDs look better, but pro'lly not much better.

As for software, I kinda got sick of PowerDVDxp, so I went to Intervideo WinDVD. I really like it! And it actually displays the menu of my Princess Mononoke DVD, whereas PDVDxp wouldn't.

 

[FarEast]

Yeah i also use the Intervideo DVD and actualy prefere it to PowerDVD .....which i will kill once i have finished a piece of work.

 

[Calavera]

Is winDVD a shareware or one of those "free-trial-for-30-days-then-your-***-gotta-pay" thing?

 

[Heat]

Yeah, you guys are right, I remember how PowerDVD didn't display the closed captioning feature right like w/ no sold background but while WinDVD shows it in the proper form. And YES, it is NOT freeware, sorry! But I saw some of the Nvidia cards came with the windvd cd so look out for that.

 

[cyber mouse45]

Hey, well thanks for all your help guys! I’m going save a little $$ and start off without the card and see how it looks, then I might get one around Christmas time.

 

[loudblaster]

Just don't use the Creative Lab Dxr3 card, it won't work in XP

I have to disagree captbill as i have one of these cards and it works flawlesly with xp. I just needed the drivers and new player software.