DVD software

2003-05-20 05:23:46

I was just wondering what DVD software everyone uses.  I personally use Cyberlink PowerDVD, but for some reason the audio isn't worth a crap in v4.0 and I have to buy additional audio packs.  So instead I play my movies on Windows Media Player.

How about you guys?

DVD software

Reply #1 – 2003-05-20 05:35:37

I have been usign PowerDVD for a long time myself - think it is version 3.something that came with my DVD drive orginally back in April '00.

DVD software

Reply #2 – 2003-05-20 05:36:06

NvDVD. nVidia's DVD player I guess is the best. And it should probably perform the best if you have an nVidia Card given that they know all intricacies of their hardware.

Check this review. It talks about the sound too.

DVD software

Reply #3 – 2003-05-20 05:47:57

CyberLink Power DVD 4 deluxe.

With DivX decoding (although I don't use it for DivX playback)

DVD software

Reply #4 – 2003-05-20 09:35:59

I searched for ages for a free dvd player and eventually stumbled across Videolan. Don't be put off by the name. It was designed to stream things across a lan but will happily play back all manner of videos on a local machine. It's also available for most OSes under the sun. (Windows, Linux, BeOS, MAC OS X, Free BSD etc etc) Or you can get the source code and compile it yourself if you really must. It uses linux libraries to decode things and I think it does quite well. A while ago (pre versions 0.5.x) the DVD playback was blocky and not very good compared to the commercial ones but now it is fantastic. I highly recommend it for DVD playback.

Enjoy.

DVD software

Reply #5 – 2003-05-20 09:52:27

On GNU/Linux I use mplayer. On Windows it's Cyberlink PowerDVD. A nice feature of PowerDVD is TrueSurround, which is very usefull if you only have a stereo amp.

DVD software

Reply #6 – 2003-05-20 12:32:26

I play DVDs with WinDVD2000 (that is WinDVD 2.4). Among all versions of PowerDVD and WinDVD, it's the only one allowing to make true raw captures from the video that is in the DVD (same as ripping the Vob and capturing a frame in DVD2AVI in PC scale). Others introduce horrible resizing artifacts, or make a fuss of the lighness setting.

Very useful for comparing the picture quality of different DVD editions of the same movie.

DVD software

Reply #7 – 2003-05-20 20:12:58

Not being satisfied with the decoding quality of PowerDVD, i tested numerous decoders over the last 2 days: PowerDVD, WinDVD, Elecard MPEG-2 decoder, WMP, NeroVision,  NVDVD and Cineplayer. My graphics card is a Geforce Ti4200-8x.

I wanted to watch a DVD on the PC (usually i watch it on the stand-alone DVD player), and i noticed that PowerDVD had I-Frame pumping; brightness and detail change in short intervals, i'd say less than half a second (each time an I-frame comes, detail level is high, then it gradually decreases until the next I-Frame). This is especially visible in darker spots that are not totally smooth. My driver was Detonator 41.09 under Windows XP. I made a test clip and asked some people to judge it; those with ATI cards reported no issues, unless they switched HW acceleration off, then they also saw the pumping.

First i tried WinDVD, but it was the same there. Then i tried Elecard as a software decoding filter in ZoomPlayer. Sure nuff, it didn't show that excessive pumping, but also seemed to drop some frames and had a blocking issue. But still heaps better than PowerDVD. WMP wouldn't even decode, and i had problems getting NeroVision to work with Zoomplayer.

Next up, i tried NVDVD: There was still some I-frame pumping, only little better than PowerDVD/WinDVD. De-Interlacing was rock solid as long as i used the "Film" setting. "Auto" used some nasty de-interlacing that's only for video footage. Then i tried Cineplayer (ATI DVD player used to use the same engine). And surprise, the pumping was almost gone, and de-interlacing was also good.

Only then Wish told me about a new Detonator driver, 44.03. I installed it, and NVDVD reported that the Motion Compensation Size went up from 8-bit to 16-bit. Suddenly, the pumping was almost completely gone in NVDVD, and CinePlayer looked even better than before. They have about the same good decoding quality now. I strongly recommend upgrading to the 44.03 detonator. I now use NVDVD (v2.27) with HW acceleration (as a filter in Zoomplayer, with AC3filter for audio). ATI supposedly has good quality by default, using HW acceleration. Also, the Geforce FX series does IDCT in hardware just like ATI, so it might also perform good in PowerDVD with HW on.

DVD software

Reply #8 – 2003-05-20 23:32:20

I am using a registered version of 'The Core Media Player' for DVD ( 9,95,- US$  ) , in conjunction with Moonlight Odio Decoda ...

DVD software

Reply #9 – 2003-05-21 00:04:20

I use a standalone dvd player from Pioneer. It is a lot more convenient. However, I might start using a software DVD player, when I get a huge XGA TV/projector.

DVD software

Reply #10 – 2003-05-22 03:13:36

Nvidia has updated NVDVD to version 2.55.

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=nvdvd_...d_downloadtrial

Release Notes 2.55:

Digital Theater Pro:
Full interactive plug-in support
DVD Player:
VMR9 support
Support for 32KHz audio and mono MPEG audio
Added decode support for 1080p 24fps digital cinema content
Added support for Matrox Parhelia graphics cards
Added scripting support to control NVDVD from web pages
Added support for Title menus from DVD menu button when no root menu exists
Added reset of timescale to 1X on Stop or Quit
Added support to fallback to default mode if user selected VMR deinterlace mode not available
Performance improvements for video, audio and skins
More robust FF/RW support
More robust time scaling support
Improved default saturation and contrast values
Improved S/PDIF support
Improved Dolby Headphone performance
Improved Dolby Pro Logic II features
Improved MP3 ID3V2 tag support
Fixed subpicture wrong color after navigating between menus and movie using DXVA
Fixed crash when frame/audio capture to invalid directory
Fixed NVIDIA audio/video decoders not found issue
Fixed disc still appears as inserted after ejecting it while in file player mode
Fixed 24bit/48KHz audio support

Media Center:
Added support for 32KHz audio and mono MPEG audio
Added compliant capability bits
Added support for Microsoft Media Center File Converter
Improved FF/RW support
Fixed suspend/resume problem
Fixed misaligned subpicture during resume to DVD menu

File Player:
Added save/restore of CD audio volume
Added support for Elecard MPEG2 demux
Added hot keys for volume, quit and full screen
Added display of correct number of audio channels
Fixed wave out getting muted during file playback with EWS88MT audio
Fixed crash when Alt-Enter with no video playing
Fixed hang after suspend with shuffle enabled

DVD software

Reply #11 – 2003-05-22 04:21:24

I watch DVD in a  standalone DVD player (Pioneer DV-354) but sometimes I watch in the PC I use Power DVD, an old version, 2.5 becouse with newer versions I can't watch a lot of movies. A kind of copy protection I think. But is no problem for me. I don't like watch DVD on PC monitor (15 inch Samsung), I prefer to watch them in my 29 inch TV set from Sony