I'm getting a DVD drive, what do I need to know?

[Himself]

orangejulius,

Nah, it's nothing like a CD, there is no need for a paticular read rate on a DVD drive, it's all digital. There is little difference between a DVD movie and a DVD Rom except for the actual content and organization. In fact video is just stored as vob files on the disc itself, all your drive is doing is reading a file to be decoded by the cpu, and the faster the data gets there the better. There is a program called dvdspeed on http://www.dvdutils.com that you can use to see exactly what your performance is for your drive.

[Maggi]

Hey IceStorm,

isn't that the movie with Bruce Campbell that is like Part 3 of the horror sequel where he uses a chainsaw as a substitute for his 'evil hand' ???

I don't know the original title, but the german ones translate to 'Dance of the Devils' ...

[Himself]

I have that DVD here as well, as features go there is nothing on the thing, make sure you go for the deluxe version of it.

[syntech]

agallag:

I have a G400 MAX, a Pioneer DVD-A04S (10x) and a SB Live! Value (plus 4 speakers and a sub). All I can say is, that I get great 4-speaker surround when turning on CMSS within the CreativePlayer. But I haven't connected an amp to the Live!, so I can't tell anything about the SPDIF-OUT.

Lools like my setup is pretty close to yours. ;-)

------------------
- Syntech -

[agallag]

Maggi, it's part 3 of the "Evil Dead" series, at least in english. Bruce Campbell plays Ash. So, you're definitely thinking of the same movie

[agallag]

Just to update everyone, I've installed my DVD drive and purchased "The Matrix". I tried the Matrox supplied player, and it does alright, but it only does plain old stereo audio, and it hangs if you try to go into the special features (I knew it would beforehand from what I've read on here, an engine update would fix that).

I downloaded WinDVD 2000, and it handles all the features on the Matrix DVD properly. It also does nice clear full ac-3 5.1 digital through my sblive. The only thing WinDVD cant do is play through DVDMax while minimized. No biggie though, it does work in the background even when totally covered with another window, just can't minimize it.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed. My little old P2-350/64MB does a fine job, as long as I'm not doing anything else with my pc (it gets a little choppy if I try to surf the web on my monitor).

Thanks for all your help, guys.

--
Andrew