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Should I replace the G400 with a Sigma/Real Magic Hollywood + for DVD playback?

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  • #1

    Should I replace the G400 with a Sigma/Real Magic Hollywood + for DVD playback?

    Hi Folks

    I have an opurtunity for buying a "Sigma Designs/Real Magic MPEG-2 Decoder Hollywood Plus Analog overlay" relatively cheap.

    Reason I am asking is the neverending crap of stutter in NTSC to PAL conversion from G400. Is the Hollywood card anything to go for or is it, basically, the same deal (same quality, same performance)

    I have a Pentium III 450 @ 525 MHZ
    128 Meg PC100

    Is it something to consider???

    /Kristian

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    Striving for perfection
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    Striving for perfection
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Get yourself a bulk Videologic-board, which is a H+, but has the advantage that you can internally connect it to your soundcard via the CD-in, so you don't have to use the external audio-loopthrough-cable, which is especially annoying when already use that for a TV-card.

    The picture-quality is IMO better than the G400's, the NTSC->PAL conversion is fine, the board supports PAL 60 as well, and region codes and macrovision can be disabled using Zone Selector (http://altern.org/zoneselector).

    So you can use the G400 for watching DVD on the monitor and the H+ for TV.


    ------------------
    Asus P2B, P2-350, 128 MB, Matrox G400 Max, Sigma Hollywood Plus, Haupauge WinTV, Adaptec 2940, AVM A1, Soundblaster AWE 64
    IBM DCAS, IBM DDRS, Quantum Fireball, Seagate Barracuda, Iomega Zip, Phillips 2600, Hitachi GD-2000, Toshiba 3401TA

    Comment

    • #3
      The Sigma RM Hollywood+ is a great card. If you use the latest drivers there will be no stuttering problems (previous versions suffered from the same problem as the G400 software).

      Is it possible to output Pal50 with the H+ ?
      Yes.

      Comment

      • #4
        What Pelle?

        "Get yourself a bulk Videologic-board, which is a H+, but has the advantage that you can internally connect it to your soundcard via the CD-in, so you don't have to use the external audio-loopthrough-cable"

        I've got a retail Realmagic H+ board, and i use the "internal" connections only, only that i use the "aux-in" on my live istead of cd-in, not the ones on the back of the soundcard.

        i'd say go for the H+.

        <font size=1>Primary System: ASUS P4B533-E, Intel Pentium4 1.6A GHz, 512MB Samsung PC2700, Leadtek GF4 Ti4200 64MB, SB Audigy, 2xSeagate Barracuda IV 80GB, Pioneer DVD 106S, NEC CD-R 40/10/40, InWin Q500 Case w/ Enermax 353W PSU, Windows XP Pro, Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX.

        Secondary System: ECS K7S5A, Athlon XP 1600+, 256MB PC133, Asus GF2 GTS 32MB, Seagate Barracuda IV 20GB, Aopen HQ08 Case, Windows XP Pro.</font>

        Comment

        • #5
          yaeh go for it!

          ------------------
          p3 450@600. bx6 ver 2. 128mb unbranded pc100. iwill 2930u scsi, diamond pro pci modem, advansys 1505 isa scsi, SB Live!, pioneer dvd103s, hollywood plus dvd card, plextor 40x cd rom, ricoh 1420 cdr, ibm 13.5gb @ 7200rpm, G400 @ max settings. All wrapped up in a big case with loads of fans. Belinea 10 30 40 17" monitor

          1st system

          Athlon AXIA Y 1Ghz @ 1.40Ghz, coolermaster hsf, Elite K7s6a, 512 MB Crucial DDR RAM, 20GB IBM 7200RPM Hard drive, Radeon 8500le 64mb, SB Audigy, 3 com 10/100NIC, 300w PSU, midi tower, FPS 1600 Surround, Belinea 17" monitor, Intellimouse explorer USB

          System 2

          Athlon TB 1.4 @ 1.5, Zalman Flower in silent mode, Elite K7S6A, 768MB DDRAM, Ati Radeon 8500le 64mb ddr, SB Audigy, 3Com 10/100NIC, 80GB IBM 7200rpm, Liteon 16 speed DVD, Lite-on 24102b CDRW, Songcheer Superwide, USB scanner, Intellimouse explorer, Microsoft keyboard, 19in iiyama Monitor, FPS1600

          system 3
          Abit ST6 RAID, Celly 1.2 @1.4 ,512MB SDRAM, Zalman Flower HSF noisey mode, ATi Radeon 8500le, SBLIVE, 3com 10/100 NIC, 80GB Seagate barracude HDD, 40GB IBM120GXP, 60GB IBM60GXP,Extra highpoint controller card, 16x Pioneer DVD, Pioneer DVR-104 DVD-RW, ATX Full tower case. 300w psu, 17in LG monitor, 20in Samsumg telly, epson stylus colour 880, 200W RMS Surround sound amp with Mission M71 Speakers.
          .

          System 4
          Elite K7S5A, Duron 1.0, 128mb sdram, Coolermaster hsf, 80GB 120GXP IBM, Liteon 16x DVD, Radeon 7200 64MB DDR, SBLIVE.

          Linksys 4 port router/firewall

          512k Cable modem. nice

          Comment

          • #6
            don't use the monitor pass thru cable thou, unless you want to watch the dvd on both the tv and the monitor at the same time. The cable screws up the monitor picture bigtime. I use the hollywood+ for tv playbak and if i feel like watching on the monitor i use the g400 player.
            1st system

            Athlon AXIA Y 1Ghz @ 1.40Ghz, coolermaster hsf, Elite K7s6a, 512 MB Crucial DDR RAM, 20GB IBM 7200RPM Hard drive, Radeon 8500le 64mb, SB Audigy, 3 com 10/100NIC, 300w PSU, midi tower, FPS 1600 Surround, Belinea 17" monitor, Intellimouse explorer USB

            System 2

            Athlon TB 1.4 @ 1.5, Zalman Flower in silent mode, Elite K7S6A, 768MB DDRAM, Ati Radeon 8500le 64mb ddr, SB Audigy, 3Com 10/100NIC, 80GB IBM 7200rpm, Liteon 16 speed DVD, Lite-on 24102b CDRW, Songcheer Superwide, USB scanner, Intellimouse explorer, Microsoft keyboard, 19in iiyama Monitor, FPS1600

            system 3
            Abit ST6 RAID, Celly 1.2 @1.4 ,512MB SDRAM, Zalman Flower HSF noisey mode, ATi Radeon 8500le, SBLIVE, 3com 10/100 NIC, 80GB Seagate barracude HDD, 40GB IBM120GXP, 60GB IBM60GXP,Extra highpoint controller card, 16x Pioneer DVD, Pioneer DVR-104 DVD-RW, ATX Full tower case. 300w psu, 17in LG monitor, 20in Samsumg telly, epson stylus colour 880, 200W RMS Surround sound amp with Mission M71 Speakers.
            .

            System 4
            Elite K7S5A, Duron 1.0, 128mb sdram, Coolermaster hsf, 80GB 120GXP IBM, Liteon 16x DVD, Radeon 7200 64MB DDR, SBLIVE.

            Linksys 4 port router/firewall

            512k Cable modem. nice

            Comment

            • #7
              Is it possible to output Pal50 with the H+ ?
              Jan.

              Comment

              • #8
                Oh, okay, then. I got my hands an an H+ that had no support for looping through the CD-Audio. What I meant was this: you connect your cd-audio not to the soundcard, but to your dvd-board. Then you connect the dvd-board with the internal cd-in of your soundcard. The Videologic-board will either just loop through the cd-audio, or play the dvd-audio.

                As far as I saw on last year's CeBit, this is (or was) a feature unique to the Videologic-board, which is a standard H+ in every other aspect. Additionally, it was the cheapest H+ board avaible when I decided to get one and I'm pretty lucky with it. It runs the original Sigma-drivers and behaves very nicely, even sharing an IRQ with the G400 ...


                ------------------
                Asus P2B, P2-350, 128 MB, Matrox G400 Max, Sigma Hollywood Plus, Haupauge WinTV, Adaptec 2940, AVM A1, Soundblaster AWE 64
                IBM DCAS, IBM DDRS, Quantum Fireball, Seagate Barracuda, Iomega Zip, Phillips 2600, Hitachi GD-2000, Toshiba 3401TA

                Comment

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