Best DVD solution with G400 MAX?

[SeanTek]

Well, I have gone through a Hercules 3D Prophet II (GTS 64MB) and a Radeon 32MB, and both have left me rather disenchanted with the whole DVD decoding process. I'm looking for a video "solution" (i.e., it can be more than one card) that looks good on my Mitsubishi 2040u, at 1600x1200 or higher. I will not use this for an HTPC to a giant screen as of now, but that is a possibility in the distant future. The GTS suffered from some ghosting and low colors, while the Radeon has a strange "shimmer" or "ring" around the borders of high-contrast graphics (text, window frames, etc.). It's not the cable; it's a combination of the monitor and the video card.

At the same time, I want as high-quality DVD as possible. I think that I am going to have to stick to a G400 MAX for the 2D quality, even though I'm going to have to take a big hit on 3D as a result (I play more 2D games and do 2D work anyway, but no bashing now). As far as DVD goes, I was rather disappointed with the GF2 GTS DVD output. Maybe I set something wrong, but it didn't quite come out and "grab me." (At this point I should say that I have a Pentium III/933, so I can render the whole thing in software without really feeling a performance hit.) It took me forever to install the Radeon's multimedia drivers (the CD was scratched...and I didn't want to trek back to the store more than once). I was impressed when I saw the quality of the Radeon, but then I noticed the ringing around the edges of the DVD (at higher resolutions; it's not present at 800x600). The DVD software also seems to be malfunctioning randomly, and does not have many helpful features (compared to PowerDVD). So, I think that the Radeon is out. Other than that, both are great cards, but just not what I need at the moment.

I am pretty sure that I have boiled it down to a G400 MAX. However, I don't know what I should do to maximize video quality. Should I consider a Hollywood Plus? Can I plug the HW+ directly into my monitor without pass-through (connecting the Matrox directly to the BNC jacks)? If I go software, does WinDVD, PowerDVD, or Cinemaster produce better output (I've always thought PowerDVD, but lately I haven't seen a difference; I also _need_ S/PDIF support through my Live card)?

On a related tangent, I wanted to know if I can do timeshifting and/or MPEG-2 encoding with the Rainbow Runner G and updated drivers, considering that the G450 eTV can do all of that.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

-SL

------------------

[SteveC]

The DVD quality of the G400 greatly surpasses the quality of my brother's Hollywood+. Then again , the g450's dvd quality is better than the G400.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[xortam]

I recommend you check out the AVS forum. You'll find a lot of videophiles discussing the merits of the G400 vs. ATI vs. nVidia GeForce cards for PC-DVD viewing. The G400 had been the favorite due to its image qualities and resolution controls. I think people are starting to favor the GeForce cards now. Mark Rejhon is the moderator there and he's very knowledgeable.

[Indiana]

On the software side, I found WinDVD to give the highest image-quality, although it eats a lot more CPU power than PowerDVD and Cinemaster - but this shouldn't be a problem for you Older WinDVD versions also have quite some problems with the "Matrix" DVD.

PowerDVD seems to have slightly better Sound than WinDVD, all Cinemaster/WinDVD and PowerDVD support SP/DIF on the SBLive in Win98 - not in Win2k, but that's the fault of Creative's Win2k drivers...

However some DVDs just don't cut it, meaningless whatever solution (HW/SW) you're watching them with - e.g. the Region2 "TrueLies" DVD has BAD sound - but then I got it so damn cheap (9.90 DM, that is less than $5) that I don't really mind.

[SeanTek]

It's interesting that you say that with WinDVD. I was just comparing the output between WinDVD and PowerDVD (I don't know how much of a hand the Radeon has in it, since the Radeon is still in my system), and I felt that:
WinDVD's video output was brighter and sharper, BUT
WinDVD kept on jerking around vertically (by about 1 pixel, once every few seconds). This only happened on select scenes, though.
I still am confused as to what is the "ideal" resolution on a computer monitor. The DVD source is 720x480, and, if you use PowerDVD's "Aspect Ratio," it keeps it proportional to that (at 1.5:1). I'm not convinced, though, that that is ideal, or whether it should be 4:3 (as in 800x600, 1600x1200, etc., which would stretch the picture). I know that television pixels are rectangular, but I did not know that they were elongated vertically (i.e.,
<pre>|-|
| |
|-|
instead of
-------
| |
-------
</pre>

[Mr. Cold]

PowerDVD 2.55 (build 0620) is amazing. the features far surpass WinDVD's, and it runs super-smooth on my system under WinME w/ the 6.01 beta drivers.


------------------

• Box 1:
• dual-boot OS'es: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional , Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
• Case (chassis): P.o.S. $35 mid-tower.. (gonna get a new full-tower soon, any recommendations?)
• Video card: Matrox Millenium G400 Max
• Monitor: Hitachi SuperScan Elite 751 (CM751)
• Sound card: Sound Blaster Live! Platinum
• Speakers: Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT2500 Digital
• Motherboard: Abit BP6
• CPU: 2 x Intel Celeron 366 OC'ed to 550 = 1.1 Ghz (;-)
• Memory: 128MB pc133
• Keyboard: Microsoft Internet Keyboard
• Mouse: Microsoft IntelliMouse with IntelliEye
• Hard drive: IBM Deskstar 34 GXP (27gb)
• Printer: Epson Stylus Color 440
• Ethernet card: 3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI For Complete PC Management NIC (3C905C-TX)
• Floppy drive: Teac 1.44MB
• CD-ROM drive: Plextor UltraPlex 40max
• DVD-ROM drive: I/O Magic MagicDVD 8x
• CD-R drive: Panasonic 7502
• SCSI controller: Diamond Fireport 20
• Scanner: UMAX Astra 2200 (SCSI)
• Modem: SupraExpress 56i Sp V.90
• Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Express

• Box 2:
• operating system: FreeBSD 4.1
• CPU: Intel Pentium 60
• memory: 32 MB
• hard drive: Quantum Fireball 1 GB

legalize

[MikkoJ]

Mr. Cold, how do you have PowerDVD set up? Have you played with DVDGenie settings? I tried to use it with my G400 but the image was choppy, freezing frames every other second. Matrox DVD player performed flawlessly.

mikko

[Mr. Cold]

Well I just use default settings, and use SPDIF output for the sound since I have a Dolby Digital decoder (the DTT2500 speaker system).

I dont use Pan-Scan since I like to see the whole picture.

I really believe if you are seriously into movies you should invest several thousand dollars (or whatever your budget is) into a nice home theater system including wide-screen television.