Where the F*%$ a good source for DVD Hardware news/reviews?

[jedl]

Every site Ive been to so far has been utter crap, either filled to the brim with banner-ads, pop-ups etc. or stuffed with extraneous material trying to be everything to everyone.

I haven't found one -yet- that comes even close to being focused on PC-DVD "Hardware" i.e. DVD-ROM players. If your lucky the odd site has some ancient review tucked away amongst all the other $#&

Sorry, just a little frustrated, Ive lost faith in the net as a reliable source of decent, objective, thought provoking, specific material.

Any ideas, suggestions would be greatlt apprecited, I'm goin to bed, its 130am


Ciao,
jedLspecific

[snoop_doggy_dre]

im ashamed to b australian now with wot uve just posted.......

[jedl]

A constructibe response would be appreciated. After all, the purpose of these sorts of forums is to help out your fellow community member (new or experienced) or receive hep yourself.

Suggestions?

[Colindale]

I suggest you goto; vcdhelp.com

and stop complaining.

[jedl]

Yup, aha, ok, gee tnx

[admin]

There is not a lot of information about DVD hardware because, well, there isn't a lot to say about it.

There is only one DVD decoder card you should ever consider purchasing, and it is the Realmagic Hollywood+ (good quality, easy to make region/Macrovision-free, etc...).

As for DVD-ROM drives, they all are pretty similar, so just stick with a good brand (eg. Pioneer), or any drive that can be easily made region-free (check out www.firmware.fr.st for a list of region-free DVD-ROM drives).

An earlier discussion in this forum mentioned that Toshiba DVD-ROM drives had problems when you are trying to rip a DVD (ie. the ripping speed was too slow), so you've been warned.

As for sound cards, video cards - I am sure you can find reviews to these quite easily, and some reviews also cover DVD playback - most sound cards and video cards sold these days are good enough for DVD playback (but I would stay away from budget hardware, as some of them were released before PC-DVD became popular, and so they may not work well).

[jedl]

No worries with all the other stuff:

epox 8kha+
256mb Crucial DDR cas2.5 (think), 256 more on the way!
XP 1800+, swiftech HS combined with highest CFM 80mm Delta
soundblaster audigy platinum
GF2mx/400
Seagate Barracuda ATA II (15.3gb)
Some nice fans
Nice Lian-Li PC-68 case


I think my basic config so far's more than enough to cope with
"software" DVD decoding, but Im still seriously thinking bout getting hware decoder nevertheless. (hollywood realmagic is what im lookin at)

What u think? Do u think its an uneccessay expense? I just thought it may help to free up a few more CPU cycles hence I can be easilty doing other things Whilst DVD movie's being output to TV!

So What are some suggestions for god DVD-ROMs you've heard bout or in yur opinion are the better ones? How does the LiteOn rate -peformance wise, not concerned with RMA issues, ill take the risk, performance is paramount!

ciao,
jedL

[admin]

Your system should be more than enough for software DVD playback - but if you want to output your DVD playback to a TV, then you should get a hardware decoder card, and avoid using your graphics card's TV-out.

As for DVD-ROM drive, I always go for a Pioneer (I have a 6x and 16x drive in 2 different computers), since I know the quality is good (not too noisy, loading time is good, no disc reading problems) and I have made both region-free without any side effects - no DMA related issues either, as far as I know. Pioneers drives are probably one of the more popular ones, at least where I live. I also like slot drives

I don't have any experience with LiteOn drives, but if you get the LTD-122 or LTD-163 model, there is a simple to use region free tool you can use to simply turn off region checking, which is way easier than messing with firmwares and such. Don't know enough to say anything about build quality, or reading issues, so you may have to search elsewhere.

[jedl]

"LTD163"
Every review Ive seen of it sofar has been very good, performance wise. There has been the odd person who have had nothing but trouble and had to return, but then again there's people who swear by them and say they've never had a problem. I think I'll take my chances


ciao,
jedL