G400 vs Real Magic Hollywood plus

[TutcH]

How is the dvd performance/quality of the g400 compared to a mpeg-2 decoder card?
More specifically how the dvd quality will be on my 28" TV. (using s-vhs)

Does dvd playback requier a lot from the cpu, can I run other programs when watching dvd?

[SteveC]

From watching DVDs on my PC, and from what I've seen on Videologic's DVD decoder (Real Magic), I can only say that the G400's is easily as good, if not better than those cards. Using the Dual Head (DVD MAX), you can use the monitor for web browsing. etc etc etc while watching a DVD on the TV with very little, if any frame drops. Just don't expect to be playing games on your monitor at the same time or any other taxing tasks.

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", they said.

[IceStorm]

I have a Hollywood Plus, Dxr3, and G400 MAX (no, not all in the same machine).

- Hollywood Plus has smooth DVD playback. The image is pretty good on my monitor, either by an s-video to VGA converter, or by pass-through cable.

- Dxr3 looks about the same as the Hollywood Plus, but has better player software.

- G400 MAX occasionally "tears" the video stream - looks like one frame is interlaced with the second. The player's ok, if a bit light on features.

Oh, you can't put a hardware decoder in your machine and do DVD playback and game. I tried it. Half-Life stutters every minute or so.

Just my $0.02


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Primary System: PIII-540 (450@4.5x120), Soyo 6BA+ III, 2x128MB PC100 ECC SDRAM CAS2, G400 MAX in multi-monitor mode. V2 SLI rig. Two Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u monitors, 3Com 3C905, SoundBlaster Live!, DeskTop Theater DTT2500 DIGITAL Speaker System (Sweeeeeet!), WD AC41800 18GB HD, WD AC310100 10GB HD, Toshiba SD-M1212 6x DVD-ROM, HP 8100i CD-RW, Epson Stylus Pro, OptiUPS PowerES 650, MS SideWinder Precision Pro USB joystick, Logitech 3-button mouse, Mitsumi keyboard, Win98 SE, Belkin OmniCube 4-port KVM, 10/100 5-port Linksys Ethernet switch (30~40MB/min under Win98SE)

Secondary System: PII-266, Asus P2B BIOS 1008, 1x128MB PC100 ECC SDRAM CAS2, Millennium II, 3Com 3C590, ADSL Modem 640kbit down/90kbit up, 3Com 3C509, Mylex BT-930 SCSI card, Seagate 2GB Hawk, NEC 6x CD-ROM, Linux distro S.u.S.E. 6.1 (IP Masquerade works!), Sharp JX-9400 LJ-II compatible

Tertiary System: DFI G568IPC Intel 430HX chipset, P200MMX, 4x64MB EDO Parity RAM, Millennium II, Intel Pro/100+ client NIC, SoundBlaster 16 MCD, Fujitsu 3.5GB HD, WD 1.2GB HD, Creative Dxr3 DVD decoder card, Hitachi GD-2500 6x DVD-ROM, Win98 SE

All specs subject to change.

[RoGuE]

I have a G400 and Creative Dxr2. The quality from both is excellent (when output to TV). But the Dxr2 is slightly better in my opinion.

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aka Chris H

[Gurm]

You're all failing to mention the horrible tradeoff... POOR IMAGE QUALITY.

All those passthrough cards are HORRIBLE. All the nice image quality you get from your G400 will be for nought if you run a passthrough.

Of course, you could do what some of us have done in the past, and not use the passthrough. It makes it kinda hard to calibrate the DVD... and you DO have to go out of your way to disassociate any kind of files you might want to watch on your PC...

Ah, skip it. If you have a good processor, download the Cinemaster 99 software:

<a href="http://members.tripod.com/dvdown/qi_down.html">DVD Digest Cinemaster Download</a>

Be happier, and forget the hardware decoder.

- Gurm

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G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.

[SCompRacer]

I disagree about the pass through with the Hollywood +. Even Creative's DVD I have seen were not detrimental. Voo Doo's were the leastbest.

Take a look at the messiest desk photos and see how some folks route their wiring. Power wires knotted with monitor cables/speaker cables. Noise and interferrence can result if the cables are not properly shielded. Keep them seperate, one less thing.

[Marmita]

Who the hell needs the passthough??? are you watching DVD through on the computer screen ???

[Pelle]

Right. Get rid of that loop-through. I have both a Max and a H+ in my system, and the H+ wins every comparison IMO, be it sound (the DTS-drivers where released 2 days ago), picture quality (the NTSC->PAL - conversion is pretty good) or the handling and the little extras, like the "Zone Selector" software that lets you turn of Macrovision and Country Code.

As for other programms, when using the H+, i have enough cpu-time left to surf the web or do word processing without drop-outs.

But note: the loop through picture sucks BIG time, and it makes my Max crash anyway. So I use the Max for watching something on the pc and the H+ for television.


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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

[Larry]

I am currently reviewing a Hollywood+ DVD Decoder. I myself own a G400Max. I seem to be the only one that believes this, but I think, the image quality on the MAX is FAR SUPERIOR than the image quality of the H+ when it comes to DVDs on the monitor. On a TV set, it's a different story though. Just to clear up any misunderstanding, the Dxr3 card from Creative IS the Hollywood+. The front end of the software has just been modified a bit. Anyway, when played on a monitor, the images seem far more crisp, and the color saturation is by far better on the G400Max. Personally, I can live without the Hollywood +

Larry

[SCompRacer]

The question whether I need pass through is not valid to me, because pass through is not a problem for me. I have tried it both ways, and I do not see any improvement. I also believe the DVD looks better on the monitor with the H + than with the MAX, if I choose to put a DVD in and watch it on the monitor. I do not get any crashes either.

This is one of those areas you cannot speak in absolutes about, because it does not affect everyone in the same way.

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P III 500 @ 560 via 112 FSB, ASUS P2B-LS w/1010 BIOS, 256 MB 8ns ECC RAM ECC Enabled since 5.13 driver release, current 5.30 drivers, DX 7, Seagate 9 GB LVD Cheetah & 9 GB UW Barracuda, 10 GB IDE DiamondMax, Plextor Ultraplex 32 X/Plexwriter 8/2/20 RW, Hitachi GD 2000 IDE DVD CD ROM, SCSI ZIP Insider, G400 MAX, SB Live/Liveware 2.1, Sigma Hollywood + DVD decoder, US Robotics 56K Sportster, Sony GDM400PS, UMAX 2400S SCSI scanner, Soundworks 5.1, HP 6P Laser & 890C, SCSI, LAN & USB enabled. SB Live shares IRQ w/MAX, bus mastering enabled, Win98 SE and NT 4.0 SP4.

[SCompRacer]

The monitor that sucked was the one I had before the 400 PS. That was the 200 PS. That monitor would not go to 120 Hz vertical refresh either though SONY said it could, so I couldn't get the big numbers out of games.

I am pretty objective about my system, and I have tried removing things and testing on one of my other hard drives to see if I did this, what would happen. I had the Hollywood + before I got my first G400, and since they got along I left it in.

Now if I had the G400 before the decoder card, I would not have gotten the H +.

[TutcH]

Thanks for all the inputs.

Sorry guys, but I have decided to go for H+.

My Riva TNT still does the tricks for me, and new/better 3-d cards are coming all the time.

[Gurm]

Some people are just lucky, Scompracer.

Or else your monitor sucks. (J/K!)

Honestly there are people who swear up and down that they had little or no signal degradation from plugging in a Voodoo card, or a DVD decoder. But I can't handle it. My eyes hurt after a while of looking at the screen at 1024x768 or higher with a Voodoo plugged in, and the DVD decoder made the whole screen move to one side, get all curvy, and change contrast values. My monitor could correct the issue, but not well enough to make me keep the cable connected.

- Ash

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G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.