Is it worth upgrading the G400 DVD engine?

[Deuge]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has found it worthwhile upgrading the Cinemaster DVD decoding engine in the DVD player that comes with the G400?
I have upgraded it, and have found that the quality is actually worse than before...
How have other people found upgrading the engine?
(BTW, I'm more interested in the visual differences than the aural differences - i still only have SB16)

Thanks for your help!

[Zwisch]

As I often say, no need to upgrade if all is working fine with your current version...

[George]

I've done an awful lot of work on this and I've found that for some reason the Matrox DVD player with the cinemaster engine as supplied works the best (it works minimised fine!). The only problem with theis engine is that you can't access some features or menus (for example on the Matrix).

[Grimace]

Just today while watching The Matrix I noticed the same thing. The quality with the new software seems not as good as I remember it being with the regular Matrox engine. The upgraded engine does allow access to the special features of The Matrix though. Any hope of getting the best of both worlds? The DVD Region program allows alot of tweaking of the Cinemaster engine. What are people using for settings? Maybe we could figure out what's changed.

I use these:

Main Options:
Decode: Katmai Enhanced Full Quality (CPU)
Sample Rate: 48000
DeInterlacing: Smart Detect
Enable Hardware Optimization
Enable 3:2 Pulldown Reconstruction

Video Related "More Options":
Surface Flip Mode: Soft-DeInterlace
Surface Flip Position: Bottom of the Overlay
Tripple Buffering Enabled



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Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Pentium III 450 @ 504, 128MB CAS 2 SDRAM, Matrox G400 MAX,
Sony GDM-17SE2T, Sound Blaster Live, NetGear FA310TX 10/100 NIC,
IBM 9ZLX 9GB 10,000 RPM LVD Drive, BusLogic 958 Ultra Fast/Wide SCSI Controller,
Pioneer DVD-113 6X DVD-ROM, Toshiba 6102B 32x CDROM, Yamaha 4260t CD Writer,
Linux (Primary OS), Win98, and Win2K

[Mattias-Sweden]

I haven't installed the updated engine yet, and I am still pleased with the quality of DVD playback on the G400. The only thing I could directly see was different from my settings was the "3:2 pulldown" setting. I ahve no idea what it does, but I don't have that checked in my control panel. BTW, what's this "DVD Region program" you mentioned, Grimace? Is that a part of the updated engine?

[TheMorg]

I upgraded the engine two weeks ago, to get the best out of the Matrix DVD-ROM. The only problem is that a week-or-so ago most of my DVD's developed an intermitent problem whereby I get the playback window covered in little coloured blocks, and the sound playback stutters like Elmer Fudd. If I don't shut down the player, this continues for about 30 seconds before the player hangs.

I think I'll try reverting back to the original Matrox-boxed engine and see if that fixes the problem.

[Michael7]

I was having the same visual differences between the recent upgraded version and the Matrox standard one. However, there is an even further upgraded one that's available on that same site as the previous one (I'm sorry, I don't remember the link), and it's improved the quality again, as well as fixing a problem I'd been having with Blair Witch crashing the DVD player.


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-Michael
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"Fight all the things that betray you."
--Excerpt from "Farscape: Rhapsody in Blue."
G400 32MB DH. Asus p5a. AMD K63-450. 128 MB. Huappage WinTV-PCI. SoundBlaster Live Value.

[Grimace]

You can get the DVD Region software here:
http://www.inmatrix.com/

I'll look for the new Cinemaster software to see if that helps.

[Grimace]

I tried the latest CM enging (2.0.36.6145) and still didn't think the image looked as good as the Matrox one. I then reinstalled and verified that the CM engine shipped by Matrox has much better image quality than I could get with the newer engine. All would be well but I can't use the special features menu of "The Matrix".

Michael7: Which version are you running? Also, what problems were you having with the Blair Witch?


------------------
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Pentium III 450 @ 504, 128MB CAS 2 SDRAM, Matrox G400 MAX,
Sony GDM-17SE2T, Sound Blaster Live, NetGear FA310TX 10/100 NIC,
IBM 9ZLX 9GB 10,000 RPM LVD Drive, BusLogic 958 Ultra Fast/Wide SCSI Controller,
Pioneer DVD-113 6X DVD-ROM, Toshiba 6102B 32x CDROM, Yamaha 4260t CD Writer,
Linux (Primary OS), Win98, and Win2K

[CMB]

Hi,
i just installed my Marvel G400 today
very cool, im off to by a P3 tomorrow now :O)

but i have questons about the decdiong engine, if you can help me
it works fine and i can watch blair witch AND matix no probs, but when i watch a US film on my TV PAL (im in UK) it seems to skip a frame every now and again
i think its something todo with the NTSC to PAL converison going on

i used to have it in other software players but further versions on fixed it

also where can i get a region code thing that lets me change the code,
i have verison 2.0.36.6145 of cinemater engine (came with the cd)
and i have version 2.00 of reigion selector
maybe i could fix my frame skip prob if i could change bob and weave and all that stuff :O)

oh, and the link posted above to www.inmatrix.com doesnt work

CMB

[Larry]

Grimace,

In response to your you compaint about the image quality of the new engine being not as good as the engine that comes with Matrox, I have found the error in your setup. First of all, let me tell you my experience. Up until the last two new Cinemaster engine releases, the player would always return an illegal op. when I play in a window. I later found out that it was because up until 2.0.35., the players don't allow you to use Katmai Enhanced CPU in conjuntion with Soft-De-interlacing. Now, the new engine lets you use both, but I find that there might be something wrong with the newest version of DVD Region Selector because the image quality decreases when I switch from Full Quality to Katmai Enhanced Full Quality. Perhaps the registry entries for the new engine are slightly different than that of the older ones. The newest version of DVD Region Selector as of this post is 2.55. So, to sum it all up, Grimace, if you want the best image quality with the 2.0.36 engine, use Full Quality with soft-deinterlace, and not the Katmai Enhanced Setting. This goes for all you Matrix lovers out there!

Larry

[whiplash]

CMB

Go to www.dvdutils.com for the latest region selector 2.55.

I am also in the UK using the latest CM engine along with the Matrox Player. The new regeion selector allows me to change region with both Cinemaster and my faithfull WinDVD no probs.

You will find that the latest WinDVD is as good as Cinemaster and works with DVDMAX, (you just can't minimise it , that's all).

W.

[Paddy]

Using the DVD software supplied and it works fine. See no reason in upgrading.

P2 300, 256Mb, 6400 32Mb DH, Panasonic 4x (no-slot :-()

[CMB]

Whiplash, Thank you :O)

is there away to get around the 'jitter'
when playing american DVD's on a Pal tv?

i havent tried using another program yet because, its the marvel that converts the signal using DVD MAX, so its a powerdesk issue isnt it?????

[whiplash]

CMB,

To get rid of the jitter, fire up Region selector 2.55, in the surface flip mode select soft deInterlace.

This seems to fix the 'jitter' for most people. It's a problem with NTSC conversion to PAL.

You will be suprised how much of a difference some of the setting in region selector can make, have a play around ;-)

W.

W.