DVD newbie: need help w/ my Marvel G200

[Kino]

I'm a long time owner of the Marvel G200 TV (purchased Dec. 98). I'm putting together a new machine with a new Creative DVD drive, and don't know much about what software or tools I would need to run the DVDs themselves.

I see that the Matrox card has an I/O for a "DVD Module". Matrox's site mentions the decoder card, but doesn't have it for sale on their shopping site.

What are people's opinions of Zoran SoftDVD?

Should I try to locate the Matrox DVD decoder bundle, or purchase Creative's DVD decoder PCI card?

Thanks in advance.

K


[This message has been edited by Kino (edited 04 February 2001).]

[Topha]

If you have a cpu with more than 400Mhz you wont need a decoder card. you just install the dvd drive like you do with a cd drive, windows should install the drivers automatically (i would recommend a pioneer drive though). you should get Cyberlink PowerDVD 3.0 or WinDVD 2.3 software dvd player. wasnt there a player with your g200? im not sure what the dvd module for the g200 does, but you dont necessarily need it. windows has a player integrated, but its supposed to be crappy and i dont know how to install it.
some nice DVD sites: www.inmatrix.com ; www.7thzone.com

[spazm_1999]

I'd go with Topha recommandation but I'd really recommand you to use PowerDVD 3.0 I didn't like WinDVD at all. For the HWDVD well that depends. If you want to watch it on a PC with very little ram at very high res it would be great to have it since you'd lack of ram to do it software. If you're going to watch a lot of anime I'd strongly recommand not to use HW DVD cards (like sigma) since these don't works too well with it on PC.

Spazm

[Topha]

hardware decoding is faster on slower systems, but as i said, you wont need it if you buy a new computer, bc it should be fast enough and the quality is way better on software. I prefer powerdvd, too but some like windvd better, you should try both and decide wich one you prefer.