Can I use my Matrox Software DVD player (Cinemaster2000) on my friends ATI Rage 128??

[ccoltas]

I installed an ATI Rage 128 Pro 16 MB AGP video card on their PC for watching DVD's and doing some simple video editing.

Can I try my Matrox software DVD player for them to use? I tried the ATI DVD player and black/dark areas were so poorly pixelated it was extremely disappointing. I was hoping to use my DVD software and not have to pop for $50.00 for the generic Cinemaster2000. What a rip-off. Might as well save the $50.00 and invest in buying a frickin stand alone DVD player!

thanx for any info

[Gurm]

Probably not, for several reasons:

1. Matrox DVD Player is hardware locked to Matrox cards.

2. Cinemaster sucks.

3. Why not use the ATI DVD player? It's free to anyone who owns an ATI card...

- Gurm

[Greebe]

While I can't answer whether it'll work on you friends ATI card. I fail to see how getting all pissy about it possibly not working and thus spending $50 for the stand alone vs the Matrox version for $10 when you're doing nothing but giving away software at the manufactures expense is a bit disheartening, not to mention illegal.

Besides, it's not out of your pocket, it's out of his, correct?

[ccoltas]

Out of their pocket. Its a couple of friends of mine. I just want to know what works before anybody spends any money at all. Don't get your panties in a twist. I wasn't going to copy my player for them. I was going to try it first though, before wasting money on it. I can't imagine how pissed I'd be if I spent any money on the ATI dvd player that I used now. It sucks. Besides, about MY Matrox software dvd player, I wasn't going to "give" it to them. They can buy the same player I have for $6.96 USD. I'm looking for a software DVD player that is better than the ATI one. The ATI one I installed, which is upwards of a year old or more, is crappy. The Black or dark areas of pictures is horribley pixelated. I was so disappointed. I had installed the video card and I was hoping to show them how nice it was to watch a DVD on their TV and I get this absolute CRAP pixelation on the dark areas of the picture. Everything else was ok. Ok, actually, it didn't look quite as nice as what I see with my Matrox G400 and the Matrox DVD player software, but it wasn't bad. Its the pixelation that was so horrible that I wanted get rid of. With the Matrox DVD player, you don't have to adjust anything, it looks perfect the way ti is for me. No fiddling with brightness or contrast etc.

So whats the best software DVD player I can use on their ATI Rage 128? Their video card has hardware icdt and motion compensation which is respectable for such a card.

I was advised to try Win DVD or Power DVD 3.0 for around $10.00 but I can't find it!!

Any suggestions?

[Greebe]

My favorites are in this order ...

WinDVD... works great
PowerDVD 4 XP... close to WinDVD but no cookie
CinePlayer... it works so so, very limited, highest cpu utilization of the three

My panties aren't bunched up... maybe before whining you should think about how what you are trying to say will be interperated

[ccoltas]

OK, fair enough Greebe. So which one are you using if any? Can I assume you are using Win DVD with a Matrox video card?

I have used the Matrox DVD player, but apparantly, people like yourself and others do say that Cinemaster ain't so hot.

I think I made a mistake when installing the dvd drive and video card. I forgot to check what software came with the LG CDRW/DVD Combo drive. It burns CD's well and seems to play DVD's ok considering the system is a P-ii 300 with 192 MB of ram, but I just didn't like the ATI software DVD player. Made dark/black areas severely pixelated as I mentioned and that was a huge disappointing let down.

So I'm going to look around for either Win DVD or Power DVD 3.0. Hope to find something for a max of $25.00 CAD or less.

[xortam]

ccoltas ... check here for some DVD SW downloads. The HTPC folks are really praising the TheaterTek player currently. This Immersive product is targeted to simple-use TV viewing and always displays the video full screen.

[PowerHungry]

I used it successfully on an IBM Thinkpad with a Savage/IX video chip. I am running Win2k, but I switched to WinDVD because it used less CPU and made the DVD playback on the laptop last longer. As for which is better, I will not get involved.