DVDrom or DVD player? (1 Viewer)

[Scott_D]

Hi,
I'm a total newbie to DVD's, so much so that I don't even have a dvd player yet. But I am thinking about it.
My brother said I should get a DVDrom for my computer and just hook it up to my tv. However, I talked to a retail store guy who said there would be a lot of quality loss and that I should get a standard DVD player.
My brother is very knowledgeable in regards to computers but not DVD's.
Another thing to consider is that a rather long cable would need to connect the computer to the tv, say a few metres os so.
So does anyone know what the best option would be?
And if your answer is "DVD player" what are the best brands going around at the moment?
THanks

 

[ThucN]

A few comments about getting the DVD-rom:[*]Your computer's video card will need a TV output (obvious, but worth mentioning just in case).[*]You'll still need to (ideally) buy a software DVD player.[*]You'll have to boot up your comp every time you want to watch a movie.[*]A cable length of a few metres should be OK.[*]Setting up your video card and its drivers, sound card and its drivers, the software DVD player, together with the operating system, can either be painless or stress-inducing.[*]As far as quality - I've heard that a lot of high-end setups use the HTPC route because of the flexibility in using the computer to adjust the size/resolution/etc. of the video output.

I would choose a standalone player over a computer DVD-rom, but since my new computer needed a CD/DVD-rom device anyway, I chose the DVD-rom.


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TqN

 

[Mark Rejhon]

>>"obvious, but worth mentioning just in case"
Not necessarily - if using a BIG SCREEN Computer Compatible Display .... Such as many HDTV's, plasma displays, projectors, etc. You simply use VGA output as the progressive scan output. Therefore you would not need a TV-Out in this case.
>>"However, I talked to a retail store guy who said there would be a lot of quality loss and that I should get a standard DVD player"
This used to be true but not anymore if you use a Radeon (or even Geforce) setup. And even the picture quality can be better with a high resolution display or HDTV because computers are excellent progressive scan DVD players ....
Thanks,
Mark Rejhon
http://www.marky.com/hometheater/
[Edited last by Mark Rejhon on September 19, 2001 at 07:59 PM]

 

[Joseph S]

Get the Panasonic RP91 DVD player, pop in the disc, sit back, and enjoy!!!!!!!
Note: I just spent another 5 hours with Winblows 2000 trying to get it to do what you would think would be the easiest of items.
1)Play DVD at Fullscreen? Yes
Wrong answer, ATI's player has a bug so you can't play at full screen without inducing a Blue Screen of Death. You also can't use a resolution greater than 1600x900 b/c of the ATI drivers/overlay bug.
2)Play DVD on PowerDVD 3 I got with my soundcard? Yest
Wrong again. There is a bug in Winblows 2000 that won't let me output SPDIF with PowerDVD 3.
3)Play DVD on WinDVD 2.8? Yes
Guess again. You can't purchase that, but we have the POS edition called WinDVD 3 that has inferior quality and all 4:3 R2 material is unwatchable and 16:9 is not nearly as good as the RP91. But for $50 you can present it on the screen with sound(though anything other than R1 is a chore to enable DD output)
4)Use MacOS X.1. Yes
Wrong again. Thanks Creative Labs for recently firing a key developer for your only current Mac SBLive card. Works great for DVD though on my LCD.
This could all be made a lot easier if folks like Intervideo(WinDVD) and M$ would be more willing to provide back licenses for updated and flawed OS/Soft the sell you with blatant misrepresentations.
[Edited last by Joseph S on September 20, 2001 at 11:25 PM]
[Edited last by Joseph S on September 20, 2001 at 11:27 PM]

 

[Steven K]

Winblows 2000

Eh... Joseph, Windows 2000 is generally regarded by those in the computer industry (namely programmers and netadmins) as one of, if not, the most, stable and best operating systems around.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Oh no, please lets not turn this into a flamewar about Windows 2000. I'm writing this post on it, and believe me it can be a right pain for certain things. Its not its fault I suppose, but the number of things out there like software DVD player and sound drivers that have bugs that only show up on 2000 is a nightmare for setting this up. Also, for someone who regularly uses Unix its terrible at other things.
Anyway, returning to the point in hand, I'd say that
a) using the right equipment can give you sound and picture just as nice as a standalone player, and in certain cases even better, but...
b) setup can be a right pain when compared to just wiring up a DVD player, and even when you do then all the DTS sound quality in the world can't make up for the fan noise your average PC makes.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

2)Play DVD on PowerDVD 3 I got with my soundcard? Yest
Wrong again. There is a bug in Winblows 2000 that won't let me output SPDIF with PowerDVD 3.

Am I right that you are using a SB Live? It is possible to get SPDIF working in Win2k at least on Power DVD. It should work without any problems on a Live 5.1 but you need a small hack to get it working on older cards. Mail me if you want it.
I am just watching Memento (excellent movie BTW) on Win2k with PowerDVD without any problems.
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-Dominik Dröscher ICQ: 25318265
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes."

 

[Joseph S]

Thanks for the offer. I've actually got the M-Audio Audiophile2496 sound card though.

 

[John Chow]

Just thought I'd mention one thing you need to get the S/PDIF AC-3 working properly is Service Pack 2. You also need the appropriate driver from the sound card's manufacturer.
Linkage: http://support.microsoft.com/directo...;EN-US;Q289196