Need help sorting out the DVD software on my PC. (1 Viewer)

[Frank@N]

Recently added a DVD drive to my PC (I'm a Sloth Adopter). The drive came with PowerDVD 5.0, which I installed.

This software seems to work well enough, but it doesn't seem show anything more than what I see on my TV.

Most DVDs with PC-based extras seem to run off disc with no installed footprint anyway (Planet of the Apes 35th).

Then I played 'Harold and Kurmar' and it wanted to install the InterActual player....OK.

Then I tried to play 'Scary Movie' and it wanted to install the PcFriendly player....OK.

Seems like older software, but the PC-based content for 'Scare Movie' looks good.

Do I need to keep all these programs? I thought PcFriendly was replaced by InterActual?

Also found some web links that seem to refer to PcFriendly as spyware.

 

[Frank@N]

Here's a decent rundown of the DVD-ROM extras situation:

http://pcworld.about.com/news/May012003id110294.htm

Might remove PcFriendly and try to get 'Scary Movie' to use InterActual.

 

[Frank@N]

Tried getting older discs to use InterActual instead of PcFriendly, but despite what I've read this doesn't seem to work.

Don't have a problem with PcFriendly, except it's old software and doesn't even run at my desktop resolution.

Also compared video quality in InterActual and PowerDVD, it's no contest (PowerDVD is much better).

Guess I'll stick with PowerDVD and only mess with other programs when I have to.

The PcFriendly extras on 'Scary Movie' are really worth checking out though.

 

[Doug Otte]

We just got a PC w/ DVD last year, and I've only used it a few times to watch DVDs. Both the Microsoft app (can't remember the name) and PowerDVD work fine, but there doesn't seem to be any function to see the current track playing, time elapsed, remaining time, etc. Am I missing something?

Thanks.
Doug

 

[Frank@N]

What you might be missing is DVD-ROM exclusive extras (things that don't show up on your TV or in PowerDVD).

The limited experience I have in this area seems to indicate that these DVD-ROM extras either run seamlessly off disc with their own viewer (preferable) or require the install of a proprietary viewer like PcFriendly or InterActual (less preferable).

Either way, since only one in 100 discs seems to have anything worthwhile, I guess this falls under the heading of interesting time waster.