TheaterTek software DVD player...who uses it? (1 Viewer)

[Max Leung]

For the life of me, I can't find any reviews of this "acclaimed" DVD player. Searching AVS forum, surprisingly, came up with nothing.

Is this player ATI-only? Or will it work, with the same quality, on a Geforce 4 Ti4400? The website is down, and the trial version doesn't seem to be available anywhere.

Is this player AWOL?

I did find out that Vince Maskeeper had written a review for it back in March I believe, but I don't know if it has been published yet (pending the opening of the official website, supposedly).

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Max,
I have my review pending for Monday. Their official site (http://www.theatertek.com) launched this week- so I just have to put the finishing touches on my review for posting after the weekend.
As far as it working/not working with Geforce- I know it does, but the specifics might be worth looking into. I'd suggest posting on their forum, and one of the programmers will fill you in. They are really good about answering questions-- so you might even do a search over there:
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I would imagine, if nothing else, you could turn off hardware acceleration, and do software based decoding and have it pass to the GeForce card.
As far as a preview: Let me say that Theatertek, IMHO, is an absolute MUST HAVE for serious HTPC...
-Vince

 

[AllenD]

I've had problems since day 1, but they're minor. For instance, while in FF or REW I have to press pause then play to stop FF/REW instantly. Otherwise I'll pass the scene by 30+ seconds. It's buggy when using w/AVIA but I can get to the test patterns w/a little effort. These are just some of the problems and I'm willing to bet it's not the player, but ME that's giving me problems. (I really need to get XP.) One note: The picture quality is so good, I'm willing to overlook these issues.

 

[Joseph S]

They almost got me. However, when I picked up a Radeon 8500 I gave Zoom Player another shot. I'm too satisfied with all the options available for just the price of my yet to be determined donation to the cause.
Comparison: (w/Powerstrip rqd and new ATI drivers for gamma fix rqd for both options in my situation)
ZoomDVD + Girder + Region Killer = $0 + donation
TheaterTek + Girder + Region killer = $69 + shipping.
Plus, TheaterTek probably would have killed me after 3 HD swaps and reinstalls this past week getting new serials.
I'm still interested in a version 2.0 as this looks very promising.

 

[Max Leung]

Thanks for the info guys. Looking forward to the review Vince!

For the record, I really dislike the video output quality of both PowerDVD and WinDVD. When viewed on my TW40X81 RPTV, the RP91 blows them away. I think those software players are terrible (but I like WinDVD's audio DSP modes). And I don't have fine-control over the gamma in those programs either.

Can't wait...

 

[Brian Kleinke]

I've been using it since it came out, I'm useing a dedicated box with an ATI board. I'm running it on Windows ME, but I wish I put 2k on... for it likes to crash once in a while :frowning:
I agree with Allen, the PQ is very nice! (I'm viewing it on Sony's XBR 57" 16:9 RPTV)
Brian