DVD/decoder onboard

[taskn]

I'm looking to purchase a PII mobo (using a PII 400 slot1) that will support a DVD drive. Any suggestions on the type of chipset or mobo's that offer this?

 

[dhlucke]

You'll be able to run a DVD-rom drive with basically anything. Just realize that you need an open pci slot for a decoder card, or better yet just get a good video card for the agp slot.

I must say though that buying a P2 at this point is a waste of money unless you've got everything except a motherboard and just want to get it running.

"I think I brained my damage"

 

[taskn]

I currently have the PII 400 cpu and I'm just looking for the mobo to be able to play dvd's. As for the decoder, I'm looking for a mobo that has this integrated within the board so all I have to do is install the drive and software and I'm watching movies.

 

[Guest]

Now I don't claim to be an expert, but I don't think I've ever seen a mobo with integrated DVD decoder. Generally when they have built-in video, it's a bare bones video chipset. I used to have a PII 400 and it was capable of doing software decoding of DVDs (with appropriate software that usually comes with the DVD drive). So I wouldn't be too worried about the mobo choice.

 

[taskn]

My current mobo has an ATI Rage Pro video setup onboard.
I'm not certain if this does the decoding or if there's
another chip that's onboard that decodes.
I too am not an expert when it comes to DVD software and
hardware. The PC is configured for the 2nd generation DVD.
This system was reconfigured when I purchased it. Since I
purchased the PC, the company went out of business. So no
drivers or info is available. I removed the mobo out of the case a couple days ago and couldn't find any distinguishing
names to ID the type of board. At least it has an Intel chipset.

 

[Guest]

I do know that the Rage Pro does not have hardware based DVD decoding capabilities. You'll have to use software decoding, or buy a video card that does have that feature builtin.

What do you mean by your "PC is configured for 2nd generation DVD?" As far as I know, any DVD drive will play DVDs on any computer system as long as there is hardware or software decoding capabilities.

 

[dhlucke]

I have the same computer as you and here was my experience:

The P2400 worked fine on DVD's with my first videocard and decoder card until the matrix came out. I then got a voodoo3 3000 and used dvdwin for software encoding and it still sucked. The scene when the helicoptor crashes into the building as well as a few other intensive ones just crashes the machine.

So I said screw it and bought a home entertainment system

As far as motherboards with integrated dvd decoding they don't exist, but the integrated video on some of the new boards is supposed to run dvd reasonably. I don't know which ones are good for your p2 400 since I didn't worry too much about it when it didn't work. Nonetheless, I doubt the integrated video would be better than your video card, so just go get dvdwin or some other software decoding software and see how you do.

"I think I brained my damage"

 

[taskn]

The second gen that I'm speaking of is the DVD drive, It's a 2X.
For now, I'm going to search for any freeware that I can
use on this system. Can someone drop me a URL for some good software?
Thanks in advance.