Decoder card necessary?

[bdaley]

I have the 12x Creative Encore DVD drive, with the dxr3? decoder card. The Creative XP/2000 drivers suck and the card sometimes causes problems with my system. Can I just trash the card and run the DVD playback through my video card (GF2 MX400)? Or does this drive require the decoder card to play DVDs?

Thanks.

"There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks"

 

[GhostKat]

From what I keep reading there are software decoders out there that can be used, but obviously it means that it takes up CPU time. I also keep reading that some video cards like ATI's Radeon based cards have built in decoding but I imagine it will only work with thier own player. Hope this helps.

GK

My motherboard can beat up your motherboard!

 

[bdaley]

I yanked the card, and DVDs still play fine using software decoding. I have a fast CPU and video card, so I can't see a difference between hardware and software decoding. The movies look exactly the same as far as I can see.

Thanks for your help.

"There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks"

 

[FatBurger]

The MX400 has DVD decoding built in, so you don't need the card (as you already found out).

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