Recommendations requested for DVD ROM and software

[Guest]

Hey all!
A friend of mine is trying to buy a DVD rom for his sister's computer.
Now here are the questions. I've read some other posts on the community about the subject and have learned a few things, but I'm sorry to say I don't have the time to review them all so I apologize if this is redundant. BUT:

What kind of DVD -ROM player would be good? It will mainly be used for movie playback. SHe has a CD-rom already.

What kind of software? Odds don't look like she's going to be getting a dedicated decoder card. But, I understand hardware is VERY important. here are her specs:

Power Leap K6-3 400 MHz (that is 66 MHz FSB).
Built in Sounds and Video card. It's a Compaq 400L I believe. Originally a Pentium 200 MMX.
She has 32MB of Ram, though after X-mas it should be 96MB. (PC-66 of course. Rather, Pc-100 running at PC-66)

UDMA 33.

Are these specs enough for good playback of movies at around 800x600 resolution?

Is there anything else we should know about before our investing for her?

Thanks all!

The Jolly Wizened Oaf!

 

[Guest]

I used to have a k63 400 and it was a super7 platform cpu an it ran at 100 mhz bus speed not 66 as you say so you better make sure you get the right ram first of all besides the pc 100 ram is not that much diff in price. ($5 maybe) I have never seen a k63 400 on a 66 bus. Another thing the older memory modules did not like running at 100 mhz on that platform where they may run at 100 mhz on a p2 platform. heh just make sure of specs before you buy!!!

On to your real question As far as the DVD rom drive everyone seems to like the Pioneer slot or Tray dvd roms. My experience is I have purchased 3 Pioneer dvd drives and one pioneer cd rom at different times in different computers. The two oldest ones (a year and a half and 2 years respectively)both seised to operate properly after a year and a half of light service. The other two are not that old yet so we will see how they last Note: all these drives are in different computers in different houses and are taken care of and not abused or used for any heavy business type work at all. I am not quite sure which drive to recomend at this time.....I have been thinking about the 12x toshiba to replace my pioneer that recently quit. The reasoning is The toshiba drives I have seen are older than my pioneer and they still work fine. Also I have read the Toshiba drive tends to read cdr and cdrw better than the pioneer does.

I have played with the Cyberlink Power DVD software and the InterVideo Windvd software both. The Cyberlink Power DVD software seems to be less cpu and graphics card intensive. On my current computer the Power DVD software will go to higher resolution with out jerking where the windvd software jerks and bucks if I try to run it that high. My video card is a matrox card and has not hardware motion compensation which means the cpu has to do all the work, but my friend has the same computer except he has a geforce which has hardware motion compensation and we have experienced the same results on his. So at this time I would recomend the Cyberlink PowerDVD software.

The K63 400 should play a dvd at that res full screen smoothly you will just not beable to do anything else while movie is playing or it will start to hiccup. My old k63 400 would play dvd fine that old pioneer 6x dvd I spoke of when it still worked.

Here is a computer shop online I like to buy from alot they sell the dvd drives I talked about and also have good prices on reliable lifetime warrenty memory. They have Pc 100 memory 128 meg stick for only 68 bucks. www.allstarshop.com They are very good about customer svc too. ;-)

 

[Guest]

THanks for the info!

I guess I should be a little more clear about the FSB of the AMD chip. You see, she isn't using a super Socket 7 platform. Her baord is a standard socket 7 not really desinged to go beyond 233MHz. I ordered a powerleap device which will allow the board to operate with the K^-3 at 400MHz. The only down side is that the FSB is still stuck at 66 MHz.

So poer DVD kicks, eh? So this solution would be a better approach than a dedicated decoder card? Hm...
Well, thanks all.
Any more help is welcome.

The Jolly Wizened Oaf!

 

[Ncogneto]

A dedicated decoder card is always better and in your case may be a neccesity. One thing you failed to mention was your video card however. as for your powerleap adapter are you also loading software to enable your write back cache of the amd chip?

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[Guest]

heh dsl has been down havent been able to respond. Anyway if you are using a mobo that old i would definately recomend a hardware decoder for now the 66 mhz board will be hurting your performance. Also as the other person said your vid card will have a big effect on performance, if your vid card is as old as that motherboard it will not like software dvd at all!!! When I had my k63 400 it was fine but I had a relatively fast 2d videocard that could hanle it on the super socket 7 main board which you dont have. You could download a trial version of powerdvd from the web site and try it if you wanted to see if your computer could handle it or not. Although now that I know more of what you have it sounds like you will need the hardware decoder.

 

[seanmcne]

I recomend the Creative 12x with decoder. Easy to set up and fairly reliable.

-=-Sean-=-