A good basic video card?

[joea64]

I've come to the conclusion (see my post on the Audio/Video Troubleshooting Forum about my troubles with DVD playback) that I need to get a new video card. I'm not really too picky about what kind, except that it needs to have DVD hardware playback capability (that would mean MPEG-2 decoding capability, right?) and be AGP bus. I'm on a budget, so I can't really spring for one of the new 128MB cards; 64MB would be optimum, but I'll settle for 32MB if I have to. Also, I _don't_ play the latest first-person shooter games - in fact, I hardly even play first-person shooters at all; my gaming taste runs much more to strategy games like Civ III - so I don't really (I don't think, anyway) require an ultra-high-powered, super-duper gaming chip. I spend much more time on the Net anyway, or working on my website, or (of course) watching DVD's, so a chipset good for those purposes as well as general-purpose gaming would be just fine.

-Joe-

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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[saphalline]

If you value your DVD playback quality more than 3D games, I would suggest getting a bottom-level video card (like a GF2 MX-400 or a SiS-based card) and then a separate PCI MPEG2 decoder card (like a Hollywood Magic Plus). Unlike a software DVD player, a dedicated decoder card will give you the kind of playback that only a good DVD player for your TV can give (ie no choppiness or lost frames).

It will cost you about $100 total ($50 for the cheap vid card and $50 for the decoder card), which is about what you'd pay for a Radeon card. Radeon cards are known to have good 2D quality and have their own specific software DVD player, but again you have to decide if DVD playback quality is more important.

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"No, we do not gnaw on our kitty." - Dr. Evil

[joea64]

The one problem with that approach, which I had considered, is that I already have a PCI video capture card installed (a Hauppage WinTV Go card), and if I install a separate DVD decoder card, it may cause conflicts requiring one or the other to be removed if I want to use either one. Besides, I was given to understand that most modern video cards DON'T require a separate DVD decoder card, because they already have the MPEG-2 decoding built in. At least, that's what all the boxes and ads say. Or am I wrong?

-Joe-

Originally posted by saphalline:
If you value your DVD playback quality more than 3D games, I would suggest getting a bottom-level video card (like a GF2 MX-400 or a SiS-based card) and then a separate PCI MPEG2 decoder card (like a Hollywood Magic Plus). Unlike a software DVD player, a dedicated decoder card will give you the kind of playback that only a good DVD player for your TV can give (ie no choppiness or lost frames).

It will cost you about $100 total ($50 for the cheap vid card and $50 for the decoder card), which is about what you'd pay for a Radeon card. Radeon cards are known to have good 2D quality and have their own specific software DVD player, but again you have to decide if DVD playback quality is more important.





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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[saphalline]

Originally posted by joea64:
Besides, I was given to understand that most modern video cards DON'T require a separate DVD decoder card, because they already have the MPEG-2 decoding built in. At least, that's what all the boxes and ads say. Or am I wrong?


Well, yes and no. The decoding is built-in, but you've still got to find a software DVD player that will recognize it. And the Radeon cards by ATI are the only sure bet because they include an ATI-specific software DVD player, so you won't need to use a third-party one like ActualPlayer or PowerDVD. I don't quite keep up with the latest Radeon prices, but my guess is that you can get a Radeon 7500 (mid-range, no DX8 effects) for about $100.

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"No, we do not gnaw on our kitty." - Dr. Evil