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Electronics On-line
watching movies on your PC
DVDs on the rise
The modern computer is a true multimedia
machine with capacities far exceeding letter
writing or the odd game of chess. You can
use it to surf the net, play games and watch
TV. Using a DVD-ROM drive it is even possi-
ble to create a home movie theatre.
Thanks to its colossal storage capacity
of up to 17 gigabytes, DVD is a perfect
medium for movies and concerts with
high picture and sound quality. Mean-
while all popular films and concerts are
available on DVD, complete with a
choice of subtitling languages, voice-
overs and multiple sound channels
(like regular PCM and Dolby 1:5).
Unfortunately, DVD players for use
at home are still pricey, with entry level
players starting at just under £300. That
is why many PC owners employ their
trusty computer to decode DVD data
and display it on the monitor or TV
screen. For that purpose, several man-
ufacturers offer complete kits consist-
ing of a DVD-ROM drive and an
MPEG decoder card. However, thanks
to the huge computing power and
data throughput of today’s PCs it is
very well possible to have these
machines perform the decoding in
software only. This requires a CPU
with a speed of at least 300 MHz. In
that case the only additional compo-
nent you need is a low-end DVD
player costing no more than £70 or so.
On the Internet, several companies
may be found that supply ‘software’
DVD players. Some also supply a
demo version for free downloading. In
most cases, the demo is either time
restricted or it may be used to watch a
short DVD excerpt only.
One of the best software players
we’ve been able to locate is ATI DVD ,
it may be found at www.atitech.com.uk/
showcase/dvd/12faq.html
This program is only intended for
owners of graphics cards from ATI, and
may be obtained on CD-ROM using
an on-line ordering system.
ATI’s DVD player is actually a spe-
cial version of the Cinemaster player
from Quadrant (known as Ravisent
these days), which works with all
brands of graphic card. In principle,
this program is only supplied with
a new and complete computer
system. Updates and so on are
however available from the
Ravisent web site at
www.qi.com.support/loaddown.html
Another popular program with
a very attractive user interface (an
imitation DVD player) is Power-
DVD thrown at us by Taiwan-
based Cyberlink. Their web site at
www.cyberlink.com.tw has a 30-day demo
version available for downloading.
Other programs in the field include
XingDVD ( www.xingtech.com/video/
mpeg/dvd /), Win-DVD from Intervideo
( www.intervideoinc.com ),
DVD Express from Mediamatics
( www.mediamatics.com/
dvdexpress-info.htm ) and Soft-DVD
from
Zoran
( www.zoran.com/
softdvd.htm ).
If you do not have a DVD drive but
would like to play around with one of
the many DVD emulators, then a num-
ber of DVD demo files and trailers in
the so-called VOB format may be
found at www.poseidon.pspt.fi/vobdvd/
Mind you, VOB files are… colossal!
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Elektor Electronics
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