Do you use any DVD player software?

[Harrison]

And if so what do you use?

I've been using InterVideo WinDVD for years now and it has always worked well. Although it can sometimes be a bit unstable and crash when you try to jump a long way through a video file or DVD.

I've mainly used it over the years because of the ability to run a DVD from a folder rather than needing it to be on a disc, which is great for testing when creating and developing a DVD and needing to test it is all working before burning the Video_TS directory to DVD.

Years ago I did used to use Cyberlink PowerDVD and think I might also give that another try to see how the latest version compares to WinDVD. Anyone use PowerDVD?

Any other video players I could look at while I'm at it?

For general video playback I tend to use VLC which I find will play most file types and codecs, and sometimes WMP 11.

[v85rawdeal]

I still use WindDVD because I like the screen grab utility, and I also have had no problems grabbing sound-bites from it whilst it plays.

Maybe I should try other software, but I tend to stick with what I know and what I am confortable with.

[Demon Cleaner]

I don't use any, as I don't watch DVDs on the PC, I tend to use standalone players. Only using VLC for videos and small movies.

At work I have PowerDVD installed, but barely use it.

[AlexJ]

Media Player Classic plays nearly everything with one of those codec-super-mega-packs installed including my DVD's. I tend to use a standalone dedicated player however as the quality is better than using the wireless senders from the PC to TV.

[Stephen Coates]

I have WinDVD and it had always worked fine for me, although i think the last time I watched a DVD in the computer was back in 2005. Now I have a DVD Player for the television I just watch them on that.

[Harrison]

That is a good point Steve. For most people they have a decent DVD player under their TV so watching DVDs on a PC is quite pointless these days and is more of a gimmick.

Remember when DVD was first launching and PCs were not even powerful enough to playback DVD video at full speed in full resolution without additional hardware? I remember at university in 1997 a friend upgraded his Pentium 1 PC to a Pentium II and then spent ages trying to get it to run DVDs properly. He ended up spending £100 on a video playback card just to do that as his 266MHz PC couldn't do it on it's own. A year later I bought a new Pentium 2 400MHz PC and it ran DVDs fine without any additional hardware.

It is still amazing how fast technology moves forward. I remember on the Amiga being amazed at being able to play low resolution limited colour short MPEG 1 video clips, and that was 15 years ago. Then about 10 years ago PC users with Pentium II CPUs were trying to get them to run DVDs, and then just a couple of years later we were able to just play back what we like without even thinking about it. Now even streaming HD quality DivX videos over our networks to the TV without problem.

[Stephen Coates]

Playing DVDs on the computer does have the advantage that it will be bigger, as my monitor is bigger than my television. Although I no longer have a DVDROM drive or Speakers attached to the computer, and the entire system is currently located on the floor, so even if I could watch DVDs on it it wouldn't be very good.

I did used to have to watch DVDs on the computer all the time though as we didn't get a DVD player till 2002, and I didn't get one of my own until 2004.

BTW, does S-Video use RGB? I was just wondering because our expensive Sony DVD player from 2002 has been connected to the TV using only composite (It doesn't have SCART, only composite/S-Video)

[Harrison]

S-Video and RGB are different. RGB splits the colour information into it's three component parts, whereas S-Video works differently by splitting the chroma and luminance signals. Both tend to produce similar quality results. Many TVs can accept an S-Video signal via Scart so if your TV has a scart socket that is S-Video enabled you could connect an S-Video to Scart cable up.

[Stephen Coates]

The TV has an S-Video socket. It's only RGB SCART socket is used for the freeview reciever.

I did connect it up to the TV using an S-Video cable and I'm not sure I could tell much difference, but being an LCD TV, that isn't surprising.

[J T]

RGB is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than S-Video, but sometimes you can't use the one you want (lack of available inputs or whatever).

I don't think I've ever watched a DVD on this PC. A few DVD-Rips perhaps (VLC or WMP).