Question about DVD player

[MalRic]

Thank you for your replies, but now that leads me to the next question, even if my computer is faster than 600Mhz, which would be considered bettern when it comes to performance, software or hardware interface?

[MalRic]

Is it neccessary to have a DVD-Rom to watch a dvd on my computer, or is it possible to use a software interface?

[Nick CPU]

You must have a DVD to watch DVD's. However once you have a DVD player you can choose software or hardware decoding. If your computer is fast(+600MHz) then you can go with software if its slower a Hardware decoder board may work.

[daveleau]

Yes, a DVD has much more information packed onto it than a regular cd. Thus a cd-rom cannot read it. A DVD-rom can read cds though. A decent DVD-ROM can run anywhere from $60- $100.

Dave

[KAknight]

The hardware is better, but you won't notice the difference if you are just watching movies. If you had 6 other programs open at the same time, then you might want to get a hardware decoder card.

[Kuasimodem]

I noticed a massive difference in picture quality when I went from software decoding to the hardware decoder built into my Radeon LE. This is with a 900T-bird w/512Mb PC133.

With the software decoding, you could see the horizontal lines of resolution in the picture, but with hardware, you're only limited by the dot pitch of the monitor. Now all I can see is the pixels, with a magnifying glass!