SigmaDesign Hollywood+ Decoder for $35! No kidding...

[plucky duck]

It's no joke, I was walking around in this used computer store lookin' cheap stuff and boy did I get a good bargain.

A DVD decoder card for only $35 US. It's the newest revision of the board, barely used. Obviously the seller doesn't know what he's selling, or the retail value of that thing.

Isn't it nice to stump on a good bargain once in a while? The thing is selling for $130 CDN brand new and I got it for $35 bucks?! Woo-hoo! Ok, ok, I'll get over it. It's not like I won the lottery or anything.

Question though is I hate the cheap interface that comes with the Jaton Magic DVD player. Is there say another DVD-player, say one from HiVal, that is feature-filled and recognizes and takes advantage of the hardware-decoding capabilities of the card?

By the way, I don't have a DVD drive yet, any recommendations? All I know that a UDMA DVD drive is crucial to smooth playback, even with the decoder card. Since all the drive is gonna do is play movies, the X-rating on the drives shouldn't be a major consideration right?


Thanx for the your help in advance.

[AuraEdge]

The pioneer 10x/40x 104S Slot is awesome. I got it for less than 90 bucks. I believe that the slotness is really a crucial element...Im lazy like that..and Itll usually cost you no more than 5 bucks more than the tray version.

[plucky duck]

Ya, that's the drive I was thinking about too. Personally, I prefer the trayless approach. Slot loading looks great, besides I hate the sound of the stupid motor that it makes when inserting/ejecting the tray.

Thanx for the suggestion.

One more thing though - those who have the simga decoder card knows that you need a pass-thru cable from the video card to the decoder card in order for the card to work right? Now what I if I want to add a voodoo2 on top of that configuration, is it possible I could use another pass-thru cable from the decoder card and to the voodoo card as well? A Y-cable perhaps?
Just food for thought.

[XT]

I love the Slotless Approach as well. My Hival/Pioneer 24 x cd rom is awesome. /forum/smile.gif

XT

[AuraEdge]

Im using my Ma****a 24x MAX slot over my Cyberdrive 44x MAX tray.
Cyberdrive is a VERY poor CD drive maker btw..and it just so happens that almost every comp show has truckloads of em.

[doglet]

Plucky,

Regarding the Voodoo2 question it does work for my Creative DVD decoder. I have two 12MB V2'sin SLI, V770 TNT2 and the decoder card. I had the smae misgivings as you are now having but I tried it and here's how it works:

Pass through from V2 to TNT2
Pass through from V2 to decoder
Plug in monitor to decoder

I don't know if performance for TNT2 is affected though (think about it...data passes through three boards and cables before reaching the monitor. Maybe I'll test it later with 3D Mark.
The only performance drop I have noticed is that the screen brightness was lowered after installation so I had to turn it up a little for the desktop and some games. Maybe this is a problem with the older Creative board I have. I want to buy the Hollywood aswell.

As for cheap Plucky....you are lucky...but I am even luckier as I won my DVD last weekend from a computer shop birthday sale celebration /forum/smile.gif Winners are grinners!!! /forum/smile.gif

Hope my info helps....long and rambling as it is.

DOGLET