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Windows NT and DVD Decoders?
An Anonymous Coward wanted to know about the following: "Last month there was discussion about DVD and Linux. What about Windows NT 4.0 and DVD software decoders and players? Where are they? There are Windows 98 players but there are no support for DirectX 5.0 in WIndows NT 4.0. But why is DirectX so important? So far, I've only found one NT DVD decoder: WinDVD."
Are available for download from creative labs.
They were beta software, but did work just fine...
The latest PC-DVD kit from creative (with 6x DVD drive and DXR3 decoder) says that it requires windows 95/98. However, they have released drivers for NT for the DXR3. Unfortunately, my system will not boot when it loads these drivers. Luckily my partition is not ntfs and I was able to delete the drivers and then boot normally. You may have better luck though.
Works fine for me with NT4.0, SP5, Riva TNT2 and Soundblaster Live.
Some speech sync problems, but then films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking do that all by itself anyway.
Never be afraid to ask. Wisdom must be gathered before it can be given.
The Creative DXR3 is the same card as the Sigma Designs Hollywood+, look on www.dvdutils.com for info on using H+ drivers with DXR3
Most off the software only DVD players use *.vxd files. This stuff tries to bypass the HAL and write to the iron via DirectX. NT doesn't allow that and kills the app.
I've been succesfully able to play DVD movies on W2K-RC1 w/DirectX7. Oddly, software only players work better that my HollyWoodPlus/SigmaDesigns decoder card. My best results have been with DVD Express 4.00.18.23 and Quadrant Cinemaster 3.10(ATI128).
Hmmm, I've got NT 4.0 SP5, Riva tnt, and soundblaster awe32. Do you think my problems could have something to do with me having dual processors? The player was working perfectly under 98 but now I am getting the speech sync problems you mentioned. I am not sure but I believe it started after I installed some service packs for other programs.
According to their website, "The LSX-MPEG Player plays MPEG-2 files, it is not a DVD player."
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
According to the rec.video.dvd DVD FAQ, your other choices are:
"Margi DVD-To-Go, Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus, and the related Creative Labs Dxr3 are among the few decoders that work in NT 4.0. Software decoders from InterVideo, Mediamatics, and MGI also work in NT 4.0, but aren't available retail."
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
Ligos has a MPEG-2 decoder that runs as a codec for Windows Media player. They have a time-limited beta version for free download. I don't have an NT system here to test with but I suspect it will work if Windows Media works.
I've had the Creative Labs Encore 2x kit when it was first released. It's easy to install in Windows 9x and has full support in NT 4, but the monitor output isn't all that great. It's excellent when pumping it out to a television, but if you plan on watching on your monitor, too, go with the Hollywood decoders by Sigma Designs. I've helped several of the Hollywood Pluses and they are awesome in terms of the monitor output. The DXR3 isn't much of an improvement over the DXR2, either. Last time I checked, there are NT drivers for the Hollywood.
Creative's driver page says the Dxr3 drivers just added "Support for single processor x86 Windows NT4.0 (English language)." Looks like your multiprocessor system could be the culprit.
I've been running the dxr3 card under NT with no problems whatsoever for the past few months... I have a SB Live! Value, TNT2, and Encore Dxr3.
I bought this lame card on ebay. When I bought this card, www.e4.com used to exist but I couldn't download the drivers (bad url). Any body has drivers for this card?
I have a dual 300a's @ 450 and have had the creative drivers working. Diamond TNT2, sb16. I have had problems with bios putting the dxr3 on a shared IQR and it will not work then.
REALLY?!!! My friggin system is making 4 devices share irq 10, included my decoder card! No matter what I do in the bios or in windows 98 I can't seem to get it on its own irq (plenty left). (Abit BP6 motherboard). Also it seems like some of the system updates for NT somehow screw up the player for 98. When I intall all of the updates I either get out of sync audio or the player crashes after 5-20 minutes, or both. Are there any good decoders for linux that are free and use the decoder card?
i had the same problem with the BP6 and my SBLIVE. No matter what I tried the UDMA66(6) controller would follow. I eventually gave up and got a dual slot one board from tyan. UDMA66 is a joke. Only 1% performance increase overall. I was at intel when they were testing it and it was all marketing hype.
The really shitty thing is I can't seem to find a way to turn off the udma 66 controller. I am not using it now so i really don't need it using up irq's.