What DVD Rom is the best ?

[Stewart C]

I know the graphics cards is ultra critical when it comes to this. However, what DVD ROM Drives are the best out there at the moment ?

Regards

------------------
Stewart C

An amateur but an enthusiast

[HT Dude]

Difficult question to answer.
Presumably you need a drive which can be made multiregion. Go to http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/dvd/dvdfi.htm
to see which drives can be modded.
Also you want a drive which is quiet and doesn't cook the discs.
The AVS forum www.avsforum.com (http://www.avsforum.com) has plenty of discussion on the subject but it's US oriented with regard to prices, retailers and available models.
I got the 16x slot loading Pioneer A05s which leaves the DVDs quite warm, make a little noise, but is generally ok. We've watched about 6 movies with it and it stuttered about 3 times in one movie which could have been down to something else going on in Windoze.

[Stewart C]

If I bought a Pioneer A05SZ then would I have to download the firmware upgrade for multi region.

There is something else I can download that works Power DVD, Win DVD etc. Do you need both , i.e. DVD Genie

Regards


------------------
Stewart C

An amateur but an enthusiast

Stewart,
I personally had problems playing both R1 & R2 discs on my PC, it would only allow me to change the region 5 times. Then I found DVD REGION KILLER - http://www.elby.de/RegionKiller/english/index.htm Install this into your hard drive, read the instructions and away you go. Problem free, multi region viewing on your PC. I'm running a Pioneer 114 2.03 with Zoran Soft DVD, it worked for me, should work for you!

[This message has been edited by Homer Jay (edited 25-11-2000).]

[Metric]

get a creative kit, the old 2x dvd with the drx2 cards are great, region free, outputs aswell as a standalone due to hardware decoding, will convert 60 to 50hz on the fly for backing up to pal vhs

get one for about 80 quid

Mike

[HT Dude]

Stewart, yes, if you got the Pioneer, you would have to download and run the firmware update to be able to run it multiregon. There are two barriers to cross - the drives being region locked themselves, and the software players being region locked after 5 times. The hardware problem can be overcome by running the appropriate firmware update from the URL provided above (careful - not all drives can be made region free).
And the software players can be made multi-region using DVD Genie downloadable from a link from www.dvdutils.com. (http://www.dvdutils.com.)

Metric - the HCPC forum is more oriented towards high-end home cinemas run from PCs. The Creative labs kit is ok through a normal telly, but RGB output to the computer monitor - and therefore your projector - is awful. Plus the encores introduce an unacceptable amount of noise into the video signal making higher resolutions (e.g. 1280x1024) virtually unusable.

[Branxx]

Stewart C

I've just come across www.overclockers.co.uk (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_CD_DVD_10.html) who are selling Pioneer DVD 105 drives with either white or black facia, which have already been made region free by them. The price is competitive as well.

There are some other nice gear on their site.

[HT Dude]

Branxx - they look like a good source for PC rleated stuff and it's nice to see a supplier 'switched on' enough to supply region free DVDs. Have you had experience (or heard) of the quality of their service ?

[Branxx]

HC Dude,

I've just discovered them yesterday.

Looking on the other offers they have: motherboards, processors, cooling fans, etc they look knowledgeable. For example there is P3 700E offer with motherboard using Intel i815 chipset which can be over clocked to 933MHz. I know that works, I’ve been using the same for last 2 months (Asus CUSL2 motherboard).

Their prices are slightly more expensive than the usual PC shops I order from (Insight (http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/uk/uk_home.html) or Dabs.com (http://www.dabs.com/), but it may be a worth while premium if they genuinely try and test the bits before shipping.

Maybe Stewart C can do as all a favor and make a DVD drive purchase from them.

PS. A while ago I come across another fine local shop which is of interest for HTPC, www.quietpc.com. (http://www.quietpc.com.) I exchanged a couple of e-mail with them but never actually ordered anything.


[This message has been edited by Branxx (edited 02-12-2000).]

[Stewart C]

Well done guys, good work. Maybe I will try them.

Regards



------------------
Stewart C

An amateur but an enthusiast