May as well start it off since I asked for it

What is the minimum spec to run dvd movies. As long as the graphics card is upto scratch and DVD Rom.

What I am thinking is processor speed, hard disc size, RAM requirements

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Stewart C

An amateur but an enthusiast

The minimum spec for playing movies (And smoothly) would have to be a Pentium II 300, but you would need to have a graphics card which can add hardware acceleration. You could go lower that that with smooth playback, if you use an ATI card as they are regarded as the best DVD cards away from proper hardware decoding. I have a PIII 450 with 96mb RAM (128Mb would be a better bet now) 13Gb HDD (Although hard drive space is not really critical for DVD's, only for the software), and a 4x/24x DVD-ROM and the playback I get is very smooth, no pauses in playback. Just to give you an idea.

You'll get away with a P100 if you use a hardware decoder, I have a Creative Labs DXR2, which performs perfectly in a P100.

What I was hoping to do was build a DVD player from PC pieces, but I gave up as soon as I saw the cheap stuff coming on from Korea (SCAN SC2000 etc.)

The ATI cards are NOT considered (by most people in the AVS Forums - and they know their stuff) to be the best for software decoding. The various GeForce cards are.
An example for a software decoding home cinema PC would be:
Standard case (unless you want to go the whole hog and get a black or otherwise dark coloured one).
PII300, though these days a PIII 700 is recommended. A popular motherboard. That is to say one which has been used by other HCPC ers without problems.
15+ gig HD assuming you want MP3s and Digital photos on there aswell.
Multiregion DVD ROM. A quiet one is recommended.
128 meg RAM.
A GeForce graphics card. Possibly modified to have the filters removed which soften the picture.
Soundblaster live and S/PDIF output daughterboard.
Airboard IR keyboard and mouse combo.
Floppy drive.
Power DVD or Win DVD.
DVD Genie region changer.
Possibly Powerstrip.

It's a complex subject with lots of possibilities including using one of the MPACT motherboards to hardware decode.

It is NOT recommended that you get one of the interlaced hardware decoders like the Creative DXR2 or Sigma Hollywood +. They don't output progressive scan and therefore miss the point of a HCPC. While output to a TV might be ok with these cards, a normal DVD player will be as good and miles more convenient.

[PhilipH]

I have an old Dell Optiplex which I use as a DVD playing PC at the moment. It is a minimal spec P133 with a 1.2Gb hard disc and 64Mb RAM ... the reason for the choice of components is that the hard disc is especially quiet when running and the PC itself has fans that are *almost* silent too.

It works just fine and dandy for playing DVDs with a Creative Labs DXR3 card and I was watching Toy Story 2 last night full screen at 1,280 x 1,024 with not a problem. I am however running the Real Magic software with the card rather than the Creative Labs software as that has consistently proven to be unstable in the extreme. I run Windows 95 on that machine and Remote Selector V1.71 and it was intended to be used for nothing more than the constant playback of the Dolby Digital and THX trailers when I get my AV room finished however it is working nicely as a DVD player in my computer room and so is staying there for the time being.

[PhilipH]

Hey HC Dude ... are you sure that the DXR3 / Hollywood + can't output procressive scan? Sure the S-Video output is good old interlaced but I certainly wasn't running 1,280 x 1,024 interlaced last night...

Phil

[RobT]

Jeeze HC Dude, I thought the guy asked for the minimum spec for playing DVD's on a PC ;-). DTSFan2000 seems to be in the ballpark for a non-hardware decoder kit.

I was under the assumption that the ATI cards were the dogs wotsits for DVD playback without a separate hardware decoder and that Geforce 2d quality (non-RF modded) left something to be desired. I can kinda agree with the last statement in that I just swapped my old Matrox G200 for a Elsa Geforce 2 MX and the DVD picture quality isn't as good (3d games rock though ). Though I'm not about to take a soldering iron to my card just yet.

Cheers