compatible dvd decoder

DVD is an acronym for digital video disc or digital versatile disc, an optical disk storage technology that has become enormously popular. These discs can store video, audio, and computer data. Movies are stored on DVD in DVD-Videoformat. From the view here in Silicon Valley, DVDs have been pummeling the VHS market. And rightly so. Introduced in March 1997, the quality of DVD playback, the convenient size of the discs, and extra features such as random access to any point in a movie, make DVDs far outshine VHS tapes. Video cassette recorders using VHS tapes are still useful for certain tasks, such as taping a show from live television. But DVDs are so popular that I've observed customers at the local Fry's Electronics store snapping up DVD players as if they were candy.

Basics of DVD Playback

DVDs contain their video content in a highly-compressed format called MPEG-2. Compression is necessary because each second of video would require 31 MB of storage if uncompressed. At that rate, a DVD would only hold about two and a half minutes of video. Using industry-standard MPEG-2 compression, a DVD can hold a little over two hours of video. (These figures are all based on single-layer DVDs. The highest capacity DVDs—dual-layer, double-sided—hold four times as much.)

Decompressing MPEG-2 requires a lot of computing power. DVD players contain a chip specifically designed to decompress MPEG-2 data. However, modern PCs have enough computing power to decode MPEG-2 entirely by software. For a couple of years now, computers equipped with DVD drives have contained DVD decoder software capable of playing DVDs. These decoders were provided by the PC or DVD drive manufacturer. Until Windows XP, you also needed a DVD player application, but Windows Media Player for Windows XP now fully supports DVD playback, as long as a compatible DVD decoder is installed.

DVD Privacy Issue

When Windows Media Player encounters a DVD for the first time, it sends a unique DVD identification number to WindowsMedia.com, and searches for title names, chapter information, director names, and the release date for the DVD. This information is added to the list of overall information kept in the Media Library. Apparently Microsoft's original privacy policy regarding Windows Media Player and WindowsMedia.com didn't specifically mention DVD information-gathering policies. Rumors began circulating that Microsoft was collecting personal information about you and submitting it to Microsoft during this process. I'm sorry, but I have to laugh when I hear such things. Why would they be so foolish? Microsoft has since amended their Media Player Privacy Statement to make it clear that no personally identifying information about you is sent back to Microsoft during DVD lookup.

Even though no personally identifying information is obtained or stored during DVD lookup, you can disable the feature.

To prevent Windows Media Player from searching for DVD information:

1.	On the File menu, click Work Offline. Note: If you choose to work offline, you will not be able to access any information on the Internet. The Radio Tuner feature will not work because it relies on a connection to the Internet to obtain streaming media.

Exploring DVD Playback

After Windows Media Player is playing your DVDs, my advice is—experiment! Any icon or button you see that you don't know what it does, click it. There's a lot of functionality in Windows Media Player. Don't be afraid to find it. Windows Media Player is a full-featured DVD player with lots of new features such as full-screen video playback controls, easy-to-navigate DVD chapter listings, and integrated cover art, chapter listings, actor and director credits and more.

You may find that you don't want to run Windows Media Player in the same mode for DVD playback as you use for audio playback. For example, most skins don't allow Windows Media Player to resize to the exact dimensions of the video. (Default Media Player and Classic do.) Your video quality will suffer if the decoder cannot display it at full resolution. You may want to change your skin, or play the movie in full-screen mode. Alt + Enter toggles between skinned and full-screen mode. Also, try right-clicking the movie and checking out theDVD Features menu for specific features available with your DVD Decoder.

My favorite mode is full screen. The controls get out of the way a few seconds after start and are available any time you move the mouse or press a key.

You may want to consider upgrading your barebones DVD decoder for a more full-featured one with additional functionality if you expect to play DVDs on your PC often. Ravisent, InterVideo, and CyberLink all offer more robust decoders. Recent PCs, including laptops, may also support DirectX Video Acceleration (DxVA) and Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) technologies to improve quality and performance, and reduce battery consumption. Just what you need for providing your own, customized in-flight entertainment.

Galan Bridgman is a developer, architect, and enthusiast for digital media technologies. He co-developed QuickTime for Windows for Apple Computer. At Starlight Networks he developed innovative client and backend technologies using ActiveMovie® and NetShow® Server, the precursors to Windows Media Technology. He is a full-time consultant, and is currently developing a next-generation, fully-automated radio station using Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series technologies. After hours he enjoys showing others how to make the most of Microsoft's latest Windows Media applications.

Experience Blu-ray movies the way that only PowerDVD 10 can offer: simply unbeatable quality. Optimized for the latest hardware acceleration technologies from Intel, NVIDIA and AMD, PowerDVD ensures smoother movie performance. PowerDVD 10 launches your Blu-ray movies up to 4X faster too.

3D and HD movie player PowerDVD 10 lets your ears enjoy the ultimate movie experience too, with support for high-definition audio formats from Dolby Digital and DTS. Support for HDMI 1.3a delivers the purity of lossless HD audio via a single convenient cable to your home theater system.

Create movie reviews that other users can read and play using PowerDVD 10. MovieMarks combine bookmarks and review comments and can be shared online via MoovieLive.com. Meanwhile, Live Comments let you post your opinions to Facebook, Twitter and MoovieLive while your movie is playing.

Supporting the latest music library features of Windows 7, PowerDVD 10 makes it even easier to listen to music from the player you use to enjoy. Create playlists of favorite tunes. UseTrueTheater™ Surround technology to optimize your audio for home theater and PC hardware. Sounds great!

With PowerDVD 10, home videos can be enhanced usingTrueTheater™ Stabilizer and TrueTheater™ Noise Reductionto improve quality as you play. As a universal player, PowerDVD 10 now plays even more formats, gives you access to online movie trailers via MoovieLive, and lets you upload files to YouTube.

Free DVD player software Cliprex DVD Player Professional software is the free solution for playing DVDs on the PC. Cliprex DVD Player Professional will handle playback of both commercial and consumer-created DVDs. Beside DVD video it supports most well known video standard formats, like DIVX, XVID, MPEG, WMV, ASF, Video CD, Super Video CD and any other videofile you have the codec installed for. This software DVD player gives an impressive video and sound quality with an easy navigation interface through a context menu. Features are: Automatic aspect ratio, audio stream selection, selection of available subtitles, easy chapter selection for the DVD menu, bookmarks management, angle selection, resume option of a specific DVD, fullscreen/desktop play and more options. This version of Cliprex DVD Player Professional is free for viewing DVD videos and other videos on a home PC or notebook computer. The package also contains free codecs. Enjoy DVD playing with this free DVD player! Cliprex DVD Ripper rips DVDs to video files. It supports most dvds, and in case no dvd is found it will accept iso's (i.e. from dvdshrink) or dvd folders located on the harddisk (i.e. from dvd decrypter) Cliprex DVD Ripper rips dvds to most common video formats, is compatible with most PocketPC's and PalmOS5 devices, IPOD Video, IPhone, smartphones and many other portable devices. Its straight forward no-nonsense design makes this application very easy to use for even unexperienced computer users. Cliprex DVD Ripper does not rely on or use Windows codecs to be installed for conversion. It also allows basic adjustments to make the movie fit on the screen (cropping) and important quality adjustments to make a movie fit almost any filesize! Cliprex DVD Ripper is also region free.

Cdivx Player is a free light skinnable video player optimized for Divx videos, playing DivX, XviD, AVI, ASF, WMV, MPEG, VCD, MOV, DAT and lots of other video formats. It also supports images: bmp, jpg and audio files like WAV, MP3, OGG etc. It has a friendly interface and the shell integration option provides fast access to any video file. This first release offers fast media rendering with a clearable history list, normal, fullscreen and desktop playback, aspect ratio settings of i.e. 4:3 (tv) 16:9 (wide), image grabbing from videos to BMP, JPG or PNG files and an information browser window for news, updates, codecs and friendly error reports. The package also contains a free Divx and AC3 codec. A skin builder will be released in the future.

Clipscreensaver is a windows screensaver playing videos of all kinds. You have the possibility to create a playlist with videos from your favorite videos and play them in your default screensaver. The following video types are supported: DivX, XviD, MPG, MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV, M1V, M2V and more. Let Clipscreensaver pick one of your favorite videos at random automatically. Several options can be set in the settings panel. Clipscreensaver can mute the music/sound from your playing videos, set the default aspect ratio and preview the way videos are going to be displayed. Enjoy your favorite videos even without touching your pc!