WinDVD or PowerDVD?

[bozoka45]

Which is better, WinDVD or PowerDVD? I want opinions!!

[Sefy]

PowerDVD v3.0.0461 - Great Video and Audio Quality, Small Size, Faster, Better Interface and with Skins Support, Detects VCD and DVD, can only play SVCD in File Mode.

WinDVD v3.0 Build 57 - Good Video and Audio Quality, Very Large, Decent Speed, Ugly Interface but has Skins as well, Detects VCD,SVCD and DVD.

[CornelisJ]

I don't agree with Sefy about WinDVD's "ugly" user interface, in my opinion it is not looking worse than PowerDVD's user interface.
If you want to play SVCD's, go for WinDVD. If you only play DVD's and VCD's, there is not much difference IMHO.

[Sefy]

I'm not here to change your mind regarding what looks good and what doesn't, but for a new user, most people will prefer PowerDVD as it has a DVD/VCR interface which is much easier to use then WinDVD, and also, WinDVD is much larger then PowerDVD in size, and from personal experience, it's Video Quality is not all that good (i'm refering to v3.0 Build 57).

[Feslmogh]

I like WinDVD because it lets me use the digital output of my card when viewing a movie.

[Sefy]

PowerDVD also uses my Live! 5.1 Digital Output, and it supports nearly every sound card in the market, even those A3D which are no longer supported by their own companies.
But I wasn't complaining about WinDVD's Audio, I was mentioning it's interface which is unfriendly, and it doesn't have alot of options like PowerDVD does, and lastly, it's Video Quality isn't as good either.

This is just my opinion, it's not to force anyone to do anything, if you like WinDVD, then by all means, I have no problems with it.

[flaninacupboard]

actually, i don't have an option on this one, powerDVD will not read VCD's, and winDVD will. why is this? anybody know?

[Sefy]

Which version of PowerDVD do you have ? and which one did you install first, one must have taken over handling VCD's and won't let the other play them back correctly, or, your VCD is non-standard.

[flaninacupboard]

after attempting to use WMP, i installed powerDVD. it recognises vcds as bad dvds. i then installed winDVD, which plays vcds fine, including non-standard ones. i also hav xing mpeg player, which won't run vcds. except for one video on one disc, a PAL music video, in the middle of some NTSC ones. WMP runs it, as does xing, powerDVD and winDVD. however, the other videos on the disc only work in winDVD. so i checked all my pal vcds, and they only work in winDVD. just this one video that works in the rest of them. bizarre!

[homerpez]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-08-21 09:47:07, flaninacupboard wrote:
actually, i don't have an option on this one, powerDVD will not read VCD's, and winDVD will. why is this? anybody know?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I can say for sure that PowerDVD WILL in fact read and play VCD's, and XVCD's (anything formatted as a VCD, no matter VBR or whatever). You must use "Disc Mode" however.

It's SVCD's that PowerDVD won't detect. It doesn't recognize the disc format, says it's unsupported. You can still play the video file itself, of course, but you have to hunt for it in "File Mode".

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-08-22 08:44:42 ]</font>

[SingSing]

I have both softwares.

PowerDVD gave a dark picuture, and the interface is hard to use.

I would vote for WinDVD..

[Psx]

Dont forget that windvd is the _only_ dvd software licensed to decode dts. (Big + in my book)

[TIbrO]

I used to use PowerDVD 3.0 when I had Windows 2000. I just got XP RC2 Build 2526 Friday of last week, and I haven't reinstalled PowerDVD yet because I didn't know if I could use it in XP or not... I used to use WinDVD until I found PowerDVD... WinDVD was rather glitchy and not too good IN MY OPINION when I had Win2K, and PDVD3 worked fine from the start... So... they are about the same, but if I had to choose one or the other, and I was in Windows 2000, I would use Cyberlink PowerDVD 3.

[flaninacupboard]

nope, power DVD won't play any VCD formatted as such.

The DVD disc might have been damaged so as to inhibit playback operation.

Please clean the surface of the disc if possible. If it has been scratched, it might not be readable.

works in winDVD, and two standalones ive tested it in.

[Sefy]

I Don't see how it is that PowerDVD does not play discs for you, especialy VCD's, i've got quite alot of them, including non-standard, and it plays them smoothly and without a single problem.

SVCD's are a diffrent matter, you need to use File Mode for that, and I would still prefer PowerDVD, as i've found the quality of WinDVD to be totaly unsatisfactory.

NOTE: WinDVD may Officialy support DTS, but Unofficialy PowerDVD also supports DTS, and it's Audio Options are much better then WinDVD.

[BeTa]

I would love to have them both - I have some aspect ratio issue w/ a couple of movies for which I used to use PowerDVD and it played them just fine...

However, for some time, when I try to load the playlist in PowerDVD, it did not play them, instead, freezes the system (Win98SE). That is disturbing, I had to uninstall them - it happened with the latest two versions.

Is there anybody know some remedy for this issue?

So, I'm stuck with WinDVD that plays some low res (352x240)and/or lower bitrate MPEG2 movies poorly (choppy playback). For these movies WMP 6.4 with ligos codec works perfectly.

BeTa

[CornelisJ]

For a Software DVD Player Comparison see this VCDHelp page:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/compdvdsoft.htm

Interesting to see that two different author's of this site (Sefy and Michael) have different conclusions. The winner according to Michael: WinDVD 3.0.

[Sefy]

I'm not saying WinDVD is the worst, it's got pretty nice features and if you notice, the only diffrence is about 2% between PowerDVD and WinDVD, and I don't know which version of PowerDVD he used, I always use the latest builds, and the quality has vastly improved in both the video and especialy the audio, and that's why in my opinion, it beats WinDVD.

But i'm not argueing with anyone, this is just my conclusion from my uses with both players.

[Macros746]

Okay,
here is a spin off question along the same lines. I have a hollywood magic card in my computer so the DVD player thing is sort of a moot issue. However, in my experience, Hollywood Magic sometimes has a hardtime reading VCDs. My question actually relates to my weak laptop....it is a p133...yup you read right, a p133. I am presently using Xing player to reasonably good results for playing VCDs. I tried Cinematograph but it played considerably slower on my machine. What are the system requirements for PowerDVD? Will it run faster on my machine than Xing? I suppose i'll just have to try it but any suggestions would be much appreciated.


Macros746

[Sefy]

Hmm... that's a tough one, I could say that PowerDVD being smaller would propably work better then WinDVD in your situation, but this isn't the question here.

XingMPEG is quite a powerful decoder, but I think, not 100% positive! that PowerDVD could/might do a better job since it is newer and it possibly could take better advantage of any hardware you may have.

[sullen]

PC Friendly DVD titles supposedly interface better with PowerDVD than WinDVD. Something about a default play setting. It is just like everything else...this program compliments this one so use this one for it...etc. Marketing strategy. I personally use PowerDVD, but don't really like any of the interfaces of either including the custom skins that are available.

[sullen]

PS I almost forgot. For ripped VOBs I use Windows Media Player because I can not get PowerDVD to find the file where I rip to. It is on the desktop, but does not show in the Windows list.

[bozoka45]

Seems like I started quite a topic..hehehehe