Combining PowerDVD 7's Audio Decoder and Microsot's MPEG-2 Video Decoder

[Dark Alpha]

Hey guys

I am stuck having to choose between smooth motion and audio quality, so I need your help trying to get the best of both worlds.

As most of you're aware Microsoft Vista's MPEG-2 Decoder is THE best on the market. The picture quality is absolutely superb and it doesn't judder, stutter or silently drop frames. In fact, the stability of its motion is equivalent to a dedicated hardware MPEG-2 decoder. Too bad I can't say the same for other software decoders (you know who you're are).


However, the Microsoft's audio decoder is very basic, and it doesn't even support DTS. Also, the dynamic range of Dolby Digital is compressed (dull in other words).


CyberLink's PowerDVD on the other hand is the exact opposite. Its DD and DTS audio decoders are amazing, but the MPEG-2 video decoder sucks (like the rest).


So is there a way to use Vista's MPEG-2 decoder with CyberLink's DD/DTS decoder? There must be a registry hack or an alternative to Zoom player???

[minidv2dvd]

you're on your own with this one. i've used cyberlink's powerdvd for at least 10 years through multiple versions and including on vista machines and never had anything display a better mpeg-2 picture. using version 8.0 these days.

[Dark Alpha]

I live in the UK and we use PAL DVDs which are masters in 25 fps and displayed on 50i/p display. So we can detact even the slightest jump in motion.

For me, videos play smoothly then start to jump/drop frames randomly. This process occurs over and over again through out the video. It ranges from minor to annoyance. I never actually viewed a video using PC without any jumps in motion (accept when using Vista's MPEG-2 decoder).

PS: The video jump was even noticable on the original Xbox, which was also software powerd. Although, the effects were minimal.

[minidv2dvd]

if you are watching dvds of major movies they are conversions from ntsc to pal. there may be some jerkiness from the frame rate conversion to pal masters.

pal is no more sensitive then ntsc to bad encoding.

[Dark Alpha]

I had this problem with other frame rates as well, and with other codecs. I've done everything I can to solve this for the past 5 years and failed.

However, the raw stability of Vista's MPEG-2 decoder got my hopes up again. Now I just need to combine the two.

Can't believe I am so close, yet so far away