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Ken_F2 · Jul 29, 2002, 07:41 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />For users with high horsepower machines, MPEG4 and DIVX aren't a problem. For those without the deep wallets and resources necessary to buy one of these speedster machines, MPEG4 means bad video, artifacting, sync problems, and generally speaking a poor replay experience.

The folks over at Sigma Designs, makers of semiconductor products designed to bring seamless Windows Media and DivX playability to your DVD player have now introduced a consumer level add-in card that enables your PC to become a complete home theater controller. It supports both NTSC and PAL, is scalable up to HDTV resolution, handles all video and audio decoding including 5.1 and DTS, and supports DVD-Video, Superbit� DVD, Super VideoCD (SVCD), and VideoCD (VCD) 1.x, 2.0, DivX� video (version 4.02 or later), MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 files. For enthusiasts, it also allows playing NTSC titles on PAL televisions and PAL titles on NTSC televisions without the need for expensive secondary conversion units.

Best of all it'll do this on a P200 - meaning your old dinosaur currently collecting dust in your closet now actually has a purpose in life.

And for the Tim Taylor's out there - IT HAS A REMOTE!

The price is going to shock you.

The X-card, complete with software, remote control, cables, accessories... $99 USD<hr /></blockquote>Here's the <a href="http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm" target="_blank">web page</a>, the <a href="http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard_features_specifications.htm" target="_blank">specifications</a>, and the <a href="http://www.sigmadesigns.com/pdf_docs/xcard_brochure.pdf" target="_blank">product brochure in PDF format</a>.

Why can't we get something like this for the Mac? Those with old and outdated Macs seem to have trouble playing some DVD, QT6 / MPEG4, or DIVX files full screen, and this would eliminate that problem. It would also provide digital output for DD5.1 that Macs are currently lacking.

iAdmin · Jul 30, 2002, 01:17 AM

I know someone who has one. It is fine for underpowered machines (300mhz), but anything higher (900 mhz celeron plus), software rendering with motion hardware compensation assist yield better results.

Then again, if you compare mpeg2/mpeg4 rendering vis-a-vis mac/windows, windows is by far superior. Seems like Quicktime and DVD player do not do motion compensation. You can see this with fast moving images.. I played "O Brother Where Art Thou" as a demo, it plays on my ibook, powerbook, and even dual g4 1 gig at work very poorly compared to a 650 mhz Thinkpad that I have collecting dust.
Just look at the scene wher Clooney jumps on the train, you can see artifacting and heavy pixelating. I have a friend who watches a lot of porn where there is lots of fast moving motion and he even agrees with me.

I pull it out once in a while and you can see that mpeg2/4 DVD is better on the PC platform -- For Chrissake, they have at least 4 top tier DVD programs (PowerDVD, WindDVD, Cinemaster, and DVDExpress). Many of these new ones have tons of feature support. The software dvd makers also work with hardware manufactures to tweak them out. I am suprise that ATI and NVIDIA on the mac perform so poorly on the mac platform.

OwlBoy · Jul 31, 2002, 01:00 PM

I'm waiting for the DivX set top box. Then I ca nsteal all my movies and watch em on my TV.

-Owl