NVIDIA GeForce FX Personal Cinema Roundup - Asus, Chaintech, eVGA, and MSI
by Andrew Ku on December 23, 2003 10:48 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
NVIDIA Personal Cinema Software — In Sourced
As already mentioned, playback is second to digital VCR software. The only reason we go over NVIDIA's in-house playback software (NVDVD) is because of its in-house origins. This marks the first time that NVIDIA has taken an application to the consumer market. Effectively, it serves as a replacement to InterVideo's WinDVD in the Personal Cinema software suite, and it can additionally be purchased retail through NVIDIA's website. This is in contrast to ATI, who has long had an in-house playback title on the market, but currently limited to ATI powered systems. Interestingly, NVIDIA's NVDVD is compatible with ATI Radeon graphics, but this is mainly because limiting the software to NVIDIA hardware wouldn't help make money on the retail end. Running at $40 ($39.95 to be exact), this is probably one of the more cost effective DVD players.
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The interface is very professional and comes with a low profile that is very easy to use. There is no separate panel for controls, rather the display window is surrounded by the controls necessary to manipulate playback. NVDVD was designed to be skin supported, which means the availability of skins will be dependent on the popularity of the program. For now, skins are in short supply, and purchasers of NVDVD can expect the default skin (shown here) and a skin that minimizes controls, so that it seems like the window is the only thing visible.
The program doubles as a file player, and this is where we have taken issue with the design of the program. Watching a DVD movie doesn't really require the need for an elaborate position track to jump to an exact point in the movie, though some sort of a position track is needed at a minimum. With File playing, however, it becomes a necessity and quite important. The position track with the default skin is a fixed length, even when the player is resized, and is perhaps the program's greatest weakness. Windows Media Player will automatically lengthen its position track once resized in full or skin mode, which plays to its advantage when trying to tune to a specific point in a large movie file.
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NVDVD 2.0 OEM is the version bundled with all GeForce4 and GeForce FX Personal Cinemas. The OEM version of NVDVD will not allow certain functions, such as 5.1 decoding, audio capture, and frame capture among other things. This really is a disadvantage because the customer who just purchased a GeForce FX Personal Cinema that runs at least over $150 can't even take advantage of all the capabilities of NVDVD. Instead, another $40 cost must be added for this. Unless the cost comes down or the retail version becomes bundled with Personal Cinemas, consumers will likely stick with their copy of WinDVD or PowerDVD.
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Webgod - Sunday, January 11, 2004 - link
Where's the review? Where's the comparison of screenshots of live TV with both the Personal Cinema and ATI AIW cards? How does it compare to your TV set side by side? How do the ATI AIW's compare to the Personal Cinema cards with PVR functions, etc.? Go more in depth, this is Anandtech.bschuler2004 - Monday, December 29, 2003 - link
Nvidia sure does make some crappy AIW imitators! I thought they'd be worse than ATI, but not THIS bad. It's shocking to say the least. I'd rather have an original AIW rage IIC card then one of these garbage cards.How on earth do they honestly intend to sell this junk with a straight face? It's laughable.
jruff - Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - link
PC CLub recommened the nVidia card which is what I built for my mothers computer. Going over tomorrow t o run thru the software. For my wife's machine I just bought a AIW 9600 Pro that I will be installing tomorrow. Shhhh, its a christmas present ;)I couldnt find much on the nVidia when I put her new system together I was just going on what PC Club said. Ill get a chance to use both here in the next week putting together the 6 Digital 8 tapes I have managed to make in the last year of my sons life (birthday jan 8, 1 year)
We will se how it goes and which makes the easiest final product.
Stay tuned :)
LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - link
Interesting, but I do get a little tired of bundling all of these products with the video card. I want to keep a TV tuner/PVR for the long haul, and every time graphics technology changes, buying a new all-in-one card would break my budget. That, and the fact that NVidia only offers these features on their low-end cards means I'd rather choose one of ATI's solutions, despite some issues with their software. The All-in-Wonder line now spans from the entry-level AIW 7500 and 9000 on up to the top. ATI has a much better tiered structure, and also has standalone tuner/capture cards (TV Wonder Pro).morcegovermelho - Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - link
Good review. Very good info on breakout box, remote control, and Dual Display Support.Maybe should be included in the review some info about video-capture.
What capture format? MPEG2? AVI? Other format?
If capture is mpeg2, what resolution? what bitrate? Is it DVD-compliant?
If capture is avi, what is the codec? Can it be uncompressed? Can we use DivX? It's a proprietary codec?
How about dropped frames?
Audio capture - 44khz or 48Khz? Uncompressed, mp2 or ac3 ?
sandorski - Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - link
I just kinda skimmed the article, but I saw enough to support my conclusion(I think ;) ): Nvidia has a long road to catch up to ATI in regards to Multimedia/Multifunction vidcards. It's not just in technology though, but also reputation.It wasn't too long ago when Multifunction was all ATI had, they certainly weren't selling their cards for Gaming Performance reasons. No serious Gamer would even consider them.
OTOH Nvidia and 3DFX were engaged in a bitter battle for the Gaming Performance crown. We all know how that turned out ( :( ).
Nvidia won the Crown and all seemed good....until ATI released the Radeon 9700 Pro. That one card turned the video card world on its' ear and NVidia has been trying to catch up since.
ATI's time relying on and perfecting their AIW and lesser MultiMedia functioning cards had allowed them to focus on Gaming Performance. They acheived that and the Marketplace is begining to turn on to the whole Multimedia/Multifunction idea in a big way.
Nvidia has a long road ahead and seems to be trying to desperately catch up on a number of fronts. Hopefully they can for Competitions sake, but ATI is turning into a Juggernaut.