Viewing Thread:
"DVD Players: PC or not PC?"

Well, I won a DVD (WAYHAY!!!) but I haven't got a DVD player, so I think we'll have to add it to the list (roll on payday!).

Which are better, standalone DVD players or PC based DVD players??

When I say PC based, I'm looking at a Samsung 16x drive and a Real Magic decoder card. All this for the convinving fee of £95.

What do ya reckon??

I'll let loki answer the buyer question but as for size DVD's can easily hold 4/8 gig or up to 16 dual sided. Alough at the moment 40 gig is fine and in the future (a year or so) 80/100 gig drives will be prize at a reasonable rate.

How BIG are you talking now? will I have to upgrade my 40GB to fit a few games on? or will a game fit snuggly into a 1GB space??? surely when DVD drives start getting faster they will run most of the game from the DVD?
+ if you thinking about getting the pioneer 16x, it's slower than some of the 12x? I don't understand this, but the RPM...(someone help me out) is a lot slower than the Creative Blaster drive that SR sell.

Games are starting to reach the data limit imposed by a PC. This combined with DVD players becoming more widespread will lead to more and more games being released (the only problem is that as game developers get a free rein on the size of games, you will need BIG hard disks).

there will be more DVD games to come, but a 3d card isn't just for games it works well for video stuff like editing and err, watching tv on your pc, it's all very good + it makes your pc run faster, which is never a bad thing.

Unles your not after the games scene, of course.

Are there many games on DVD then???

As Andrew said, you can have both, if you have a good spec pc buy a 3d video card with a tv output, buy a DVD player for your pc, then you can have a DVD player that works for both your pc and TV + you can play DVD games on your pc.
3d cards with tv outputs are expensive but it's worth it because you can games with great graphics and speed.

i found nothing more annoying than trying to relax whilst watching a film on a computer

thanks very much, I can just afford both ya know :-p

PS2,quality. Sorry I hate consoles. I have got both a standalone (encore dvd which we used to sell (it is now the LG)) and a PC DVD. The problem with a PC DVD is that you usually have a smaller screen on your pc compared with your tele, teles are usually in more comfortable locations (with sofas) and you can get more people rounda tv then a pc. THe only advantage to a pc-dvd is playing PC DVD games. My advice, get both.

(kingklik ponders where you can get decent DVD players for a decent price). Hmmmm, oh, I had it a second ago! Hang on, where did I get mine from? Hmmmm, oh, dammit, WHERE was it? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, oh yeah, SPECIAL RESERVE! :P