Do I need to install PowerDVD if I already have WinXP MCE?

I did a clean reinstallation, got Dell Media Direct to work, I do have the PowerDVD CD but haven't installed it yet. To my surprise I was able to watch DVD movies by using Dell Media Direct although I haven't installed PowerDVD yet...Does Dell Media Direct already come with a DVD player? Do you think I should still install PowerDVD?

 

If your DVD player is working then you don't have to install anything else, less is better.

 

Yes, the MediaDirect portion of the hard drive has built-in DVD play capability. It all depends on whether or not you think you'll want to play DVDs while in Windows....

Mark

 

Except for cherry picking away at bloatware, of course.

 

Have anyone compared the image quality of these different DVD players? (Media Direct vs. PowerDVD), are they about the same?

 

They are the same. I thought at first that MediaDirect looked better, but upon a comparison of the same movie in MCE PowerDVD and in MediaDirect's PowerDVD (and if I remember correctly I tried VideoLAN). They were all the same. I think it depends more on the screen than the software.

 

I also remember seeing the PowerDVD logo somewhere in the MediaDirect menu screen...sounds like MediaDirect's build-in DVD player is the same as PowerDVD.

 

That's right bestco, MediaDirect does use PowerDVD.

I did find that if running something else in the background, playing a DVD in MediaCenter kept putting a white line at the bottom of the screen, it about drive me insane!