The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Graphics card for watching dvds?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by PointMan, Aug 25, 2006.

  1. PointMan

    PointMan Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    38
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I hope I put this in the right category, but my question is, does it matter what type of graphics card you have if you're only gonna watch dvds on your notebook? Thanks.
     
    PointMan, Aug 25, 2006
    #1
  2. xbandaidx

    xbandaidx Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    174
    Messages:
    1,402
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    No.

    All graphics cards if it be integrated or dedicated will play DVDs just fine.

    It actually has less to do with anything than the CPU and DVD drive does, although it does help in some areas.
     
    xbandaidx, Aug 25, 2006
    #2
  3. MrWacko

    MrWacko Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    To be more exact, decoding DVD's is primarily a CPU task, not a GPU task. It's not graphics intensive, so that's why it won't matter what GPU you have.
     
    MrWacko, Aug 25, 2006
    #3
  4. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

    Reputations:
    1,581
    Messages:
    5,346
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Intel gma950 plays dvd's with amazing quality, as well as my x1600 can. DVDs are 2d and dont require any 3d gpu. So haviung a nice screen and resolution is all that affects the quality.
     
    Thaenatos, Aug 25, 2006
    #4
  5. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,707
    Trophy Points:
    431
    If you get a notebook with an NVIDIA chip, you can download NVIDIA's PureVideo DVD codec ($20 for the basic version, which is really all you need) which will offload much of the video rendering to the GPU from the CPU. The quality is excellent, better than most software solutions out there, inclduing PowerDVD and Media Player Classic.
     
    saturnotaku, Aug 25, 2006
    #5
  6. sionyboy

    sionyboy Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    100
    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Or if you get a laptop with an ATI X1xxx series then you get AVIVO playback enhancements (much like Nvidia's PureVideo) for free. Gives better image quality over standard software decoders.
     
    sionyboy, Aug 25, 2006
    #6