Best app to watch DVDs

I have always liked Media Player Classic just because it's so basic. I've also come across some DVDs that force you to watch the previews(disabling any options to skip to the next chapter or anything) However, Media Player Classic usally isn't affected by this.

One problem with MPC, though, is that you do need a MPEG2 codec. You can usally find some online fairly easilly.
 
I personally like NVDVD, but that's only for nVidia cards. When I had my old ATI, I used a program called Intervideo WinDVD, served the purpose, can't stand using WMP (with ATI encoder).
 
Cyberlink's PowerDVD This is one program that goes right on without a need to even restart the system and plays a much larger variety of media files. video cds as well as dvds can be run easily with a cd rom as well as running files stored on the hard drive itself. A freeware known as SuperDVDXP was tried and can play various files while being quite limited. For WMP there are a few sites for downloading missing codecs like http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemList.aspx?typeid=8
 
I just "bought" (:)) nVDVD, its fantastic, great quality and even supports text-to-subtitles, I used to use WinDVD 7 ("bought" that one too :))

Thanks for the suggestion "SC7"
Also because it's not freeware it works on ATi cards as well, I read that on the requirements page.
 
I generally use winamp for everything I can, but does anyone know how to use it to play dvds, or vcds(which i cannot figure out outside of wmp)...:confused:
 
I use PowerDVD which is the best I have used. For making screen captures it's unbeatable - the frame shuttle from the keyboard beats anything else and you have choice of screen size or original video size. In the most recent versions you can choose whether to deinterlace or not.

The only other one I use is Sonic Cineplayer. That uses an overlay but I've never noticed any picture improvement over PowerDVD and it's not as convenient to use. The process stays running even when you close the program, which is annoying.

Starman*
 
The problem you are seeing with Sonic Cineplayer is most likely due to it being started up in the background along with Windows. The msconfig utility would show that in the startup group there. As far as taking snaphots for still frames off of a video most if not all now are seeing that feature included.

I had been running PowerDVD 4.0 since the 98SE days on one of the older systems right upto a few weeks on the current XP machine without ever seeing any problems. I just spotted the 6.0 version at newegg for $9.99 and upgraded on the spot. Other players especially WMP often see lockups while the Cyberlink player generally runs spotless. No complaints here. :D
 
csi1189 said:
I generally use winamp for everything I can, but does anyone know how to use it to play dvds, or vcds(which i cannot figure out outside of wmp)...:confused:
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I was forced to give up on Winamp for playing vcds some time back when first coming across PowerDVD. I have run on Superdvd which has a shareware program. But with dvd burner installed and having PowerDVD right there I generally use the full install type of player. You can try that out at http://www.softpile.com/Multimedia/Video/Review_13488_index.html
 
PC Eye, my Sonic Cineplayer is definitely not started or running in the background. I have several apps that do this, Directory Opus (Explorer shell) being the other main culprit. Both processes hang around after closing the app.

Re frame capture, yes others have capture but the shuttle controls are often mouse initiated.

With PowerDVD, Spacebar toggles pause/run, Ctrl+B goes back to last keyframe, T advances by the frame, C for capture (autonumbered).

Taking Cineplayer as "other" example, to advance a frame there is no keyboard shortcut you have to click the frame advance button then click the capture button. That requires looking at what you are doing.

The keyboard commands of PowerDVD are so quick to use and can be done without looking (hold fingers over C and T keys, thumb on spacebar). I do all my captures from still frames to get the best. If you are capturing on the fly, any old app will do!

Starman*
 
It does sound like some part of Sonic Cineplayer is being loaded. I ran into a similar problem with another type of writing software(Roxio's Easy Media Creator 8.0) that keep a driver loaded even when not having run the app. The driver there keep loading despite closing it out with the task manager where it was listed several times. (Time for NERO for data dvds I guess)
 
PC eye said:
The problem you are seeing with Sonic Cineplayer is most likely due to it being started up in the background along with Windows. The msconfig utility would show that in the startup group there. As far as taking snaphots for still frames off of a video most if not all now are seeing that feature included.

I had been running PowerDVD 4.0 since the 98SE days on one of the older systems right upto a few weeks on the current XP machine without ever seeing any problems. I just spotted the 6.0 version at newegg for $9.99 and upgraded on the spot. Other players especially WMP often see lockups while the Cyberlink player generally runs spotless. No complaints here. :D
Click to expand...

I use PowerDVD too.
 
SC7 said:
Mac OS X's DVD Player is pretty damn nice.
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Do you need a patch to run that under Windows? Quicktime and others generally go on without too much problem if the version is geared towards MS compatibility.
 
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