Great product, but can be an installation nightmare
Written: Mar 11 '00 (Updated Mar 18 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent Picture Quality, Smooth Framerates, Good Interface
Cons: Can Be Install-Hell
|
|
|
| vicwang's Full Review: Sigma Design REALmagic Hollywood Plus PCI Video Ca... |
Much has been said of how this is the best DVD decoder available, and in terms of overall quality it probably is. Image quality is almost flawless on my system, with TV output comparable to conventional DVD players. With that said, this product was also the most hellish installation nightmare I have ever faced in all my years of computer upgrading.
When I first installed it, I received an error message about the driver not loading properly. I checked the readme file, which suggested that I try other slots, so I tried each of my five slots--no dice. I then emailed tech support and posted messages in DVD newsgroups. Apparently this is a very common problem and, after almost a dozen back-and-forth emails and many newsgroup postings, they suggested all kinds of solutions including: trying older drivers, trying older versions of the software, changing settings on other devices, disabling IRQ's, removing other devices, replacing VXD's, renaming files, and deleting registry keys.
In retrospect, it was incredibly inefficient and almost laughable that Realmagic tech support would email me a suggestion, I would reply saying it didn't work, tech support would email me another suggestion, etc... Why didn't they just cut to the chase and provide ALL possible solutions instead of this back-and-forth that lasted over two weeks? Needless to say, it took at least six hours altogether trying the nearly limitless numbers of permutations, NONE of which worked.
Actually, I left out one of the most commonly suggested solutions--doing a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows, which is exactly what I finally did. And it finally worked. Of course, to me asking a user to do such a thing as a "solution" is really not a solution at all.
My only other complains are lack of an RCA audio output, a small silver "border" around the screen while in windowed-mode that can't be removed, and inability to re-dimension the window to remove the "black rectangles" while watching letterbox/widescreen films (it just squashes the image when you try).
For obvious reasons I have ambivalent feelings about the Hollywood Plus Decoder. If you're willing to take the risk of going through the hell that I did, you'll be rewarded with an excellent product. But if you can't get a piece of hardware installed at all, it doesn't really do you any good, does it?
(One more note: I've heard of some people having image quality problems with this and other hardware decoders. I suspect that much of the time it is from not adjusting the "stability" setting in the border adjustment options screen, which is not documented in the manual. It makes a HUGE difference).
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
vicwang
|
|
Member: Vic Wang
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 216 members
About Me:
Systems Analyst and all-around computer guru who's always keeping up with the latest technology.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.