happousai's Full Review: Sigma Design REALmagic Hollywood Plus PCI Video Ca...
Yes, there are "all-in-one" products out there. It's hard to walk into a decent computer store and find a video card that, indeed, does NOT decode DVDs. It is hard, however to find one that the job as well as the Real Magic does.
With few notable exceptions (such as the Matrox G400 Max, approx $200 retail), all-in-one cards have playback that is not quite as sharp as dedicated decoder cards. Symptoms of a weak decoder are skipped frames, muted colors and even "jaggies" and pixelation. (It almost seems as if they don't do all the decoding and leave some work to the CPU, though I could be wrong here.)
No matter what you're doing with your computer, however, there will be none of this with the Magic Real Magic Hollywood Plus. I have personally burned CDs, had multiple FTP downloads going, while running a server(!) and had no problems watching DVDs at the same time. This product is simply amazing.
And it's cheap too. Like other reviews have said, it retails for around $50 (depending where you shop) and, best of all, it allows you to get the video card you want, without compromising speed of the video card for additional (read: DVD) functionality. If you have the PCI slot to spare, this is definitely a card to get. Installation is easy - push in the card, attach a single external cable, and you're good to go. It's plug-n-play compliant and there's no hassles. You can also, incidentally, output the video directly from the card to a television or VCR for large screen, "great for parties," video.
All around from price, to functionality, to ease of use, this is a great product.
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