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Thanks to
faster, more powerful CPUs as well as new
display and audio hardware in today's PC,
Software-based DVD decoders now rival and
even surpass the playback quality of dedicated
hardware-based DVD players. Due to the
ability to use advanced mathematical CPU instructions,
such as MMX, 3DNow!, SSE and SSE2, software
based DVD decoders are able to extract significant
details from the MPEG2 encoded stream and
deliver them in stunning detail.
Sonic's CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack provides the highest level of video and
audio quality for your DVD playback experience
on Windows XP. The CinePlayer decoder
engine is world renowned for its remarkable
video quality and superb audio clarity for
DVD playback on your PC system.
Audio Quality
The Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack provides the best DVD audio decoder of any
available Windows XP DVD decoder pack add-ons.
The CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack contains
a comprehensive audio decoder, capable of
decoding many types of DVD audio streams
including Dolby Digital AC3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2
and LPCM audio. The CinePlayer DVD Decoder provides the clearest audio for
your DVD experience.
Video Quality
The Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack
renders the highest quality video of any
available Windows XP DVD decoder pack add-ons.
The CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack contains
a comprehensive MPEG-2 video decoder, capable
of decoding all types of DVD video streams
as well as HDTV level MPEG-2 video streams
in both Software Only and DXVA decoding
modes. The Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack's video decoding engine is
unparalleled in the video image quality
that it delivers to your Windows XP system.
Video Quality Comparison
The following is a direct comparison of
the video quality between the Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack and other available Windows
XP decoder packs.
The system we used:
| System: |
Dell Precision 300 |
| CPU: |
Intel 1.5GHz Pentium 4 |
| Operational speed: |
1.5GHz |
| Memory: |
256 MB |
| Video: |
ATI Radeon DDR |
| OS: |
Windows XP Professional |
| DVD player: |
Windows Media Player 8 |
The Evidence
The images below were obtained using the
'image capture' feature of Windows Media
Player 8 in Windows XP. The image(s)
shown are from the exact same frame from
a DVD title recorded in NTSC Video at 60Hz.
The tests were conducted with all decoder
packs having DXVA and VMR enabled in the
Windows Media Player.
In this comparison, we are concerned with
several distinct picture quality criteria.
Each comes into play to deliver an image
that is as real as live performance - or,
as real as can be accomplished from a DVD
source.
- Deinterlacing - The decoder must decode two separate
video fields and combine them together. This can be done simply
by combing the lines together or using more sophisticated methods for
blending and averaging to achieve a more realistic result.
- Fine Detail and Clarity - Video compression techniques,
such as MPEG-2, normally achieve a high-degree of compression (reduction
in data size) by averaging or eliminating high-frequency signals.
Usually, these high-frequency signals are associated with the fine details
in an image. The better a MPEG-2 decoder is, the better able it
is to restore these details when the image is decoded and played back.
- Color Range and Smoothness - Frequently, MPEG-2
decoders will be forced to make approximations when reconstructing the
colors in an image. This can be seen as distinct bands of color
with hard edges for boundaries. Obviously, these boundaries were
not present in the original video.
- Blockiness and DCT artifacts - MPEG compression
(both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2) use a mathematical approach called the Discrete
Cosine Transform (DCT) to compress the content of a given frame.
Since DCT analysis concerns itself with the contents of rectangular
regions of the image, a sub-standard decoder can sometimes produce unwanted
blockiness in the image once it is decoded. (To be fair, this
blockiness can also sometimes be created by a sub-standard encoder when
the MPEG is created. In such a case, even the best of decoders
- including CinePlayer - cannot restore a smooth image).
| NOTE:
These images were obtained using the Windows Media Player 8 image
capture feature. They are compressed using JPEG image compression,
which degrades the quality of the image for the sake of file size.
As a result, the images represented here are not exactly as you
would see them displayed on your computer screen.
However, each of the images was captured using exactly the same
compression settings, so they remain directly comparable to each other.
No post-processing was performed on the images. |
Intervideo XPack
Intervideo XPack Decoder solution
(using DXVA & VMR)
The image shows that the Intervideo XPack
decoder is not properly de-interlacing the
60Hz video from the DVD. Note the
combing (temporal) artifacts on the guitarist's
hand and fingers edges and the shadow.
Also, note the apparent color banding in
the wrist and in the woodgrain surface of
the guitar in the upper portion of the image.
This image also seems somewhat softer than
the others, with less high-frequency detail.
If you examine the boundary between the
guitar's curved lower edge and the out-of-focus
forearm at lower-right, you can see some
pretty obvious DCT artifacting.
Cyberlink PowerDVD SE
Cyberlink PowerDVD SE Decoder solution
(using DXVA & VMR)
This image shows that the Cyberlink PowerDVD
SE decoder is not properly de-interlacing
the 60Hz video from the DVD. Please
note the combing (temporal) artifacts on
the guitarist's hand and fingers edges and
the shadow.
This image does not exhibit quite as much
color banding as the previous one, but its
high-frequency detail is not significantly
better. It does show the same DCT
artifacts in the lower-right along the edge
of the guitar.
Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack
Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack
(using DXVA & VMR)
As this image demonstrates, the Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack does properly
de-interlace the 60Hz video from the DVD.
Note how smooth looking the guitarist's
hand, fingers and shadow are rendered. This
image has no combing effects at all.
Although the other differences are subtle,
this image also shows slightly better high-frequency
detail, color smoothness, and the near-absence
of DCT artifacts in the lower right.
Other Comparisons
While we believe that DVD Picture Quality
constitutes a winning argument in favor
of the Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack,
it is not the only measure of superiority.
Here are some others:
Top
Buy the CinePlayer
DVD Decoder Pack
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