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Posted by
Thomas
McGuire on August 27, 2002
Manufacturer:
Sigma Designs Product:
REALmagic X-Card Search
for the lowest
X-Card prices.
DVDs I used to test the Xcard with were
Saving Private Ryan, Blade, The Matrix, Armageddon, The Hunt
For Red October & several others. Much like the Hollywood
Plus before it, the Xcard uses MCI (Media Control
Interface) to play DVDs. Playback itself was trouble
free & I didn’t notice any problems with stuttering frame
rate or anything like that. It’s also worth noting that the
Xcard better supports proprietary DVD navigation which
should make it more compatible than the Hollywood Plus with
certain titles.
Audio wise Xcard is decent enough – with
the Xcard decoding AC-3 itself in hardware when set
to Analog/PCM output (i.e. using Line-Out), the
Hollywood Plus it’s worth noting only decodes AC-3 in
software giving Xcard the performance edge is this
respect. One disadvantage on this decoding in
hardware however is that the workaround that would allow the
Live! Soundcards (possibly others too) to output audio
directly in this mode no longer works, which may, or may not
be an issue to you – This is in regards to not having
to use the Xcard’s Line-Out of course. In my case using the
Line-Out connected to the Audigy’s Line-In the Audigy will
output the audio just fine.
As regards using the Compressed S/PDIF
output this would be the preferred output mode as it would
mean (hopefully) you’re connected to a Dolby Digital/DTS
decoder, which will take care of decoding the audio stream &
outputting them to 5.1 channels (Or more with, say Dolby
Digital Surround EX). To test this I connected the Xcard’s
Coaxial output to the Extigy & unsurprisingly enough the
Dolby Digital light turned on when playing a Dolby Digital
title & Extigy decoded & outputted audio to the appropriate
channels. That said, as fine as Xcard’s audio features may
be, it is limited in comparison to most software DVD
decoders, particularly Win DVD & PowerDVD – this may be an
issue if you have a good multi-channel soundcard &/or no
Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. Compare Xcard to Win DVD 4 for
example:
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REALmagic Xcard |
Win DVD 4 |
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No contest really. As stated above this is
more so worth considering if you don’t have a Dolby
Digital/DTS capable decoder to connect to, but may still
have a Surround Speaker system, e.g.
Inspire 5300. In this case I could either have 2 Channel
(Front left/right) output by connecting the Xcard to that
system using the Line-Out port, 4 Channel by connecting the
Line-Out to the soundcard’s Line-In (Mirrored front/rear
channels), which should be the case with most multi-channel
soundcards, or were I to use WinDVD 4 as per example above I
could have 6 channel – software decoded Dolby Digital/DTS
output to the system via a compatible multi-channel
Soundcard, e.g. Game Theater XP.
Quality wise at least the analog output of
the Xcard is rather nice, though obviously limited to
down-mixed 2 channel output. Again, in this regard the
latest version of Power DVD & WinDVD feature some added
features that can help optimize audio quality in 2 Speaker
mode, e.g.
TruSurround XT. Using the S/PDIF Output will obviously
give you best audio quality with the Xcard as it allows your
decoder to handle AC-3/DTS decoding.
Overall at least as regards audio playback
in DVDs the Xcard comes highly recommended should you be
able to connect to a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder, though
without you might be better looking into a software decoder
if you have a multi-channel Soundcard & Surround system
without a decoder.
Video quality wise the Xcard was exceptional
& even better than the Hollywood Plus before it to my
surprise. The picture itself had a greater stability &
detail over that of software decoders, with noticeably less
pixelation as well & smoother as a result. TV output using a
S-Video connection was excellent also for similar reasons,
with far more vibrant colour & it significantly outclassed
that available on the GeForce 4 Ti 4400 when using a
software decoder & S-Video output. The image quality also
kept up during scenes with the fast panning to the
left/right, something which software decoders I’ve used
didn’t not so well, e.g. on the Blade DVD when changing from
the title screen to the Chapter selection screen. This is
also rather noticeable during action films which tend to
fast such fast camera movements.
Overall as regards image the Xcard was
excellent, in particular when it comes to TV output which by
far outclassed that available with Graphics cards I’ve used,
e.g. GeForce 3, 4 Ti & 4 MX as well as Kyro 2, though
Monitor output using the fullscreen analog overlay is great
also.
Overall DVD playback with the Xcard was just
fantastic with superior image quality & sufficient audio
output support, though perhaps somewhat lacking in this area
if you aren’t connecting to a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder in
which case a software DVD decoder will prove more capable or
if you desire windowed DVD playback on your monitor rather
than just fullscreen (Though using the Digital Video Port
windowed playback can be supported, though as stated current
drivers don’t support the Digital Video Port).
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