First post, by 386SX
Hi,
I've always been interested in these dvd decoder cards since when the K6-2 back in its days couldn't handle mpeg2 decoding with high quality and low cpu usage. I've built a machine with a P3-600, i440, 512MB, G450+Hollywood+ (the classic layout model) card and latest Windows 9x/ME drivers on ME. Considering these cards were not built for LCD monitors, the really good VGA output quality of the G450 permit to have a stable and strong overlayed H+ output that result in really good results.
Compared to the Dxr3 I remember using on much slower cpu I can see think that, while being based on the same hardware both cards, the H+ with their own driver were been updated and fixed for newer titles and general video stability with better controls in the player.
BUT: I remember with the Dxr3 and their drivers/player very low cpu usage like 15-20% on slower cpu (these cards were meant to be used in Pentium1 at first) while on the Pentium 3 600 Katmai I get numbers from 45 to 60% of cpu usage in Win ME.
I suspect that latest drivers/players probably used also more cpu to make things better but still it looks like way too high for a card that was needed to completely offload the cpu from the task.
Have you any experience into it? I was thinking to uninstall it and installing the Dxr3 with its older beta drivers and to see the difference.
Thank