To test the movie playing ability of the Toshiba/Hollywood combo, we went out and bought "The Right Stuff" on DVD (hey what were you expecting "The 5th Element"?? For the last time, SharkyExtreme employs no nerds, dammnit! Ok ok it's an alright movie, but you'll never hear us admitting it, we're MEN for God's sake.) Heheh, after installing the kit into our standard test rig, and solving an IRQ conflict (our test machine had all five of its PCI slots filled when the Hollywood card was installed, which helped cause the conflict...) we were off to movie land.
One negative we noticed right away was the effect that the Hollywood's VGA pass-through cable had on our 1600 x 1200 x 32bpp Win95 desktop clarity. Since we were actually using two pass-through cables (one for the Quantum X-24 V2 SLI card and another for the Hollywood card) the signal was being re-routed through two different PCI components and causing a noticeable degradation of Win95's brightness and focus. It wasn't enough to make text unreadable, but it was noticeable. We "fixed" this problem by unplugging the V2's pass-through cable when using the DVD-Player for movie watching. Not the optimal solution, but it worked. People who wonder why I so highly rate the Canopus Spectra 2500 TNT card's "reverse pass-through ability", can now see why that feature is so fantastic for V2 owners.
Anyway, other than that single issue, installation of the Hollywood's software and hardware was very easy and error-free.
To be honest (like we're ever anything but honest) we've never been big supporters of "movies on a PC". However, if you've got a spiffy 21" monitor, then the experience can be fulfilling, particularly if you've got one of those goofy-looking ergonomically correct desk chairs *cough*SAM*cough* to keep you comfortable.
After watching the whole movie (what a kick-ass movie btw...why can't they make quality movies like this anymore??) we came away pleasantly surprised at the ability to become immersed in the show, and impressed at the amazing clarity of DVD in general. At 1600 x 1200 x 32bpp we saw no strange lapses in acuity, or any color saturation problems. Very little adjustment was necessary for optimizing the image, it all worked pretty much as advertised. The Hollywood Plus card comes with a cute little "remote control" Win95/98 app that controls the movie much like the front panel of your VCR or CD-Player does. Freeze framing a movie image never looked better, too bad we don't have Basic Instinct on DVD......LOL
We tested the TV-Out ability of the Hollywood card, and it didn't disappoint either. Watching a high-res movie on our five year old crap 27" TV wasn't as impressive though as the eyeball scorching clarity of our ViewSonic P810 21" of love. It wasn't the fault of the Hollywood card in any way, it's just that the TV's max resolution of 400 lines wasn't cutting it.
In any case, the argument for DVD is gaining favor, and we're all pretty much converted now to the thought that DVD in general is a sweet upgrade for not only the general movie watching populous, but also for PC owners.
