How To Optimise PowerDVD and WinDVD

by mikk (mikk999@yahoo.com) - Updated 27 February 2002

I'm going to start by saying something that will shock you. Every time I have seen DVD Videos playing on someone else's PC, I have been disappointed. Why don't people know how to set it up properly? Perhaps it's all just to confusing. That's why I'm making this 'How To'.

Every time somebody sees a DVD playing on my properly set up PC they are blown away by the quality. They always ask what kind of hardware I'm running. Surprisingly (for them) I only run an old system with standard parts.

These are the parts important to DVD playback:
Pentium II 350(@361)
256MB PC133 CAS3 SDRAM
Sony DDU1211 12X DVD-ROM drive
GeForce2 MX 400 64MB
17" Philips CRT Monitor
SoundBlaster Live! Digital Entertainment 5.1
PowerDVD 4.0 XP Deluxe software DVD player
WinDVD 2.8 DTS software DVD player

They're medium range parts ('cept maybe that ooooollldddd CPU), nothing spectacular. The trick is to use the right settings.

The biggest improvement you can make to the picture quality is to use the resolutions 720x480 and 720x576. The picture doesn't have to be resized by the video card when these resolutions are used. Because of this the picture will be very sharp. Resolution is actually lost if you use anything higher or lower than these resolutions.

You probably don't have this resolution by default. Try right-clicking on your desktop to view the 'Display Properties'. On the 'Settings' tab you can try to select 720x480 or 720x576.

If both of these resolutions are not there you have to add them. To add them you have to edit the INF file for your video card driver. For Nvidia drivers this is quite easy. I've done a couple of edited files for Win9x/ME drivers. All the lines that have 720x480 and 720x576 were added by me. Nothing else was changed.

ATI Rage PRO 4_11_2628: ATIi9xad4_11_2628.zip -720x480 was already there.
Nvidia 21.83 Win9x/ME: NVAML21.83w9xME.zip
Nvidia 23.11 Win9x/ME: NVAML23.11w9xME.zip
Nvidia 27.42 BETA Win9x/ME: NVAGP27.42BETAw9xME.zip -This driver does not display DVD menus properly.

For Nvidia, just run the self-extracting exe for the driver, then minimize it. Browse to 'C:\Windows\Temp'. Then 'Arrange icons by date'. A very recent folder with a name like 'pftF293~TMP' will contain a file called 'NVAML.INF' (or NVAGP.INF). This is the file that has to be changed. If you downloaded a driver ZIP file, extract it to a new folder and the INF file will be there. If you aren't sure what to change in the INF file for your video card, ZIP up the INF file and email it to me at mikk999@yahoo.com.

After it's been changed, go back to the minimized Installshield Wizard for NVIDIA. Install the drivers just like normal.

Now try the new resolutions by selecting them in Display Properties. If they both work then you're in luck. Click on the 'Advanced' button to open up a new window. Go to the Adapter tab and set the Refresh Rate to 75 Hz. Do this for both resolutions. This will make the image sharper on CRT monitors. You can set it even lower to get a sharper image, but i don't advise this because the flicker can make your eyes sore.

Don't forget to calibrate (tune) your monitor for these resolutions. Nokia Monitor Test is a Freeware tool which will help you set up your monitor properly.

Software

PowerDVD
Run PowerDVD and click on the Configuration button. Go to the Video tab and Enable Hardware Acceleration. Tick 'Run full screen' and untick 'Keep aspect ratio.' Hardware acceleration will reduce the load on your CPU. It will also probably improve the colour by stopping Chroma Upsampling Error, which is a fault in the PowerDVD software decoder (explained at Secrets of Home Theatre and High Fidelity .)

Click the 'Advanced' button and set the Video Mode to 'Force weave.' On the 4:3 Pan&Scan Movies and 16:9 Widescreen Movies boxes choose 'Don't change resolution.' Sometimes you won't be able to set a resolution anyway.

WinDVD
Run WinDVD and click on the Properties button. Go to the Display tab and change the Quality to "Custom." In the Custom quality options, untick the 3 boxes. Tick 'Hardware motion compensation'. Tick 'Startup in full screen mode' and untick 'Lock aspect ratio.' Hardware motion compensation will reduce the load on your CPU. Sometimes Startup in full screen mode won't work properly. If you run WinDVD and the image has black or green bars on the sides, double-click the image to change it to a window, then double-click it again to make it full screen.

We can have some fun now (actually, i was already having fun :) ). Close PowerDVD/WinDVD. Change your desktop resolution to the normal resolution you use. Open PowerDVD (WinDVD is unhelpful here) and play a DVD. Go to the configuration screen and look at the 'Information' tab. Take note of the 'Aspect Ratio' and 'Source picture resolution'. The aspect ratio will be either 4:3 or 16:9. The source picture resolution will probably be either 720x576 if you are playing a PAL DVD or 720x480 if you are playing an NTSC DVD. Australia, Germany, and the UK use PAL. Japan and the USA use NTSC.

Close PowerDVD again. Run PowerDVD/WinDVD, but don't start the DVD yet! Change the desktop resolution to the same as the source picture resolution of the DVD. If the DVD you want to play has an aspect ratio of 16:9, the vertical size of the image has to be reduced (or everything will look too tall!). Do this by adjusting the the controls on the front of your monitor.

If you don't know how much to resize the image, do it like this:

Monitor Size

Visible Size

Vertical Size

15"

14"

6.3" (16cm)

17"

16"

7.2" (18cm)

19"

18"

8.1" (20.5cm)

21"

20"

9" (23cm)
The table is only rough. When playing a DVD, if things look a little bit tall or fat you can adjust your monitor until things look right.

Play the DVD.

Well, how does it look? It should look very sharp and clear. In fact, it should be very hard to get a better image.

Changing resolution manually all the time can be annoying. But thankfully there is a nice, easy solution to this problem. QRes is an automatic display mode changer program.

Interlaced Video

One thing you might not like is 'combing' in images that came from interlaced video. Combing means that every 2nd horizontal line doesn't fit in with the previous line. This is a very complicated subject to talk about. In-depth explanations can be found at Secrets of Home Theatre and High Fidelity . The reason combing happens is because when video (not film) is made, the picture is made up of 2 sets of lines (fields) taken at 2 different times. This was done when TV was first invented because it gave a better picture with the available equipment.

Your computer doesn't work like this. It shows all the lines at the same time. Film also does this, so film looks fine on a computer screen.

There is no perfect way of showing interlaced video on a computer screen. But if you want to blur the image so the combing becomes 'ghosting,' you can do this in PowerDVD by going to 'Advanced Video Properties' and changing the 'Video Mode' to 'Auto-select.' If it doesn't select automatically, try 'Force bob.' But don't forget to turn 'Force Bob' off when you aren't watching something interlaced! In WinDVD, go to the 'Display' tab in 'Properties' and tick 'Software bob (de-interlacing).' But hey, why waste CPU power blurring the image? Just leave the settings the way they were and adjust your monitor so that it's blurred! You don't need to de-interlace if you're watching on a normal TV.

I don't like de-interlacing because it blurs the image. I turn it off, sit a little further from the screen and put up with the combing. De-interlacing is starting to improve though. Expensive video cards are able to distinguish between objects that are changing and objects that are staying the same, and only blur the changing objects. Some even have the ability to track objects around the screen if they're moving but not changing.

Enjoy the new-found quality of your PC DVD player, and you can always mail me when you have a big problem!

mikk (mikk999@yahoo.com)