Black Boxes:
InterVideo WinDVD Platinum 6
$70
InterVideo
46430 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 651-0888
www.intervideo.com
With portable DVD players and all-in-one home theaters starting around $200, why would you want to watch a movie on your computer? Well, I can think of several reasons. Resolution is one: your computer screen trumps all but a high-def plasma display for clarity and pixel count. If the main video venue in your home is busy with Teletubbies, you can always pop a DVD in the computer to satisfy your action flick craving. Finally, commuters and air travelers can get double duty out of their laptops, using them for business and pleasure. With the release of WinDVD 6 Platinum, interVideo has raised the bar on software players and made it more attractive than ever to watch DVDs on your computer. Let's see what's under the hood.
Out of the Box
To get the most out of WinDVD 6 Platinum, you'll need a pretty beefy computer. In fact, to implement all the high-end features, interVideo recommends a 3GHz processor, 512MB RAM and a 128MB video card. Of course, these specs are for playback of high definition content, not a typical rental from the local video store. Any modern computer with average resources should work fine under normal circumstances. If your computer came bundled with a lesser version of winDVD, you might consider uninstalling it first. Although winDVD 6 Platinum did the uninstall for us, we had to manually authorize the deletion of a couple dozen files, which was pretty tedious. Once installed, the interface of winDVD 6 Platinum was clean and easy to navigate for all the basic functions. A pop-out panel provides access to various system tweaks for display, sound, color and several other items you will probably set and forget. Laptop users also gain access to winDVD 6 Platinum's power management system, which takes advantage of Intel Centrino chips. This system prolongs battery life through a balance of memory, display and processor settings and should help you get to the end of the movie before your battery croaks.
Many Hats
Sure, winDVD 6 Platinum is a DVD player, but it offers several other features as well. You can make it the default player for virtually all your video files, with support for Real, QuickTime, MPEG-4 and Windows Media. In fact, it goes one step further and supports Windows Media High Definition video with resolutions up to 1080p. For now, there is only a handful of features available in the WMV-HD format, but they are serious eye-candy. IMAX features, documentaries, movie trailers and even Terminator 2 are out there right now with more to come.
We had a brief opportunity to connect the DVI port on our test machine to a 42-inch plasma display and, using the output from winDVD 6 Platinum, we had an ad-hoc media center PC with high-def playback. While the HD images were amazing, we were also impressed with the look of normal DVDs using the new TrimensionDNM feature. This option requires some horsepower, but uses some sort of inter-frame magic to minimize the fuzz and jerkiness often seen on larger displays. While not a huge improvement, the results were clearly visible.
It's easy to browse your hard drive for supported media files and play them with winDVD 6 Platinum. In fact, it even played a DVD-RW from a camcorder that wouldn't play in other software or hardware players. You can also quickly grab individual frames from your DVDs for use in presentations or for wallpaper. In addition, there is a new Quick Clip feature that grabs up to 30 seconds of video and turns it into an animated GIF file for sharing. We don't see this as the next big thing, but it's interesting. Other dubious features include the Video Effector which applies posterization, negative and other artsy color changes to your DVDs. Bookmarks allow you to set a marker at a specific place in the feature and quickly return there minutes or days later. Also new is Smooth Reverse Playback, which does exactly what it says -- perfect for reliving your days in high school science class, but not much else. One very interesting feature is Time Stretching which allows you to watch that 2-hour movie in an hour and 35 minutes. The software processes the audio to eliminate the chipmunk effect -- everything is noticeably faster, but that's all.
Customize Everything
WinDVD 6 Platinum is easy to customize for virtually any viewing or listening environment, from laptop to desktop and even the living room. There are video presets for CRT, LCD, projector and television along with fully adjustable brightness, contrast, color and sharpness. In the audio realm, there is support for everything from headphones to a full-blown 7.1 surround system. Of course, this all depends on your sound card, but WinDVD 6 Platinum includes options for simple, generic cards and those with multi-channel digital outputs. The default audio setting incorporates some pretty aggressive dynamic range compression that distracts from a quiet viewing experience, but this feature is easily disabled. It might be handy while watching a DVD on your laptop on a flight, though. Even the player itself is adjustable. On startup, you're presented with a standard display window and separate control panel. The controls are dockable with the display for a cleaner look in windowed or full-screen mode. This makes for a pretty snazzy interface at the cost of adjustable options---they disappear when docked. In full-screen mode, the control panel will vanish or appear with a single click and you can still do frame grabs and Quick Clips with hotkeys.
Wrap It Up, I'll Take It
interVideo's winDVD 6 Platinum is certainly a standard to judge other software players against. With visually superior playback in any environment and adjustments galore, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything like it. Yes, the price tag might seem a bit steep in light of all the free players out there, but the next time a DVD offers to install one of those stripped-down versions, click Cancel and grab a copy of winDVD 6 Platinum instead.
Hal Robertson is a digital media producer and technology consultant.
System Requirements
Intel Pentium III 500MHz
128MB RAM
Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP
24-bit graphics card
For WMV HD playback
3GHz processor
512MB RAM
Windows XP
128MB graphics card
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