(2016-11-22, 23:09)timstephens24 Wrote: (2016-11-22, 19:45)chocco Wrote: Just on the off chance....is there any advantage to using PowerDVD 16 Ultra (currently on Black Friday sale) over the internal Kodi player? Kodi plays everything at passthrough quality now, doesn't it? Anyone prefer PowerDVD? Thanks!
I couldn't get PowerDVD to do Atmos or DTS:X inside a MKV, so it doesn't work for me.
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timstephens24
I use PDVD. I've had no problem decoding Atmos or DTS:X with any containers I've tried, iso and mkv.
I'm not using this forked build though. I'm using a windows v.17 nightly. So it might not be relative.
I'd like to use this build again but after extensive tries it doesn't go into MVC like PDVD does. It goes into TAB.
But, I'm using Nvidia on my Intel system. It used to work until I changed my display from 1080 to 4k.
Changing my resolution globally in windows and/or Kodi GUI to 1080 instead of 2160 makes no difference nor did multiple other tries at various other setting changes.
It still switches to TAB. PDVD still switches to MVC properly.
I would think this build, using the internal player, is preferred since it negates the need for an external player, if you're able to get it working depending on your hardware.
Of course it's going to work for the users here. This is an NUC thread and the device this fork is designed for.
This build hardware decodes (only with the proper hardware/platform of course) and many claim it is advantages over software decoding.
I would like to know why?
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chocco
You ask is there any advantage using PDVD instead of this builds player?
Well, if you rip your entire BD, you get the menus and full use of the entire BD. You don't have to sacrifice anything to conform with PDVD's player.
If you consider the entire BD a waste of time and space, you will have to edit the BD to exactly what you want and don't want and PDVD is of no use to you in this respect.
This may lead to subtitle problems. Or theatrical vs. directors cut. Perhaps you want to listen in Atmos now but you ripped DTS HDMA previously? Maybe you ripped with compression and now you upgraded to 4k or acquired a stronger device that handles higher bitrates? Many confusions. Having the entire Blu-ray mounted and choosing seems wisest to me. The disc is also backed up in it's entirety.
PDVD is fully developed and problem free. Switching from 1080 to 4k is painless. It just works, and everything works as it should, audio and video. It's also an extra expense and requires minor integration to seamlessly use with Kodi. It also takes a few seconds longer to mount.
Setting aside what 'I' consider minor differences, most that can be overcome (size, noise, ease of use, problematic, support, cost, features, dependencies, spectrums, installation, upgrades, repairs, etc) at the end of the day I'm more interested in what I see and hear. I understand what I consider minor may be major to others.
So, if you have all the various resources at hand and want to make a decision which to use or is one better than the other, I think the real question would be:
'Is the end result quality of the audio and/or video different using hardware vs. software decoding?'
