Tong Family

DVD Playback on your PC
Now that I’ve got DVD backup working, the next question is playback. There are two issues, how to get great DVD playback and how to get great DiVX playback. Here’s what I’ve learned
DVDs on Your PC. OK now that the DiVX works, the questions are how to get a nice DiVX player that understands AC3 and also a DVD player that knows it. Looks like WinDVD 4.0 and PowerDVD 4.0 are the two winners there. You want to get the latest version that playback DTS, Dolby Digital and have support for the new Dolby Headphone which tries to give you 5 channel surround sound with just two speakers. There are trial versions of each around. It seems like kind of a tie, with a slight favor to WinDVD. I’ve tried both and both are much more mature than ever before.
powerdivx.com – AC3/SPDIF FAQ. PowerDivX is the best player for DivX movies. Here is the FAQ that explains how to get AC3 from PowerDiVX. There is a lot of detailed stuff about getting the right DirectShow filters in place…

1. Which software do I need to install for AC3 playback? Download the audio filters from Doom9?s site, unpack and install. Make sure mpgaudio.ax is installed properly. If this isn?t installed properly then you might get an error message stating DirectShow can not render the file.
2. An alternative AC3 playback set. Download Tsunami?s (3.9.3) or Nimo?s (5.0 b8) filter pack, quick search on Google should find it. Use caution and select a custom install of the InterVideo filter. Otherwise the installer could replace other filters you have already installed like Xvid or Divx. The filter version that?s often shipped with PowerDVD and WinDVD only support 2 channel/stereo mode.
3. How do I make sure the filters are installed properly? To register the filters
   1. open a DOS window
   2. type cd windows\system32\ or whereever your Windows system directory is. On Win9x and ME, you will need to cd windows\system instead of the system32 directory.
   3. type regsvr32 /s ivivideo.ax
   4. type regsvr32 /s mpgaudio.ax
   5. regsvr32 /s iviaudio.ax (This registers all 3 filters for the Windows OS).