Advice needed: Best software/vid card for enhancing projected DVD image?

Everybody seems to think GeForce 8500/8600s are the best for HD, but i don't know about DVD. I also don't know much about ATi's new line, but I hear they're rivaling the GeForces for HD content.


The above may be entirely wrong.

what video card do you currently have? for standard def dvd's i doubt you'll notice any improvement in video quality....using MPC and ffdshow might be your best alternative (although i didn't like its output)....i actually found using WMP with nvidia purevideo gave me a really good picture for dvds.

Of course calibrating your display will also help bring out the right colors and levels.

If you have PCIe as your graphic port, then DEFINITELY go 8500 or 8600 series from nVidia. If you are still on AGP, the 6600GT is widely regarded as having great a DVD picture.

To answer your questions, I do have a PCIe mobo, and my current vid card is an nVidia 7900GS, but I'm thinking of upgrading it to a 8800GTS. Is this a good decision, or did you recommend the 8600 model for a specific reason?


*** Edit ***

Strike that last question. I just found my answer in the forums.


I guess the real question is, is PureVideo actually a replacement for FFDShow? I.e. does it have post processing features that will sharpen and de-noise video like FFDShow does? When I was messing around with FFDShow a couple years ago, I had the video from std def DVD looking so sharp that you could see the tiny defects on the actors' faces, and each individual hair strand was visible. It was amazing. If I did an A/B comparison between FFDShow processing off/on, it was night and day. Am I going to get the same results with PureVideo?