[William]

I upgraded my bedroom computer to XP and can not get my home network connection to my HTPC. It is running ME and have tried wizards from both XP and ME and can to get them reconnected. I really like the way XP works (seems rock stable) and looks (soft and neat) over ME. So I am thinking about upgrading my HTPC to XP. Will WinDVD 3.0 work under XP? I read that it needs a 3.1 patch but can not find it on InterVideo's web site.

Thanks,

 

[Drake Sullivan]

Functionality-wise, WinDVD 3.0 will work well under Windows XP. I have noticed no noticeable performance decrease as compared to Windows 2000.


At this point, I've only tested this on a machine at work, which has a Pentium III-500, 128 MB RAM, and i810 chipset (4 MB). Works well with both XP Home and Professional.


The deciding factor for performance will lie with Windows XP driver support (for hardware devices). Since Intel/Microsoft has a semi-agreeable relationship going, I may have lucked out in this case.


Another deciding factor for performance is if the graphics card drivers, and if it supports DXVA. If the card historically supported Hardware Motion Compensation by default, this should be an easy transition.


For those laptop users whom use low-end Trident Cyberblade chipsets, they are pretty much SOL with Windows XP. Since these graphics chips only support playback in previous OSes at 800x600/256 colors, there will be no native support for this color palette in Windows XP. Result- no DVD playback, and overlay surface errors arise.


To get back on topic, WinDVD 3.0 should run well under Windows XP, assuming one has a mainstream AGP graphics card, workable drivers for audio cards, mainboard chipsets, and updated DVD-ROM firmware. Just wouldn't recommend upgrading to Windows XP for at least the next 6 months, IMHO.


Best of luck.