DVD: Encore

Section one of this feature discusses the Creative Labs Encore DVD drive; section 2 discusses software utilities and drivers that add UDF support to your computer's operating system.

Product: Encore Dxr2 DVD kit

From: Creative Labs

Price: about C$375

Strongest Competitors:

• Pacific Digital
• Hitachi
• Toshiba
• Diamond Multimedia (Toshiba mechanism)
• Sony 5x drive

When we installed a Creative Labs Encore Dxr2 DVD kit, we were delighted to see that the DVD drive is recognized by Windows 98's boot floppy as a standard IDE device, which allowed our boot floppy to access  CDs in the drive (handy for installing a new OS!). When reading CDs, the drive behaves like a 20x CD-ROM. (where 1x = 150 Kbps).  It was also able to read CD-RW, CD-R, and, of course, DVD discs. The performance of DVD drives, incidentally, is measured in multiples of 1400 Kbps. Therefore, the Encore drive, with its 2700 Kbps transfer rate, is said to be a 2x DVD drive. More technical specs on the unit can be found at the Creative Labs web site.

We were mildly disconcerted to see that the pass-through cable that routes the output from a standard video card into and back out of the Creative Labs DVD decoder card seemed to produce a small amount of interference in our video display. It was barely visible, but definitely present. Moving the DVD controller card to a slot further away from our AGP graphics card didn't seem to solve the problem, but happily, changing the video configuration options eliminated the interference. The unit was a breeze to set up and the movie playback performance was excellent. Total cost: about C$375. (US$279.)

Creative also sells its DVD drive separately for $219, without the MPEG-2 decoder card. In this case, a software decoder such as is included with ATI's AGP-based Rage Pro graphics cards can be used to view the DVD data. (Note, however, that software-based decoding has more onerous demands on the CPU than a hardware decoder.)

The Encore, like all the second-generation DVD drives we've seen, can also read CD-R discs. (A description of the differences between first- and second generation DVD is in an article on our website entitled Recordable DVD and CDRW.) With the Adaptec UDF software (described in detail here), a MultiRead-compatible DVD drive like the Encore can read CD-RW discs as well.

Of course, different drives have varying performance and capabilities.  The Creative Labs Encore unit, for example, has a line doubling feature that reduces the digital artifacting that plagues most players. Although the Creative Labs driver works well under Win98, you cannot use the Microsoft-supplied DVD player applet. Windows 98 includes "built in" support only for the Toshiba (also supplied as part of the Diamond Multimedia kit), Luxsonar and Quadrant drives. Creative Labs says its third-generation DVD drive will be released later this year. Until then, we'd recommend Encore owners download the free 3.0 driver. It adds a number of cool features, including slow-mo and a handy Quick Launch icon on the toolbar.

Software: The Encore DVD drive worked very well in our tests of the discs bundled with it. A sci-fi action game called Wing Commander 4, starring Malcolm (Clockwork Orange, O Lucky Man) McDowall and Mark Hamill (Star Wars) is included, as is a cartoon-style game of swashbuckling pirate cats called "Claw."

We tested it with several other DVD titles, too. We watched a DVD version of the movie Terminator 2 and marvelled at the extras on the DVD disc: biographies of the actors, production notes, theatrical trailers and more. The Austin Powers disc has several scenes that were deleted from the movie, including two alternate endings, commentaries on every scene by the director and Mike Myers, plus several extra goodies, including animations, a spy-genre retrospective and "Music to shag to."

We also checked out the the first entirely computer-generated DVD-ROM disc we've seen: Planetary Traveler, from Third Planet Entertainment. This disc features animated landscapes built with Bryce3D, a 3D program from Metacreations. Despite its occasionally overbearing music, it is a sightseeing tour unlike anything else. Another notable new DVD title is Microsoft's Encarta 98, which exploits the enourmous capacity of DVD discs to fit more multimedia content than ever on a single disc. Encarta 98 DVD edition includes an amazing "Virtual Globe" feature that, for example, not only allowed us to locate our home town on the map, but could also zoom right down to street level and locate interesting tourist destinations in a number of metropolitan areas. Alternate views provided us with sights and sounds of the cities, topographical relief maps of the areas, statistics and much more. Very cool.

Free UDF Reader from Adaptec Enables CD-RW Discs to be Read in MultiRead CD-ROM Drives

March 26, 1998—Milpitas, CA— Adaptec, Inc. has announced a UDF (Universal Disk Format) Reader that allows MultiRead CD-ROM drives to read CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) UDF discs, a critical step toward making CD-RW media the perfect solution for storage, back-up, and file sharing.

"Achieving compatibility between CD-ROM drives and CD-RW media is one of the keys to the success of the CD-R/RW market. By making a UDF Reader available at no charge, we expect to kick the adoption of CD-RW into warp speed," says Tom Shea, general manager for Adaptec’s Software Products Group. "And we believe that the presence of a standard UDF Reader in the marketplace will accelerate the trend toward greater UDF support in operating systems."

Currently UDF-formatted CD-RW discs cannot be read in CD-ROM drives. Now with the Adaptec UDF Reader, Windows 95 or Macintosh operating systems can read standard UDF formatted CD-RW discs in MultiRead CD-ROM drives, giving consumers much needed compatibility between CD-RW discs and CD-ROM drives. Adaptec says a UDF Reader for Windows NT 4.0 will be available in the coming weeks.

Windows DVD Update: Supplementing our article entitled, "DVD - a Status Report" is the following updated info:

Software Architects is the chosen supplier of Device Drivers and UDF file system for Windows 95 by the triad of DVD-RAM manufacturers. The company's Write DVD! and FormatUDF! products are now shipping and as DVD-RAM devices some to market, you'll see many of them bundled with this software.

Key points: WriteDVD and FormatUDF! delivers device drivers and a full block addressable, read write UFD 1.5 implementation for DVD-RAM Drives. Win 98 & Win NT will support UDF but limited to read only.

Meanwhile, Software Architects is shipping DVD RAM TUNEUP for Mac, a device Driver, formatting, caching and partitioning utility for DVD RAM drives.

Some predictions according to Microsoft:

• DVD PCs in the market by Christmas 1998--15 million units Running Windows 98--over 12 million units Able to do full (Joe Kane-level) DVD playback--9 million units
• DVD PCs in the market in 1999--50 million units Running Windows 98--50 million units Able to do full (Joe Kane-level) DVD Playback--45 million units

MacOS 8.1: supports UDF, but....According to a Mar. 31 report on http://www.macresource.com/, Adaptec's UDF Volume Extension enables the Mac to read closed UDF 1.5 volumes, such as those created by Adaptec's DirectCD. The UDF Volume Access Extension installed by Mac OS 8.1 only supports UDF 1.02, and thus not disks written by DirectCD. Apparently, the two extensions can peacefully coexist.

An Apple Tech Info Library Article (24451) entitled "DVD Technology: Overview" discusses many of the issues concerning DVD-ROM on the Macintosh. It's at http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n24451

For Additional Reading:

• Digital Versatile Disc 1997 Market Assessment, Competition & Opportunities (a report costing US$1095)
• How the DVD format will impact the education market (Pioneer)
• DVD-ROM & DVD-RW FAQs (Sony)
• The Rainmaker DVD Primer (DVD authoring info and general FAQ)
• EMedia Professional has an interesting technical article on the role of UDF in CD authoring.
• Microsoft's DVD FAQ - including market predictions and technology issues.
• DVD technology summary - from LaCie (June 98). Details recent developments in DVD-RAM and competing formats.
• Divx: new convenience or digital disaster?