Product Reviews

DVD has really come of age. It's advertised on TV, at the cinema and it's impossible to wander around a video library or record store without being beseeched to ditch VHS. There's plenty of substance behind the hype, too - DVD boasts excellent picture quality, stunning sound and often discs are packed with the kind of extra features that get movie buffs dribbling into their popcorn.

Creative Lab's Encore DVD system for PCs is nothing new, having been around since Digital Versatile Disc was struggling for mainstream acceptance. But as DVD has grown in popularity, so the Encore has been upgraded and revamped.

The latest version has a 12-speed DVD-ROM drive. It's quick, quiet and spins standard CDs at 40-speed. Its tray mechanism is a bit aggressive, though.

Along with the drive, you get the dedicated Encore Dxr3 PCI decoder card. Installation is a doddle: just insert the

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card into a free PCI slot, wire up the DVD drive, and install the drivers. If you get stuck the manual is friendly yet instructive.

The setup is simplicity itself to use. It auto-detects when a DVD is in the drive, and launches the player application - the rest is easier than falling off a log.

Picture quality is excellent. As the Encore card is specifically designed to decode DVD, everything is smooth, crisp and free of unsightly errors. But because the picture signal passes through the Creative, after the graphics card and before the monitor, Windows' image quality is slightly degraded. It's a very minor side effect, and you'd have to consciously search for it.

To get the best out of the Creative kit you're going to need a decent set of speakers, preferably ones that can handle Dolby Digital - with five speakers to steer the sound around the room. I tested the Encore with Creative's DeskTop Theatre 5.1 DTT2500 set (reviewed in January). Thanks to the card's S/P-DIF out, connection is easy and sound is quite simply brilliant. Don't worry if you have standard stereo speakers either - the Encore can down-mix Dolby Digital to two speakers.

Before you buy, remember that software DVD decoders are available and modern PCs with decent graphics cards can easily handle digital movies. (To find out more check out the feature in our October 1999 issue.) Despite this, the Creative is a good buy, especially when you consider that a bare DVD costs around £100.