DVD Decoders List

DVD Decoders

A Designed for Media Center DVD Decoder is required to watch Recorded TV (DVR-MS files) and DVD's on a Media Center PC.

Microsoft has made a DVD Decoder Checkup Utility available. You can use it to see what DVD Decoders are installed, if any, and whether or not they're compatible with Media Center and/or Windows Media Player.

MS DVD Decoder Checkup Utility

Here are the links to some specific vendors, where you can buy a DVD Decoder. Some have trial versions available.

Vendor	Price	Purchase
NVidia PureVideo	Varies with version	Buy it
Sonic	$14.95	Buy it
Cyberlink Corp.	$14.95	Buy it
Intervideo Corp.	$14.95	Buy it
SourceForge (Note 2)	Free	Download

Note 1: NVidia's online purchasing is currently offline. Note 2: I have tried the DVD Decoder that DeskShare offers. It is open source and works on my MCE 2005 system for playback of Recorded TV. It has not been extensively tested, but it appears to work. The Microsoft DVD Decoder Checkup Utility says that it is MCE Compatible, but is not WMP 10 compatible. I've found that it works well in synchronizing DVR-MS files to a Portable Media Center. However, it does not allow for playback of copy protected DVD's in MCE 2005 or WMP 10. These listings do no represent an endorsement of any particular product. They are made available solely for your convenience.