This is usually the most grueling part of a review. However, this is a Cinemaster based player using ATI Hardware Acceleration to its fullest. What that means, is that going into the test, you expect a video output that rivals any major player out there, with glitch free operation on almost all titles.

ATI does not disappoint in the video. Let us start with one of my favorite torture titles: The Patriot. The ATI player is the *ONLY* player to get through The Patriot with near perfect results on every try. None of the Weave- DeInterlace problems that have been caught by other players in several scenes. ATI does not offer screen capture, but trust me, it was smooth). The contrast in dark scenes was less flickery/twinkly looking than on other players, and the sharpness and clarity was top notch.

Major complaints from higher up, and eMails from you readers have prevented me from retiring The Matrix - "TRINITY vs. COPS" test as I had planned. The general consensus was "Any DVD Review Without 'The Matrix' is sacrilege!". OK, I like the movie too, I just thought 80 or so trips through it was enough. No, the count continues to grow! Two plays through on ATI v4.1 maintain the bar for ATI. The Matrix played perfectly all the way through. Special Features were solid (A previous sticking point for Cinemaster players), and there were no color or video anomalies worth mention. I have been using the "Neo falls through street" scene lately, but ATI beats this test as well (CoolDVD had troubles with that scene). If you are a Matrix fan, ATI definitely has your number on this demanding title.

Both the P3 and the Celeron were smooth in nearly every test. Logging on the web with a movie playing and the word processor open did not strain the system a bit. The benefit of ATI Hardware Acceleration is most evident when multitasking, and the ATI Player flew through all the resource strain tests, even on the slower Celeron processor.