If you read the PowerDVD 2.55 review, I included some explanations of the basics and advantages of various audio and video hardware. If you DIDN'T read that review, then by all means, DO SO! Saves me retyping! Better yet, check out the FAQ here at Inmatrix! It will enlighten you in the ways of the ancient DVD masters! Or at the very least, it may teach you some things your DVD buddys don't know! Flash that BIG BRAIN! Read the FAQ before they do!

As mentioned above, CineMaster 2000 is the latest in a long line of CineMaster players that have primarily been used by OEM's and tailored to particular hardware. What this means is, Ravisent has experience in utilizing particular hardware power, and it does some things BETTER than the competition! At least as long as the OEM's keep giving Ravisent all that great design level input!

One thing that long chewed on PowerDVD and WinDVD, was their limited early support for Motion Compensation, especially on ATI cards (Again, nobody but CineMaster currently supports ATI iDCT). CineMaster's OEM ties prevent such problems. CineMaster 2000 supports Motion Compensation, ATI IDCT, and the full bevy of DVD hardware features. Users with older video cards that lack real DVD optimization (TNT/G400 cards are a good example) will have to survive on the strength of their processor, but if you have a DVD optimized video card, CineMaster 2000 should support it. You should grab DVD Genie to properly enable and set up all CineMaster features. Many of which are hidden in the registry.

Sub-Picture Alpha blending was available in previous versions, and it is still there and sharp as ever. It is used when TEXT is displayed OVER the movie by the player. Most commonly this is used for subtitles/closed captions. A note is that the closed caption in many movies is on the DVD itself, while subtitles are pasted graphics, the content of which is invisible to the player itself. They are not always identical! Experiment if you find the time. On The Matrix, the included closed caption was pretty standard duplication of the spoken lines, with a little editing for space. The SUBTITLE track was more wordy, and even showed the song lyrics for background music during the nightclub scene! Little things like that jump out! CineMaster has you well covered. As good as any player out there.

Audio hardware support is light. With DVD Genie, you can enable general 3D sound output, as well as SPDIF digital output, and LFE. Again, BE CAREFUL when enabling LFE! It is not for weak or even average speakers, It sounds great on good subwoofer speaker systems, but IT CAN DAMAGE cheap speakers if you crank up the volume! DVD Genie also configures your other output preferences. CineMaster 2000 has 3D, and downmix audio support, and sample filter levels to play with. CineMaster 2000 doesn't particularize its audio like PowerDVD does. It does provide AC3 and Dolby support, as both are DVD standards. Without particular tailoring to hardware (Such as A3D support for Vortex owners) most PCI 48khz systems should sound similar. Not a bad thing as CineMaster does its sound very well, but would be nice to see hardware specific optimizations. We all like to feel loved!