Windows XP Power Hound

Video

Windows Media Player lets you watch flicks right on your PC. This section offers a few hints on getting maximum movie-watching satisfaction.

ADD-IN ALERT: Other DVD Software

Windows Media Player is a perfectly adequate program for watching DVDs. But if you want a player that can do things like take snapshots from a DVD movie or capture the audio, then you need a DVD-playing program with a little more juice. Here are three possibilities:

DirectDVD. This program gives you a full complement of DVD controls, including the ability to play Dolby Surround sound or capture images from a DVD in a variety of graphic and video formats. Perhaps DirectDVD's most powerful feature is its ability to rip, or copy, a DVD to the MP3 digital music format so you can play a DVD's audio on your PC or a portable MP3 player. DirectDVD (http://www.orionstudios.com) is shareware so you can try it for free, but it costs $39.95 if you want to keep using it.

Super DVD Ripper. This program can rip a DVD and save it in several PC-friendly video formats, including MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) and DivX (Digital video express), which are two common formats for sharing and playing video. You can then watch the movie on a PC without a DVD drive or the DVD itself (great when you want to watch a movie while you're traveling). Super DVD Ripper can also burn movies onto a CD using the VCD (Video Compact Disc) or SVCD (Super VideoCD) formats, both of which let you watch movies using a computer's normal CD player. ...