Seeing is believing

Being a dedicated hardware DVD solution, playback of all movies was successful. The onscreen image quality was very good, slightly improved over that of the Creative DxR2 which utilizes a pass-through cable. The Realmagic software allows full control of DVD functions and is quite intuitive, and won't require a reading of the manual. TV-output, using the TV mode, where the Realmagic card handled the decoding was very good, with the SVHS out being remarkably sharper than the composite. Compared to 1st generation standalone DVD players, this is an improvement in quality.

Now hear this

I was not able to test the AC-3 output of the card, but the audio output was acceptable. I say acceptable because the sound didn't seem as dynamic when compared to the Creative Lab's DxR2 or a standalone machine. For most people this difference may not be noticeable, but I wasn't using computer speakers or "powered-by-marketing" BOSE speakers to monitor the sound, but JBL Sat2's and a JBL Sub with a separate amp, for a total of about 150 watts RMS which eclipses most computer speakers. I would characterize the quality difference as that between a "good" CD player and a cheap one.

I know that the DxR2 and the Sony DVP-S7000 use 24-bit/96KHz Burr-Brown D/A converters which are among the best. On the other hand, the Dreamer 2000 is using a generic Yamaha OPL3-SA soundcard. Since, most people will not be using the machine in a college dorm room or office cubicle, and instead will be hooked up to one's home theater. The DVD performance on this machine is clearly not for you if the words "Sunfire Cinema Grand" can be found on your equipment.