Creative PC-DVD Encore 12X

Spice up your home entertainment by installing the PC-DVD Encore in your PC.

For many people, the home PC also doubles as part of the family's entertainment setup. Creative's PC-DVD Encore 12X is aimed at just that sort of family.

For a tad over £200 you get the drive itself, plus a DVD player card and the cables you'll need to hook it all up to your PC, and then connect your PC to the TV. We tried the kit out in a PC which met the minimum requirement of a 166Mhz processor and were pleasantly surprised to find that it worked. Even so, we'd still recommend a faster processor for watching films.

The drive is easy to fit inside your PC, with clear instructions and lots of diagrams. It still isn't a job for the faint-hearted, however. You'll have to take the case off your computer, so check to make sure this doesn't invalidate the warranty.

The CDRom drive in our test machine was on its last legs, so we simply whipped it out and popped the DVD Encore in its place. If you're keeping the CDRom drive, then you'll need to remove the blanking plate at the front of the PC, insert the new drive and use the cable supplied by Creative to connect the DVD Encore to the CDRom drive, and then on to the motherboard.

To watch DVD films, a DVD player has to decode the information on the disc and turn it into something watchable. Those with slower processors in their computers will require a DVD player card, such as the Dxr3 card supplied with this drive, to ensure smooth playback of moving images.

The Dxr3 card has all the connections you might need - a digital connector for connecting surround-sound speakers, along with composite and S-Video connections for watching movies on your TV. Your monitor will also connect to this card, with a cable provided for running graphics through from your graphics card to the Dxr3. If you have a large monitor set to a high resolution, then the degradation of image quality may be noticeable.

Verdict:
This kit is a good option for older PCs, but the image quality may be unacceptable to those with large monitors running at high resolutions.