Now that we dealt with the issues, there are three popular Software Decoders which I will deal with. At this point in time, the other available software decoders are either unstable, conflicting or not even up-to-par with these three:

• Software Cinemaster:
  This is NOT the Cinemaster decoder card, it looks EXACTLY like it (player-wise) but instead of using a decoder card, it uses the CPU instead.
  
  Software Cinemaster is the fastest decoder card available on the market today. It can play smoothly on a 300-350mhz Intel CPU (add 100-150mhz for K6 series processors). However, Software Cinemaster is the most complicated player to get working perfectly. It has tons of tweaking functions which can complicate things, and on some system it may simply refuse to work.

• PowerDVD:
  PowerDVD is perhaps the simplest player to get working right off the bat. However, it does require a bit more CPU power. And can be majorly effected by the sound card you use. If you have a PCI sound card, it should probably work smoothly at 350mhz. If using an ISA sound card, I would recommend 400mhz.

• WinDVD:
  WinDVD is also a simple player to use. It's not as friendly as PowerDVD, but it's not as bad as Software Cinemaster. WinDVD issue is that it is the slower of the bunch. I would recommend a minimum of 400mhz with perhaps 450mhz being more suited.