Building a HTPC if you have a high defintion TV or projector is really worth it.

[kami]

how big is a "large screen" for you? You mean your 50"? I doubt I would notice it on my 29" TV.

If it's a HDTV you will probably notice. Standard def...then probably not, but my post wasn't intended for that.

 

[BDawg]

Kami, do you have any links describing how to put the entire thing together?

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: se7enty7
I have a samsung dvi dvd player that upconverts to 1080i using dvi.. MUCH better looking that component 480p on my toshiba 57h83

me too but i have the player upconvert the signal to 720p which is the native resolution of my tv

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Kami, do you have any links describing how to put the entire thing together?

Eeek. Not any that I can think of...i just read...and read...and read some more on AVSForum's Home Theater Computer forum.

I can help you with specific questions that you have but I think it would take me hours to write a full guide out.

 

[MustangSVT]

very interesting and detailed work

If I wanted to do something similar with SVIDEO out from my Nvidia Ti4200 to a Flat screen normal 27" tv, how should I do it?

my main question is what the resolution and refresh rate I should set it @.

thanx for ur work! i enjoy it quite alot.

any shot of your home theater?

was thinking about doing this... but more and more I think about it, more and more a modded Xbox looks attractive, it has
everything ready for TV , Much better pricing.

hmmmmm either project sounds very fun , but at this point Xbox + mod chip + 80gig hdd looks much more attractive

 

[BDawg]

Where did you get your "graph" to use ffdshow with zoomplayer? I searched on AVS, but didn't find anything.

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Where did you get your "graph" to use ffdshow with zoomplayer? I searched on AVS, but didn't find anything.

You don't need to use graphs with ffdshow in Zoom Player 3.0 or higher.

Under DVD --> DVD Setup --> Customized --> Additional Filters you just select ffdshow and your setting will carry over. Just make sure you have raw video selected under the codecs in ffdshow.



MustangSVT,

I'd probably go ahead and mod your xbox...the video out of the nvidia cards is very poor (I know from experience...I had a Ti4200 before I got this AIW9800). But if you do it, the resolution/refresh rate doesn't matter since its automatically regulated...just the highest you can go before virtual desktop kicks in (cuts off the screen and you must scroll the mouse to see the rest). I'll get some updated pics of the HT soon.

 

[Fiveohhh]

right now my current project is a Sony receiver that my friend gave me(dumped a can of coke on it on accident) so I gutted it out just got a MB tray going to mount a MB I have in it and a dvd rom, an HD, and a tv tuner card, think I'm going to try a ti 4200 first. and will probably need to use an external PS as I doubt it will fit in there. but I should have it done in a few weeks, and willget some pics when I do

 

[EyeMWing]

OMG. Just the difference in SOFTWARE is amazing.

My current HTPC setup uses a 19" CRT monitor instead of a TV or projector (No $$$)

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: kami

Originally posted by: BDawg
Where did you get your "graph" to use ffdshow with zoomplayer? I searched on AVS, but didn't find anything.

You don't need to use graphs with ffdshow in Zoom Player 3.0 or higher.

Under DVD --> DVD Setup --> Customized --> Additional Filters you just select ffdshow and your setting will carry over. Just make sure you have raw video selected under the codecs in ffdshow.

Ah, you need Zoom Player pro to do that...

 

[kami]

I updated two of my shots with some PowerDVD comparisons added into it..

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/kami/ttt2-2.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/kami/ttt3-2.jpg

 

[EvilYoda]

Great thread Kami...you're making me even more impatient, waiting til the day I can afford a projector. (another month, roughly)

 

[EyeMWing]

Hey, in FFDShow, I don't see a Lanczos resize. You running an Alpha or somthing?

Edit: Actually, I can't get it to work at all. Start DVD with FFDShow (even with no postprocessing) enabled, crash to desktop.

 

[mcveigh]

zoomplayer 3.3 is out FYI

 

[Alternex]

I'm also interested in doing a htpc. One question I have is why have a receiver in the first place? I was thinking of replacing my whole home theater for a dedicated htpc and using some nice klipsch computer speakers (which would be a LOT better than my home theater in a box kenwood crap)

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Alternex
I'm also interested in doing a htpc. One question I have is why have a receiver in the first place? I was thinking of replacing my whole home theater for a dedicated htpc and using some nice klipsch computer speakers (which would be a LOT better than my home theater in a box kenwood crap)

Because you need something to process and integrate everything, not to mention that klipsch computer speakers aren't exactly HT/audiophile speakers, so regardless, you'd need an amp to drive some real speakers...but I don't mean to bash you, any effort is better than none

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Alternex
I'm also interested in doing a htpc. One question I have is why have a receiver in the first place? I was thinking of replacing my whole home theater for a dedicated htpc and using some nice klipsch computer speakers (which would be a LOT better than my home theater in a box kenwood crap)

Purpose-built computer speakers are poo, regardless of manufacture and price. Go to Goodwill and pick up some old speakers (And if you're lucky, an old receiver) - the quality will be FAR superior to any computer speakers.

 

[arod]

For those that care and use a projector here are my settings with ffdshow.....

DScaler sharpness: 76, "fast memory" and "process whole image" checked

Resize & aspect: "1440x960", Lanczos (in settings subtree)

Sharpen: "unsharp mask", 9

Blur & NR: "Gradual Denoise", 18

This is on an AMD 2000+ and Geforce 4 TI4200 output to an AE100 at native resolution of 856x480. I use the TheaterTek DVD player.

I would show you pictures but there isnt an easy nor good way to take pictures of a 100 inch screen but the results are pretty dramatic compared to the default settings w/o any "optimizations"

 

[0roo0roo]

why not just watch hdtv signal? beats the pants off the dvd no matter what

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
why not just watch hdtv signal? beats the pants off the dvd no matter what

because we can make our DVD signal look as good as an hdtv signal.
but I do use my htpc for hdtv playback and recording too.

 

[0roo0roo]

well, maybe resize from 740x480 to 1920x1080 more precisely then with the hardware decoders.. but still not as good we're talking almost 6 times the pixels with hdtv like interpolating 2megapixels from .3 megapixels

so i guess software like windvd/powerdvd still have some ways to go in terms of settings bah. guess they go for cpu savings.

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well, maybe resize from 740x480 to 1920x1080 more precisely then with the hardware decoders.. but still not as good we're talking almost 6 times the pixels with hdtv like interpolating 2megapixels from .3 megapixels

so i guess software like windvd/powerdvd still have some ways to go in terms of settings bah. guess they go for cpu savings.

Its actually more along the lines of HDTV hasnt reached its potential yet where dvd has been around for a while now and the optimizations are there. I fully realize DVD cant ever match HDTV theoretically but in reality a well done dvd is as good as average HDTV on most peoples systems. Now this will change once HDTV is used more as the filters and such will improve. (Think about where DVD was PQ wise when it first came out vs the screen caps kami showed). Thats what well experince with HDTV and really more so because there is much more to tweak with all the extra detail

 

[Alternex]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Alternex
I'm also interested in doing a htpc. One question I have is why have a receiver in the first place? I was thinking of replacing my whole home theater for a dedicated htpc and using some nice klipsch computer speakers (which would be a LOT better than my home theater in a box kenwood crap)

Purpose-built computer speakers are poo, regardless of manufacture and price. Go to Goodwill and pick up some old speakers (And if you're lucky, an old receiver) - the quality will be FAR superior to any computer speakers.

I heard this was a myth. I heard top of the line computer speakers will beat the pants off of any regular home theater speakers in the same price range.. so $400 klipsch computer speakers would be closer to those higher priced midranged regular speakers. No one would ever pay $1000+ for computer speakers but for home theaters that's nothing. Plus, my $150 ish Logitech Z560s are a lot better than my $500 kenwood home theater in a box speakers (5.1 speakers plus a $100 receiver)

 

[dcdomain]

Nicely done... I ran into this problem when I was building mine... no space in the house?! At first I was just going to use the basement, but no one wants to go down there because it's freezing so my parents told me to move it upstairs... no space on the first floor, was going to build the cheap $50 screen out of the Home Depot components, but now I think I might have to buy a drop down screen... $$$.

 

[Mutilator]

I tried toying around with connecting my PC to my TV last night via DVI. (9700pro -> Hitachi 51SWX20B)
Svideo worked ok without powerstrip @ 800x600 anyway... anything higher than that and things got really unreadable and overscan became a problem. Then I d/led powerstrip and started playing around with my DVI cable... never did get it working right though. I've never used PS and I think I ended up worse off then I started lol (even copying someone's settings off of avsforums didn't work out).
The last thing I did was reinstall PS and had it read my monitor settings thru EDID or whatever it said. It saw it as a 51SWX20B so I saved that to a file named hitachi.inf and set my monitor driver to use that and rebooted and I got nothing but colored wavy bars when I rebooted. I went to bed and figured I'd start back this afternoon.

How does the DVI->Component adapter compare to straight DVI in ease of setup and quality wise? The DVI connection on the Windows XP loading screen looks great... I'd love to get the in-Windows quality that clear. Mainly for some large screen DesertCombat action.

I was using the latest Omega drivers btw... if that makes any difference.