- Oct 9, 1999
- 17,627
- 5
- 81
(this all only applies to component output, not s-video or composite, to a HD-Ready TV or front projector)
It was hell to setup properly but it takes my progressive scan DVD player (which I thought was good...real good) and beats it to a bloody pulp.
It's not even a dedicated HTPC, its just my main computer with some 30 foot home made component cables going to my TV.
AthlonXP 2400+
1.25GB
ATI Radeon All-in-wonder 9800 Pro (this is the key piece....component output built in)
SB Audigy 1 OEM (used to pass Dolby 5.1 and DTS signals to my receiver)
If you were building a dedicated HTPC (home theater PC), you wouldn't need an expensive AIW card...just a simple Radeon 9xxx of any kind would work because there is component output dongles (plugs into the DVI port) available from ATI.
And my HT electornics are:
Toshiba 50h82 HDTV (50" 16:9)
Yamaha RX-V496
Positives of a HTPC
-Output to your HDTV/projector at its native resolution. A lot of TVs convert incoming signals to their native and quality is lost. The only type of signal that my TV leaves untouched is a 1080i signal (usually 1920x1080). I send a 1776x1000 signal to it (with 1080i timings so the TV thinks it is true 1080i) to prevent extra overscan.
-Software decoding is immensely superior to hardware decoding in every which way unless you spend upwards of $15,000 on video processors, scalers, line doublers, etc.
-Potential for extra image processing and enhancing. Mainly a little program called ffdshow. It's meant for DIVX/XVID but you can set it to affect your DVD video in certain players such as Zoom Player and TheaterTek. You would be surprised what ffdshow can do to a measily 480p dvd image. It lets you do high quality resizing (to whatever you are outputting at) to bypass your video cards scaling which is inferior (again...hardware). There is also other filters you can use such as dscaler sharpen which brings out the finer details in the image WITHOUT adding edge enhancement or extra artifacts. This takes enormous CPU power. It'll quickly bring 3Ghz P4's to their knees.
Here is an example of how close you can get to the HD broadcast with the original DVD image.
-Truer to the original source. I was amazed at how flawless I could get AVIA settings. Color, contrast, everything is better. Every DVD player handles it differently and has different flaws but software decoding is much better.
-If you're a fan of the theater atmosphere, there is software available to play predetermined (or random) trailers, dolby and thx demos, etc. as well as trivia slides before the feature starts.
Negatives
-"Stuttering" on slow, long pans. This can be fixed (in most cases) with an app called Reclock. Works like a charm for me.
-The potential for quality is so great that sadly the majority of DVDs just don't look good anymore because it brings out all their flaws. I was flabbergasted how bad Aliens looked (from the Quadrilogy set), however the original Alien looks fan-fvcking-tastic. The other two are above average and look great.
-Not as convienent as the set top player. Took me over a week to get everything as I wanted it. But I have an ATI Remote Wonder which gives me almost all of the functionality of a normal remote. Chances are no one else in your house will be able to operate it (that can be a good thing sometimes
)
-You become even more anal about quality. You distaste for so-and-so's latest DVD transfer will start creeping up in every day conversation :Q
Anyway this is the cliffnotes of it. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them. Definitely worth the effort if you think it can never look good enough.
Here are some comparisons of before and after processing:
ttt3.jpg
ttt2.jpg
ttt1.jpg
Helpful links
Powerstrip custom-resolution guide for ATI Radeon cards
ffdshow faq
Zoom Player (one of my new favorite pieces of software. INCREDIBLY customizable)
It was hell to setup properly but it takes my progressive scan DVD player (which I thought was good...real good) and beats it to a bloody pulp.
It's not even a dedicated HTPC, its just my main computer with some 30 foot home made component cables going to my TV.
AthlonXP 2400+
1.25GB
ATI Radeon All-in-wonder 9800 Pro (this is the key piece....component output built in)
SB Audigy 1 OEM (used to pass Dolby 5.1 and DTS signals to my receiver)
If you were building a dedicated HTPC (home theater PC), you wouldn't need an expensive AIW card...just a simple Radeon 9xxx of any kind would work because there is component output dongles (plugs into the DVI port) available from ATI.
And my HT electornics are:
Toshiba 50h82 HDTV (50" 16:9)
Yamaha RX-V496
Positives of a HTPC
-Output to your HDTV/projector at its native resolution. A lot of TVs convert incoming signals to their native and quality is lost. The only type of signal that my TV leaves untouched is a 1080i signal (usually 1920x1080). I send a 1776x1000 signal to it (with 1080i timings so the TV thinks it is true 1080i) to prevent extra overscan.
-Software decoding is immensely superior to hardware decoding in every which way unless you spend upwards of $15,000 on video processors, scalers, line doublers, etc.
-Potential for extra image processing and enhancing. Mainly a little program called ffdshow. It's meant for DIVX/XVID but you can set it to affect your DVD video in certain players such as Zoom Player and TheaterTek. You would be surprised what ffdshow can do to a measily 480p dvd image. It lets you do high quality resizing (to whatever you are outputting at) to bypass your video cards scaling which is inferior (again...hardware). There is also other filters you can use such as dscaler sharpen which brings out the finer details in the image WITHOUT adding edge enhancement or extra artifacts. This takes enormous CPU power. It'll quickly bring 3Ghz P4's to their knees.
Here is an example of how close you can get to the HD broadcast with the original DVD image.
-Truer to the original source. I was amazed at how flawless I could get AVIA settings. Color, contrast, everything is better. Every DVD player handles it differently and has different flaws but software decoding is much better.
-If you're a fan of the theater atmosphere, there is software available to play predetermined (or random) trailers, dolby and thx demos, etc. as well as trivia slides before the feature starts.
Negatives
-"Stuttering" on slow, long pans. This can be fixed (in most cases) with an app called Reclock. Works like a charm for me.
-The potential for quality is so great that sadly the majority of DVDs just don't look good anymore because it brings out all their flaws. I was flabbergasted how bad Aliens looked (from the Quadrilogy set), however the original Alien looks fan-fvcking-tastic. The other two are above average and look great.
-Not as convienent as the set top player. Took me over a week to get everything as I wanted it. But I have an ATI Remote Wonder which gives me almost all of the functionality of a normal remote. Chances are no one else in your house will be able to operate it (that can be a good thing sometimes
)-You become even more anal about quality. You distaste for so-and-so's latest DVD transfer will start creeping up in every day conversation :Q
Anyway this is the cliffnotes of it. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them. Definitely worth the effort if you think it can never look good enough.
Here are some comparisons of before and after processing:
ttt3.jpg
ttt2.jpg
ttt1.jpg
Helpful links
Powerstrip custom-resolution guide for ATI Radeon cards
ffdshow faq
Zoom Player (one of my new favorite pieces of software. INCREDIBLY customizable)
Facebook
Twitter