Do HTPCs have better image quality than stand-alones?

[GTaudiophile]

I thought I read somewhere that HTPCs with Blu-Ray drives and high-end, HDMI-output videocards produce better image quality on say a 1080P LCD than a simple, traditional stand-alone Blu-Ray player. Is this true?

 

[uo7]

My htpc (xbox hd dvd drive, sony blu-ray drive) seems to be smoother and sharper at faster moving scenes than my standalone hd-dvd player (hd-a35). I can't compare it to a standalone blu-ray drive though as I don't own one. The biggest problem with htpc's was getting sound out from hdmi, that looks to be changing with the new Intel G45 Motherboards comming out. Amd is making one as well. Onboard graphics with real hardware acceleration and pcm output through the hdmi port will be nice.


Intel G45

 

[The Boston Dangler]

that would be a first.

 

[Chapbass]

About a year ago i remember one of the major hardware review sites (mightve even been anandtech?) had a big review on the htpc technologies like purevideo vs the upconverting dvd players. The result was that the upconvert technologies from ati (Amd) and nvidia were quite a bit better than even the best upconvert players.


Now, this might have changed with the hd-dvd players and blu ray players. One thing i WILL say, however, is that going from my htpc (e4300, 2gb ram, xbox360 hddvd drive) to a toshiba a35, is that the menus were MUCH smoother on the htpc, and felt alot more responsive.

Granted, getting the hd-dvd's to play back in the first place was the hard part, but after that, everything was gravy.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Looks like a nice board from Intel there.

I wonder if its onboard graphics will be able to handle H.264 as well as high-end cards from nVidia and AMD.

 

[uo7]

From what I remember from tomshardware I think it was, Yes these new boards are supposed to have full offloading to the gpu.