HTPC vs PS3

[Fox5]

You don't have to use WMC's built in decoders nor media foundation to upscale.. You can make it look much better and tweak dozens of parameters if you wanted, using FFDshow.. which also now also includes DXVA support.

That that's not even an issue. I'm using some of the default media foundation decoders in 7MC and I've never had issues with upscaling. Everything looks amazing on my 1080p projection. Just remember you can't put detail into video that wasn't there to begin with. The last time I had upscaling issues was with XP MCE..

I'm not complaining that you can't turn DVDs into HD.
I'm complaining that windows media center, out of the box, looks like ass when upscaling compared to even my cheapie $100 blu ray plyaer. I didn't want to believe it myself, but there's no denying that the blu ray player blew away the image quality of media center.
And just about every other app available for windows blows away media center's quality too. Like I said, codecs and random settings might fix this, but getting an HTPC running smoothly is already practically an art, I'm not going to battle with windows over codecs and settings, especially when other programs for windows get it right out of the box.

 

[wiretap]

Never had a problem with that.

 

[slackerinabox]

Windows 7's Media Center did some great things, especially when it comes to dvd playback. I forget if it was MCE (xp based) of MCE Vista, but I found it absurd that I'd have audio problems on DVD, a format that's ancient. But they fixed it, and DVD playback is great. BUT bluray playback should work out of the box with Windows 7- it's a disgrace that you have to use a 3rd party application. And I don't feel that bluray playbac, using either arcsoft or powerdvd, is as clear as using a standalone. I swear there's something wacky going on with down-sampling and even AR skewing using software playback. I'm sure there's a "simple" 30 page FAQ out there that could fix the problems but, seriously, get a bluray player.

 

[jacktesterson]

I don't see what the fuss about HTPCs are.

I had mine up and running within an hour after putting it together. Its been running for 15 months problem free. I originally went with XP Media Centre Edition...and Ill admit I had WAY better luck getting everything to work with Vista, and now Windows 7. I've had 3 reloads just to upgrade the system drive to new Operating Systems and software versions.

I've never had any problems.

And...

PowerDVD 9 plays Blu Rays perfect too.