Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater X1 projector setup ... for those interested

In reply to:

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Thats what some people have mentioned. But I tried it and it does output standard 800x600. I only see 480p on the bootup XP logo. Then it goes 800x600 in winxp desktop. It was working fine until last week thats when I saw some noise so I started using the primary display vga rather than the DVI with ATI dongle to VGA.

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I think we're talking about different things. To see to what I'm refering, go to this page and scroll toward the bottom. On the far right, you should see a little dongle you can buy for $29 that converts VGA to Component Video:

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/index.html

However, if your projector has a VGA in, that's absolutely the way to go.

In reply to:

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But some like Apple only have digital through DVI. That is why only Macs can use those nice Widescreen LCD by Apple. Id love one of those for the PC.

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You can buy one. All you need is a little converter dongle that goes from the stupid Apple connector to DVI:

http://www.welovemacs.com/dviator.html

Of course, since Apple doesn't actually make their own panels, you could just buy another brand's rebranding of the same screen and be done with it. I can't remember off the top of my head who actually manufactures the Cinema Displays but I can guarantee a quick post to Ars would find someone that does.

Though if memory serves, Apple's prices on the Cinema Displays are astonishingly competitive compared to the rest of their products.

Zarak,

An HTPC can serve a couple of functions. First and foremost is the ability to act as a scaler. Individual scalers usually start at $2000 and head up toward $6k quickly. This functionality has been built into every VGA chip for a very long time so just about any computer can handle this activity. Basically, it's the upconversion of lower resolution video to a higher resolution. After applying some filtering, via an app like DScaler, you can get a significantly better video signal.

The other primary function is to play media. With a broadband connection, it's pretty easy to download rips of movies, CDs and old console games. If you've invested in a large screen and a nice sound system, you might want to use that for this media, meaning you need something connected to your theater that can pull this information from other computers or hold it itself.

Another feature that is becoming more popular is time shifting like a TiVo. The functionality still isn't anywhere near as advanced as a TiVo, but it's adequate for recording TV shows, skipping commercials and pausing live television.

Regards,
Semi

All the movie rips I've ever seen -- even the best ones -- are horrible quality compared to DVDs. How can you watch those things?

Half the time, they've been highly DivX compressed with dodgy audio. Ick.

I've seen good ones and bad ones. Some are made directly from a digital source like the four file rip I have of The Two Towers. Some are made from the Laserdisc, like the original Star Wars flicks which will never be on DVD. Some are of european films that otherwise have no region 1 solution. Some are incredibly bad shots from a handicam by some moron in the theater.

The x1 projector does have a component to VGA and a component to special SVideo. That lets me input to different devices.

Thanks for the info. I could see the scaler usage to make the video look even better then regular DVD. I agree about not having seen very good quality on the movies I've seen that are downloaded though...they don't come close to DVD from what I've seen.

Gaming on a big screen with surround sound could be nice though

As far as the TiVo functionality, I assume there are programs out there for the PC that let it act in a similar fashion to a TiVo so that programs can be recorded to the HD on a time based scheduled and watched later.

Zarak;

Your are talking about those rips, telesych and those are bad quality. If you know where to look ... hint RISCISO ... are groups that make ISO DVD copies and dump them in places. Those are actual ISO copies of the DVD which people down load from 'cough' newsgroups and rebuilt the pieces and burn into DVD. The quality is exact as originals both video and audio.

disclaimer: I do not condone any of this.

Since Semi_on touched on the technology
Hardware wise:

small quiet case preferably, esthetics count as this will go with your audio equipment:

http://quietpc.ca/
http://mini-itx.com/
http://www.soldam.com/barebone/polo_r_figaro/fav/index.html
http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=40&page=1
http://www.hushtechnologies.com/
- ATI Radeon card is because of its great video output and DVD harware decoding
- new motherboards today have SPDIF (Sony Phillips Digital Interface) connectors where you can connect a digital optical cable to your surround sound receiver to decode DTs and DD.
- new a good DVD software player WinDVD with ffdshow (best picture qiality hard to setup or NVDVD easy setup almost as good quality.
- PVR (personal video capabilities) capabilities using PCI cards and a very very fast CPU to capture video at a nice high resolution

Belatedly... Very nice setup and photos, Saturn!

But, what are those CRAPPY center and front speakers???

(and where's my tripod?)

I'm trying out an X1 right now and I'd really like to set it up 16:9 as well. Does the HTPC 800x430 image eliminate the grey areas above and below the image? It looks that way, but it could be the photos. I've tried running it 16:9 with the DVD set to 16:9 output and it seems to scale the image horizontally to fill the screen, but it doesn't scale vertically the same proportion so the image is squashed a bit. So, I've just been running 'native', any suggestions?

What type of case is that?