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Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
inthedeck #143571 07/21/06 11:29 PM
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I have been thinming on and off about getting a dish for HDTV. I am sure that my TV would put out some great pictures on that. I am not sure though about the regular channels. Any Canadians here using Bell for digital cable? Is it much better than standard cable?
I think a projector would be a bit much for a bedroom. However if had a home theatre room.....
It seem that my options for upconverting DVD players are VERY limited (with component cables due to my tv). Also being a movie freak, I like multi-disk changers.
Went and made a pitch at Futureshop yesterday but was rebuffed :-(

Shane D

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
JohnK #143572 07/21/06 11:38 PM
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Yes, when I bought the TV it had a great picture in the store, and still does. I just like the picture of DLP's much better. That is probably in no small part due to the fact that they are all running HDTV loops which look GREAT.
The biggest knock which has bothered me since day one is the Toshiba RP CRT's of a couple of a years ago had a real strong green push. Combine that with an iffy cable signal and you a get a grumpy little hermit.
As for my present DVD player it is a decent unit (Panasonic DVD-F65). The quality of the DVD picture is at LEAST twice as good as my cable picture, and probably a lot more depending on the channel.

Shane D

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
michael_d #143573 07/21/06 11:45 PM
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Wow! I am not looking to even spend that much on a TV. I am guessing that you are referring to a video processor? There was a post earlier recommending something similar from DVDO. It is supposed to work great, but the cheapest unit is (I think) $1,499.00 in US$.
I would not think twice about spending one, two, three, and maybe up to five hundred dollars for REAL nice video. But $3,500.00 US? Too rich for my blood.

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
shaned #143574 07/22/06 03:22 AM
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Ya, I meant a video processor. From what I've read so far, you have to spend at least a grand on one to do you any good. A hard pill to swallow, that's for sure. But I figure if I'm gunna spend the money, I'd rather just do it once on a machine that will do what I need it to do for the next several years.

http://www.crystalio.com/

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
thanwu #143575 07/22/06 06:04 AM
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Quote:

Hi, Ben:

Thank you for the information. Do you have a dedicated HTPC for hometheater or just use a regular pc as a htpc? I need to decide which case to buy for the HTPC. It is really appreciate if you could provide some info for me.

Han




Sorry for the late reply, been out of town. Yes I have a PC completely dedicated to my HT only. I have a single 400G hdd in it mainly for recording TV and I encoded movies and store them on a "server" that has 500G of space on it... someday I may combine the two and leave it in the HT cabinet.

HTPC is a hobby, its definitely doable to the average person but you can get caught up spending time and money. I think the end result can't be touched by anything in its price range when you consider the quality of it's output combined with the features you get by having a PC in place of a standard DVD player, Cable box, etc.

With Vista on the horizon things will be changing even more. Cable Card support will allow us to record HD off cable (right now you have to use ATSC which is HD over the air with an antenna).

For anyone just getting into it, I would HIGHLY recomend getting Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to start with. If you feel the itch to try another front end you can do that but I've found that I prefer MCE 2005's own HTPC front end the best.

Tuners: I use the Haupauge PVR150 MCE's (two of em) and they work perfectly. I hear the new Nvidia tuner might have better picture quality but we're talking SDTV here so I can't believe it would be a huge difference plus it costs a lot more. That said SDTV thru my HTPC looks better than any SDTV I've seen on a traditional TV.

Cases: This is a lot of a personal choice combined with how much you are willing to spend. www.pcalchemy.com has a lot of really nice cases to choose from. I can't justify spending the cash right now so mine isn't anything special. Plus the rumor is to get a cable card with Vista you will have to buy a OEM computer that is certified. I'm hoping the uprising from various HTPC front end makers can change that (because I'd much prefer to build my own) but if not that means I may have to buy an entirely new PC next year when Vista comes out so I'm not spending any more money on my current box.

Then there is the fact that an Xbox/360 can be a front end for MCE 2005/Vista... basically which means you could make your main PC in your office be your MCE box, recording TV and holding your music, movies etc. Then use your Xbox (360 is ver2 of these 'extenders' and has more features then the first xbox did) to play that stuff back on your TV(s) via a network connection.

Remotes/Keyboards: Microsoft makes a very nice remote designed for use with MCE 2005. Its one of the better remotes I've seen... that said I replaced mine with a Harmony and love it. I also have the keyboard Microsoft made specifically for MCE 2005. It is a terrific keyboard, the only knock on it is the pointing device thats built on isn't all that great but I've gotten used to it so its usable now.

Everyone got all of that? Too bad cause thats just scratching the surface.

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
michael_d #143576 07/22/06 02:11 PM
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The list prices are $4,500.00 and $5,500.00 in US dollars! Yikes. To me that would be like spending $10,000.00 on a pair of speakers. Could I afford it? Yes. Would I ever do it? Not on your life.
Is this a case where you already have a top of the line Tv and the best signal that you can receive and you are still not happy with the picture?
Or, do you just like toys? ;-)

Shane D

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
shaned #143577 07/22/06 05:49 PM
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Well I do like my toys! But that’s not why I’m going with a VP. There are several reasons. I’m in the final throws of building a HT room with a projector. I want to eventually go with a constant height 2.35 system and I’ll need a scalar to do it. I’m also stuck with SDTV for about forever, so I want to improve the PQ somehow so it doesn’t look like crap on a large screen.

There are several other VP’s on the market that retail for under $2000. But like I said earlier, some do certain things great, and others not so great. The Crystalio does all things very well. And the MSRP is quite a bit more than what you can get them for, which is usually around $3500. So when you add it all up; projector - $1500, VP - $3500, screen $200 (DIY), DVD player with SDI mod - $500 = $5700. $5700 is still much lower than what many folks have spent on their TV / DVD Player combinations.

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
michael_d #143578 07/22/06 09:37 PM
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That makes a lot more sense. I am hoping to build a house within 5 years, and I am already thinking of a price tag of $5,000.00 to $10,000 for a home theatre. So, by the time it actually happens, the price will likely be much higher.
Just out of curiousity, if you are using an overhead projector what would you use to transmit the SD? Can you plug your cable into it, or directly into the VP?
I know nothing of overhead projectors. I figure that there is no use looking into something that I do not have space for right now.

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
shaned #143579 07/23/06 05:46 PM
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My projector (panny 900) has component, HDMI, Coax and S Video inputs. I suspect that it is no different than any other projector on the market.

You hook it up just like you would you TV, with the exception of sound.

When you throw an external VP into the mix, the VP then becomes the video hub and switching device. All video sources are run into the VP and your output goes to your display device (or devices). Depending on the VP, the output may be HDMI, DVI, Component, S Video, or other. Most are HDMI and / or DVI. Some VP’s also perform audio switching as well as video. By going with a VP that has audio switching, the lip sync issues are lessoned. VP’s tend to take a tad longer to process the video stream than an AVR or DVD player.

So say you’re an A/V junky with no kids or bills and have a HD Cable box or satellite receiver, a SDI modified DVD player, a HD-DVD player, a Blue Ray player, a VCR, a universal player for music, and a laser disk player. You input all those devises into the VP with all connection options available to you. You would then run each device through a bunch of tests to find out which one of their outputs looks best. After that you calibrate the VP just like you would your TV with each input to however the image looks best to you. (this is assuming that you already calibrated your display device). In addition to these settings, you select the aspect ratio that you want for each device and if it is to be scaled / converted to 480P, 720P, 1080i or 1080P. Now depending on the VP’s functionality and number of assigned memories, you name each input and the calibration setting(s), aspect ratios and resolution for each input. The VP does all the thinking from then on. When you pop in a DVD the machine knows which input to select and remembers the calibration settings. You get tired of the DVD and want to watch a VCR tape, the machine switches inputs and calibrations.

Clear as mud?

Re: upconverting or upscaling DVD players
michael_d #143580 07/23/06 05:58 PM
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"Theoretically" that set up sounds awesome!! I can't imagine anything in my life working that smoothly on a continual basis, but that would be the dream wouldn't it?
As I look to upgrade my movie watching experience, I wonder about running into audio lag, really poor sd quality, and whatever else might pop up. And of course if you hang around AVS long enough on the Toshiba/Samsung/Sony threads, all the new models are GREAT, and have MAJOR problems ;-)

Analysis paralysis continues.

Shane D

Shane D

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