upconverting or upscaling DVD players

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Does anybody know of any multi-disc upscaling dvd players? On top of that, how about one that will convert via component cables?

Thanks for any guidance

Shane D

Shane, consider the Sony 995 . Apparently you consider upscaling in the player to be a major factor, but keep in mind that the TV itself has to scale the incoming material to fit its "native resolution" if it hasn't been done earlier by a player or receiver. Having it done by the player is only an advantage if it does a visibly better job of it than the TV would. This varies.

Thanks for the post John. The unit that you mentioned looks good but only uses HDMI. My TV (Toshiba 42H82) does not have HDMI or even DVI. I bought it three years ago and am now looking at buying a new TV, but was wondering if I could improve my movie viewing but adding a new dvd player?

Shane D

Hey Shane, there are very few Upconverting DVD players out there that will achieve this via Component. I think Momitsu still makes one in a single player unit, and there might be a few others. I know there have been a few threads on this forum about this topic, you might try searching for "upconverting". Since this model Toshiba is 16:9, and I assume will accept a 720p or 1080i signal, depending on the player, you will see an improvement over 480i or 480p. I had a Panasonic S97S for about a year with my Sanyo Z2 Projector, and the picture was much better than 480p, no question. I have since built a HTPC which blows away any upconverting DVD player I've ever used to this point.

Good Luck

Thanks for the post sirquack. I did go through the other threads, but they seemed fairly old. One thing did catch my eye though: "newer sets already upscale to their native resolution". Would that mean that since my tv was able to view 720p/1080I that it is already upconverting my DVD picture? IE: Would I see a large benefit? Would my "native resolution" be 720p?

Any help would be appreciated.

Shane D

I'm not familiar with some of the latest technology out today, as I'm more of a big screen front projection guy.

My upstairs TV is a Toshiba 32" hdtv, so HD material looks awesome in 720p or 1080i. However, if I watch a DVD on my progressive scan DVD player it is only 480p, which looks nice compared to 480i, but it does not convert to 720p, etc... Now it could be some of the current tv's out there have a built in scaler that will take a 480i/p signal and upconvert to 720p, 1080i, I'm not sure maybe someone else will give some input.

I'll tell you one thing, High Def on my projector and big screen is jaw dropping and blows 480p away.

The new Oppo 970 will up convert via component. It does a pretty good at it on my four year old, non-HDMI TV too! Unfortunately, it will only do this with those ‘user friendly’ dvd’s that are not ‘protected’. IE: old DVD’s. Pretty much all the new releases will not allow this to happen unless it’s via HDMI. But for a hundred and fifty bucks, I’d highly recommend the 970. it even a universal player.

Thanks for the replies guys! I am debating hard on whether to go a for a DVD player or a new TV. I love the SXRD sony, but it is really expensive. However Future Shop has a pretty nice Toshiba 56" at a decent price.....

Once again, analysis paralysis.

Shane D

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000DIK0U/ref=dp_olp_2/103-7582114-3448604?ie=UTF8

this is what i have, i like it, very good picture on my 720p projector.. and its component, so should work fine for you.

Hi, Randy:

I am thinking to build a HTPC myself soon. Could you please share some infromation of the parts you bought for your HTPC?

Thanks,

Panasonic TH-42PX60U
Panasonic S97S DVD Player
Yamaha RX-V2600 Reciever
Dishnetwork Vip 211 HD reciever

I bought one of these for my home theater a while ago, and am VERY pleased with it:

DVDO iscan

With this, I upconvert everything to 1080i (it'll do 720P and other formats, too). I upconvert everything and use the component outputs to connect to my TV (DVI on my TV is problematic).

It's nice having this, because it automatically switches audio and video for me. Even my playstation2 is hooked up thru this and gets upconverted to 1080i and optical audio input. My DVD player also upconverts, but I've found that it looks better when I output 480P from my DVD, and have the DVDO upconvert to 1080i.

Quote:

Hi, Randy:

I am thinking to build a HTPC myself soon. Could you please share some infromation of the parts you bought for your HTPC?

Thanks,

I'm not Randy but I love to chime in when I hear the magic word ' HTPC '

In my opinion, HTPC > all other upconverting players. The reason I say that is in addition to getting a killer upconverting DVD player, a HTPC also gives you the bonus of postprocessing on other media like TV (live or recorded), other videos, etc.

From my personal experiences I would go with Nvidia's solution. In a nutshell any GeForce 6X00 or 7X00 along with Nvidia's DVD decoder will give you all the postproccessing features that equate to an upconverting DVD player (or better). Nvidia is always adding new features to their cards and right now the new 7600 has the best of those features. I *only* have a 6600 and I can still say DVD's look WAY better than I ever dreamed they could on my DLP.

-Ben

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

Like Ben,

I prefer my HTPC over my previous Panasonic S97S Upconverting DVD player. The Panny did a good job, and for people that don't want to mess with computer configuration, might be a good option.

My HTPC combined with TheaterTek DVD Software gives me much better quality than the DVD Player. Once you adjust your Computer resolution to match the native resolution of the projector, and get the latest drivers, the picture is great.

I also have a 6800GT based system...

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a tuner card OTHER than ATI?
I've been looking at Hauppage and Pinnacle, but came across DViCO the other day.
I'm not sure if any of them have good track records for drivers, software, updates and overall quality products (not that i'm thrilled with ATI, but i would not care to venture something even worse).

Any opinions of experience would be appreciated. Opinions based on heresay or net reports are always welcome, but these are incredibly unreliable. It always seems that 50% of the people who use ATI cards have no problems, and then the other 50% get no rest at all. I'm in that latter category.
Have had great success with nvidia, but they dont' sell video capture/tuner cards. For some reason the ATI AIW cards i've used have always had at least one or two major glitches, sometimes fixed in driver updates, only to have another one popup.
I recently had to RMA two cards to ATI including one they had just returned to me. The last one i received (#3) had a broken pin on the HSF which i fixed with a chunk of cork and a wood screw, but damn, what idiot would send out a new yet broken card on a RMA return?
Bloody infuriating.

I use MediaPortal for my front end software whick an Open Source product. Gotta like a free product that works as good or better than MCE 2005

I used the VBox ATSC Cats Eye tuner card. Works great overall. HD is freaking awesome dudes.

Unfortunately HD content in Canada is still very limited. The best coverage is through Bell Expressvu from what i hear from a friend who is in the know.

I'm just looking for a decent tuner card and working software for our two office computers for basic tv. At some point, when HD gets a bit more commonplace, i will spring for a HD receiver specifically for the media and family rooms. When that point comes, so will a front projector.

You mentioned that NVIDIA doesn't sell tv cards but they actually do (SD tv) but they are meant for MCE:
NVIDIA® DualTV MCE tuner

i have the ati HD tuner card in my computer, and i like it ok.. but it is not as easy to use as the HD cable box, so i wound up just using the cable box, however if you have more free time than i (mabe 1 or 2 hours a day at the most) then the ati card would probably work for you, i just dont have the time to fiddle with it to get it to record what i want when i want, however i am pretty sure that it is possible, and the ati software seems pretty easy to use, and the hardware would probably be wonderful with microsoft media center OS.. dont know for sure thoughl..

i think it would be great to get a HD card for the computer, if you plan on recording HD movies, sense you can have pretty much unlimated recording space though the computer, and depdning on where you want to put the computer, you could just get a regular case, and get a RF keyboard/mouse, and have the actual computer in the next room, and just run longer cables to the reciever. if it were me, thats what i would do, just get the biggest server case you can afford, throw a crap load of hard drives in there, and record everything... thats just me though.

Thanks for the link skyhawk but no, these computers will not be running MCE and i'm not building a HTPC.
I'm just tired of the buggy ati drivers and software. Granted their software has had alot more time to mature and add features than most, but i've had both hardware and software problems over the years that i've had enough with ATI.
It seems there are so many more options now for all-in-wonder type cards or in the least, good tv tuners, so i thought i would look around.
Beyond Hauppage and Pinnacle, i was not aware of any other mainstream brands that might fit the bill.

I was actually talking to a techie today for Samsung. He stated that there is no samsung TV that upconverts or upscales any signal. All it does is some filtering to clean it up, period.
So, I guess the DVD player is an option for at least some improvement. I do not expect HD quality, but would like to see a bump.

Shane D

They are no longer on any Sony Site. The new model (995), uses HDMI for upscaling. I had actually been leaning more towards the 5 disc version, IF I upgrade the TV.

Shane D

Cool unit, but not cheap! How does it work on regular cable?

Shane D

Shane, the Samsung "techie" apparently wasn't techie enough(or there was some miscommunication). Any 720 pixel set, for example, when it's fed 480 material from standard definition TV or standard DVDs, has to upscale the 480 to 720 so that all the pixels are filled; otherwise a complete picture couldn't even be displayed.

Really? The explanation that I was given is that the TV just accepts what it gets and cleans it up a little. This made sense to me since my present TV is capable of 720p/1080i, but does nothing at all with my cable picture. DVDs are better, but NOWHERE near HD quality.
So, do you think this because they are fixed pixel sets? My set is technically as much a 720p TV as a new Samsung, isn't it?
As you can tell, I am woefully ignorant on the subject, so I would appreciate any input.
If I can get more info from you guys, I will call Samsung and Toshiba again tomorrow.

Thanks.

Shane D

Shane, your last info wasn't entirely clear. Are you saying that your set is or isn't a fixed pixel set? If a set doesn't have a fixed pixel display(most of the Samsung sets certainly are fixed pixel)then no scaling takes place because it's irrelevant to creating the picture. So, it wouldn't take place in the set and no scaling("conversion")in a player, receiver or separate processor would be relevant to such a set either, since there aren't any pixels that need filling.

Just to clear things up John, my present set is a Toshiba 42H82, rear projection TV. I am considering getting a new TV, which would be a DLP (Samsung or Toshiba, probably).
So, are you saying that all DLP/LCD/Plasma TV's upscale to 720p or 1080p? If that is so, then why would anybody buy upconverting DVD players? Also, if you have a fixed pixel set, have you ever compared the two methods?

Thank you!

Shane D

Here's an example...maybe it will help. When I watch DVD's through the Xbox, they all play at 480p. When I play games through the 360, then they follow the resolution that the game is capable of, i.e. 1080i, 480p, or 720p.

DVD Players that upscale, would generally upscale the signal from 480p to 720p or 1080i (most LCD's, Plasmas, etc. can support this -- at least mine does). There are a couple of players out on the market that will upconvert to 1080p, but they are still fairly expensive, and you would require a TV/projector that is capable of handling 1080p (another expense).

If someone were to be looking for a TV capable of handling 1080p (again, expensive) then you might as well just get an HD-DVD or BluRay player (again, fairly expensive, unless you want a buggy Toshiba). This way, you would be getting true 1080p through your player, and your tv wouldn't bat an eye.

Hope that helps a little.

Okay Shane, I took a look to see what the 42H82 is, and found that it's a CRT set, which means that it doesn't use a fixed pixel screen, so disregard the parts of the discussion referring to upscaling pixels.

Yes, all DLP/LCD/Plasma HDTVs have to upscale incoming material which is lower than their 720 or 1080 "native resolution" in order to display a complete picture. Why then with such a TV would anybody buy an "upconverting" player? One reason is that the somewhat misleading use of "upconverting" leaves some(who aren't aware that the TV has to upscale if it's not done earlier)with the impression that the DVD material is actually converted to real HD quality. Another buying point is that the player may(or may not)do a better job of scaling DVD content than the circuitry in the TV itself. There's no way to say which method would work better as a generality, since TVs and players differ and each combination would have to be tried to see which was better in a particular case. Note that the scaling done by a player only affects DVDs and that the TV set processing has to be relied on with broadcast TV programming if it has to be scaled.

Thanks for the info. I do understand the principle of upscaling, but I am just wondering about what tool does it best.

Shane D

Again, sorry for the confusion John. I now own a RP CRT TV, and have been looking at ways to improve the picture on movies. The 720p thing really has my interest now. So, basically anybody that buys a 720p TV gets an immediate upgrade in the quality of even their basic cable? So, all cable, dvd's, and even games are projected in a 720p resolution (or close to it)?
Geez now I am thinking upgrading TV's is not an option, but a necessity ;-)

Shane D

Just to reply to my own reply, I just got off the phone with Samsung. She did not know what "Sean" was thinking, or maybe I just misunderstood.
Thanks for guidance John!
Now I have just have to ask....So is that the big deal with 1080p TV's? Most of them will not take an 1080p signal (which is fine since there is not much to receive), but do they do an incredible job of upscaling/upconverting/pixel filling?

Shane D

Shane your questions peeked my curiosity, here is a good article explaining 1080p HDTV Hope this helps.

Thanks for link. Since the quality seems very dependant on the source, I am not really sure what to think. Will my shitty cable quality become much better? I think that I may just go with an upscaling DVD player and perhaps, a satellite dish. Hopefully that would make some very noticable improvements and keep me happy for at least a year ;-)

Thanks to everybody for their input.

Shane D

Quote:

Thanks for link. Since the quality seems very dependant on the source, I am not really sure what to think. Will my shitty cable quality become much better? I think that I may just go with an upscaling DVD player and perhaps, a satellite dish. Hopefully that would make some very noticable improvements and keep me happy for at least a year ;-)

Thanks to everybody for their input.

Shane D

I have an HD TV (nothing special, a polaroid 32") and I have a HDTV Cable box attached to it. Regular TV isn't all that great as compared to a reg. tube tv. The HD material, though, on HDTV channels (Discovery, HBOHD, etc.) are all amazing.

However, if I were you, I would skip the tv, and get a projector. I would say it's a much better option, versus a new TV. Proboably a little cheaper, too. As for upconverting player, well, yeah, there are many to choose from, and they are not all that expensive, as compared to HD-DVD and Blu-ray players.

So many choices...not enough money!!!

Shane, the little bit I read about the 42H82 indicated that it did a pretty good job when fed "real" HDTV material. If you mean that your cable service in Halifax doesn't offer HDTV but a satellite service does offer it, then the way to get HDTV on your 42H82 is to switch the cable to HDTV satellite. Forget the "upconverting" player; your set doesn't need it. If your present player is mediocre, a new player may make a slight improvement independently of any scaling feature.

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Forget the "upconverting" player; your set doesn't need it. If your present player is mediocre, a new player may make a slight improvement independently of any scaling feature.

I have to agree with JohnK on this one.
A friend of mine bought an upscaling dvdp last year for the very reason of trying to get HD resolution from non-HD dvds. As expected, there was little change and if any, hard to decide whether it could be considered an improvement. However in buying a different brand, the contrast and colour saturation was noticeably better.

One must start with higher resolution to really get higher resolution. It is too bad that HD tv content is still so limited here. Very frustrating.

From what I’ve been reading, VP’s MAY, or MAY NOT help cable / satellite. Whenever I ask, I get the “garbage in, garbage out” response. But numerous folks on different forums all swear by them and that they do help regardless of input.

Some VP’s are better for SD video, SD film, and HD inputs. None seam to do all of them equally well. To date, I’m leaning toward the Crystalio II VPS-3800. It’s quite expensive though, about $3500US. Most users claim it is the most advanced and will process any source very well. The 3800 has a media player as well. The 3300 does not have the media player and it $500 less.

I’ve been following this string at AVS. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=688903

And if you are going to go the VP route, you might as well get a DVD player with a good MPEG decoder and have it modified for SDI output right off the decoder. It is the “cleanest” way to get true data to the VP.

And the best "VP" (vice president) today is?

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

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

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.

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/

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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.

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

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.

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.

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?

"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

hey chess

check out tv tuners that use the conexant chipset.
excellent quality.
I used to have the TVAnywhere model and I know scaled faster than the ATI chipset with the older 9500 ATI All in One cards.
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=TV@nywhere_Plus&class=vga
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=Digital@nywhere-ATSC&class=vga

if you just want to go external then I would just recommend any of these model. I have the Nextvision N5
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/tventertainment/tvvideoprocessors/

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Does anyone have a good recommendation for a tuner card OTHER than ATI?
I've been looking at Hauppage and Pinnacle, but came across DViCO the other day.
I'm not sure if any of them have good track records for drivers, software, updates and overall quality products (not that i'm thrilled with ATI, but i would not care to venture something even worse).

Any opinions of experience would be appreciated. Opinions based on heresay or net reports are always welcome, but these are incredibly unreliable. It always seems that 50% of the people who use ATI cards have no problems, and then the other 50% get no rest at all. I'm in that latter category.
Have had great success with nvidia, but they dont' sell video capture/tuner cards. For some reason the ATI AIW cards i've used have always had at least one or two major glitches, sometimes fixed in driver updates, only to have another one popup.
I recently had to RMA two cards to ATI including one they had just returned to me. The last one i received (#3) had a broken pin on the HSF which i fixed with a chunk of cork and a wood screw, but damn, what idiot would send out a new yet broken card on a RMA return?
Bloody infuriating.

Saturn,
What about the software apps for these cards? Any opinion?
ATI's solution is nice in features but short on function. After all this time you would figure they would have the major bugs worked out and a more simple method of installation for all required components.

The MSI TV software is good. Had no issues. It scales rather well actually. The remote is less than desired. All I did is use a learning remote to mimic the remote presses or even better emulate the keyboard strokes & mouse movements on your learning remote using a wireless keyboard and mouse. Then your remote can control your PC.