HD-A1 How good id upscaling compared to HTPC

Just my own 2c.


I have HP HTPC which outputs 1080i over component outputs.


The HD-A1 outputs 1080i over component outputs (for non-copy protected movies).


To my eye, the HD-A1's picture is much, much closer to true HD quality than is the HTPC for the same source.


Yep, it's just a DVD player ... but a darn good one in my opinion.

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'hassle' ? How can you even compare the convenience of good HTPC software to HD-A1!!!

I guess you are using wrong HTPC software. I don't like to promote my software like this, but for sure you can find much better solutions than Theatertek or ZoomPlayer.

But I'm biased and cannot imagine life without a HTPC in my living room.

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Yes indeed, I don't think anybody considering getting rid of the HTPC for a Toshi HD-DVD does even have a clue what an HTPC is really good for (it's not a superior image quality to standard DVD players, it's more or less the same, but you can do 48Hz and PAL-Speedup-Reverse for starters!).


Is there an HD-DVD drive for PCs available in the near future?


Can't find any info on that.


Thanks.

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To amplify on my comment: But, not nearly as good image quality as TT using SW decode, assisted by ffdshow Lanczos 2 scaling and DScaler 4's sharpen filter.


Not to mention the aspect ratio control, and the ability to set autostart bookmarks to skip the junk on the disk that preceeds what we actually bought the disc to watch, which still sets the HTPC apart from the typical DVD player.


I have the Tosh HD A1, but there is no way I would choose it for upconverting standard DVD over my HTPC. For those who are technology challenged, and can't or don't want to build the optimum HTPC environment, then the HD A1 is certainly an acceptable alternative and better than most any other upscaling player out there. Just to be absolutely clear, the HD A1 is the only choice for playing HD DVD's.


Vern

i'm sure you can toss enough time and money into a HTPC to outperform this.....


but the HD-A1 blows away my HTPC w/ ATI X800-PRO video card. DVD using Nvidia is horrendous (deinterlacing artifacts) with this card and neither dscaler5 or other deinterlacers have helped completely fix minor combing issues (MPC or ZP). It got to the point i was using my 360 for DVD playback quite often (over my HTPC and soon-to-be-on-ebay Zenith 318)


I haven't yet A/B compared 1920x1080i MPEG2 caps to HD-DVD but i'm looking forward to it. (1080i contenet plays perfect on my setup unlike DVD).


I'm not really big proclaiming upscaling DVD is worth a LARGE expense (low res garbage in garbage out) but the HD-A1 is a notable and worthwhile improvement (unlike the DV-318 for example).


My HTPC has alot of uses, but DVD playback is not among them anymore.

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There's one available now, but it costs $499.00 and comes packaged inside the Toshiba HD-A1.


The larger problem is that at the moment the other software and hardware components to play HD-DVD content on an HTPC are only available via OEM channels. They aren't yet readily available in retail channels....getting closer though.


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Bryce