[Mark Laarson]

I've been watching DVDs on my Epson 800x600 LCD projector, with a simple setup - run PC at 800x600, connect projector to VGA on computer, and run DVDs using PowerDVD.


I don't use any other media, only DVD - usually film-based.


Now, what can i do to increase the quality? Its pretty good as it is, but i was piqued by someone else claiming how FFDshow post-processing to output S-Video to their 20" SDTV helped the clarity appreciably.


So i'd like a word from the all-knowing peeps at AVS as to what post-processing and FFDShow can do for my humble HT.

 

[CCarncross]

What are your PC specs? Its generally considered that you need at least a P4 2GHz or equivalent to use FFDshow for post-processing to make a difference.

 

[Mark Laarson]

Oops...


Dual AthlonMP 2000+

512MB PC2100 ECC RAM

Radeon 9600

120+160GB HDDs

 

[CCarncross]

Since I take it your projector can only do up to 800x600, (no Hi-Def), then maybe just a little noise-reduction, maybe a filter, but most are using it to upscale non-copy protected to HD resolutions on their HD capable equipment.

 

[MartinK]

Upgrade ideas


- nvDVD 4.0 and WinDVD 6 are currently the best decoders available (YMMV - you may or may not see a difference. But since you asked...)


- There's some scaling going on, from the DVD resolution of 720x480 to the projector's resolution of 800x600. What ffsdshow essentially does is provider a higher quality means of doing that scaling. Also you can throw in some sharpening filters and a boatload of other stuff. However the main reason most people use it with projectors is to scale to the projectors native resolution.


However, ffdshow is not very stable and can derail your whole media playback chain of not used properly. Information is available but scattered over various forums, be prepared to spend a few hours getting this to work.


But it's free - drop in zoom player eval, windvd eval and ffdshow and try it out yourself!