[jayfsee007]

I'm about to take delivery of a Panasonic Projector AE700 and I'd like to hook it up to use my computer as a HTPC.


I want to use Powerstrip and DScaler and FFDShow to upscale and pixel to pixel map DVD's to 1280 by 720p.


My PC is a Pentium 4, at 1.5 GHZ with 640MB Ram, Radeon 9800 Pro, Pioneer DVD player and running Windows XP Professional.


I am concerned that the PC will not have enough power to feed a stable signal to the projector.


I would hate to hook the whole thing up and end up with a jerky images because the PC can't handle the processing.


I recently down loaded Windows Media 10 HD files in 1280 by 720p and some played okay but others were unstable.


Are my fears justifued and should I go out an buy a Denon 2910 or is the HTPC route worth pursuing?

 

[TruckChase!]

I suspect you'll need more CPU power.

 

[jvincent]

If your motherboard can support a processor upgrade, which it probably can, go out and get a 2.8Gish P4 and you will beat the Denon for a lot less money.

 

[olyar15]

For DVD playback your computer should be fine. You don't need powerstrip or Dscaler for DVD playback. FFDShow may be iffy, chances are you will need a faster CPU to take advantage of FFDShow. However, you may not need it. Try Theatertek 2, I find the picture quality amazing even without FFDshow, and it uses ~30-35% CPU on my 2.4Ghz P4.


Radeon 9800 will support 1280x720 natively.

 

[jayfsee007]

Thank you all for your advice and expertise.


Olyar 15.. you say the Radeon 9800 Pro supports 1280 by 720 natively but I don't see this as an option under the choices for resolution.


I suspect from what I have been reading on the forum that I will need Powerstrip in order to choose a custom resolution like 1280 by 720.

Is this correct or am of way of base ?


Also... if I use powerstrip to map a DVD to 1280 to 720 pixels... then why would I need to use DScaler aswell ?


Are they working together to create an upscaled 1280 by 720 image or can I just use powerstrip on its own ?


What is the best option?

 

[olyar15]

Your choice of resolution may be limited by what the video card detects the monitor to be. For example, I have my Radeon card hooked up to a Samsung DLP rear projector that has a 1280x720 native display. The drivers only offer me a choice of 800x600 and 1280x720 resolutions. Assuming that your diplay has a native resolution of 1280x720 (and is able to communicate that fact to the video card) then you shouldn't have a problem. If not, then you will have to use Powerstrip to force that resolution.


Dscaler is mainly used to upscale and deinterlace input from a TV capture card. It is not used for DVD.

 

[fasteddielv]

Quote:

Originally posted by olyar15 Your choice of resolution may be limited by what the video card detects the monitor to be. For example, I have my Radeon card hooked up to a Samsung DLP rear projector that has a 1280x720 native display. The drivers only offer me a choice of 800x600 and 1280x720 resolutions. Assuming that your diplay has a native resolution of 1280x720 (and is able to communicate that fact to the video card) then you shouldn't have a problem. If not, then you will have to use Powerstrip to force that resolution. Dscaler is mainly used to upscale and deinterlace input from a TV capture card. It is not used for DVD.

It's common plactic to use the Sony GDM-W900 monitor drivers. This allows many resolutions to be available.


You need to manually force the Sony driver install. Don't allow windows to automatically select/search for anything. Select the driver from a list.