[lawdawg]

Hi guys and gals,


Well the WAF was pretty low around my house last night. Tried watching Goldmember on my HTPC and TheaterTek consistently hung at the same place, regardless of reboots. My HTPC is clean. Just did a re-install a few weeks ago. The only things installed were the new radeon 2.4 drivers, sound card driver, TT and Dscaler. Latest patched TT used as well. I was pre-service pack, so I installed that. No help..... This has only happend on three discs in the past few months, but of course my wife can remember each time and were it happened in the movie. I got the old "why can't it just be like a VCR" line. And frankly I don't blame her. It is getting old.


So the question is, how do DVDs look through Dscaler, using one of the new capture cards (not the HOLO 3D-can't afford that) and a decent (200 dollars or so) external DVD player? I'd try myself but only have my X-box for external dvd. I will try this, but imagine that it can't be the best DVD player out there.


I know I'll be giving up those cool things that TT can do. But Frankly I'm a "watch a DVD once type of guy." So the Movie Start bookmarks are something I'm willing to lose.


I guess I could see if Zoomplayer locks up at the same spot. Also I know I can use an external player as a backup for discs that don't go well, but I'd like a fool proof solution for the wife to use. Don't need calls at work about how such and such DVD locks up.


So can anyone compare and contrast dScalers image to TT or the new cineplayer decoders?


Thanks in advance.

 

[bchamber]

I often switch between TT and DScaler and can tell you what I see. In my situation, the TT player always looks a little better than DScaler. Now I'm not a super critical viewer but you can definitely see the difference. But if you take may wife she should never notices the difference. The great thing about dscaler is you can completely forget about the computer and just let your other family members work with the DVD player. I will warn you that Dscaler is a CPU hog and also needs a clean signal to work with. I use a KBK modded capture card which works great. There's a thread worth reading covering new dscaler support for several new cards. Search for xcapture. Back to TT. I have no stability problems with my setup. TT runs like a champ, never missing a beat. So to summarize TT is definitely better, but dscaler can be quite good.


I project with a Sony 1271Q running at 1066x600 using a radeon 7200 on to a 52x92 screen. For my DVD player I use a cheap DVD/VHS combo utilizing SVHS to the capture card. I hope to move to a DVD changer soon.


Good Luck with what ever you do.

 

[schud]

Hi lawdawg:


I had an external line doubler and DVD player before I discovered the HTPC concept. I still have the external DVD player, but never use it for DVD playback, except as an AVIA source for calibrating my video capture card for use with Dscaler. I use the capture card and Dscaler to watch my Dishnetwork and as an input for my VHS VCR's analog TV tuner. I've used it with both the KBK modified Zoltrix card and the Pixelview Xcapture card discussed here. The quality is pretty good, but does not meet the quality of the HTPC's DVD playback.


I think the answer to your questions depends upon the your size and type of display. Just as some people are perfectly satisfied with the quality they get after converting MPEG2 DVD's to DIVX's MPEG4, I find the quality degradation unacceptable on my Ampro 8" CRT projector. You may well be satisfied with using the external DVD player and Dscaler route on a smaller display. As your source image and resolution increases, the differences in image quality will become more obvious.


I think your best chance at maintaining near HTPC\\DVD quality would be through the H3D card, because I think it can accept a progressive scan component video input (though I'm not positive about the progressive scan input). I know it's big $$$ when compared to the price of a $60 PC DVD drive and a $75 software DVD player.


It's not a perfect world!

 

[Jeffrey]

Quote:

Originally posted by schud ......H3D card, because I think it can accept a progressive scan component video input (though I'm not positive about the progressive scan input).

It can not accept a progressive scan signal.

 

[lawdawg]

Thanks guys,


I'm using a nec 9pg extra CRT projector. So my display is quite revealing of details, etc. The screen size is currently 63" wide for 16x9. If we get the new house I'll probably go 72" wide. I'm pretty darn picky on image quality, but if it's close I might be willing to give a little up for a system that always works.


I've looked at the holo3d, and at this stage I just can't justify the cost. I do have one of the new xcapture cards, and it provides a cleaner signal than my old KBK zoltrix card. Maybe that will help close the gap between Dscaler and TheaterTek.


Guess I might try and beg/borrow/steal a standalone DVD player this weekend and find out. I'll report my findings.


Anyone else have an opinion?