HTPC vs. high end Blu-Ray

[itschris]

I was looking at some McIntosh gear and ended up reading some reviews which were quite favorable. Now for all I know, McIntosh has become rebadged Marantz, but question is more related to the comparison of any high end Blu-Ray to an HTPC.

I'm assuming that a unit like the OPPO is better than my LG player. Where does an HTPC stand in comparison? Can it compare to a top of the line BD Player?

 

[TLS Guy]

I was looking at some McIntosh gear and ended up reading some reviews which were quite favorable. Now for all I know, McIntosh has become rebadged Marantz, but question is more related to the comparison of any high end Blu-Ray to an HTPC.

I'm assuming that a unit like the OPPO is better than my LG player. Where does an HTPC stand in comparison? Can it compare to a top of the line BD Player?

Bain capital sold McIntosh to the Italian company, Fine Sounds just over a year ago.

I can detect no difference in BD play back quality between my Oppo player and my HTPC running ArcSoft software.

The big difference is that the Oppo player has better ergonomics for that application.

You have to open the software, and load the BD, and control things form a virtual remote on the screen using the HTPC.

 

[itschris]

Thanks TLS. I'm ore talking about when you rip BD's to ISO or MKV and use a setup like PLEX or XMBC. I'm just suddenly thinking about whether or not I'll be sacrificing quality for convenience and a slick interface. I"m buiidling an HTPC based on OpenElec. So basically it's push a button and 20 seconds later I'm at my menu.

I was thinking about getting an OPPO for maybe first viewing before I rip the disc to my library if there's a difference in quality between the disc and ripped format.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks TLS. I'm ore talking about when you rip BD's to ISO or MKV and use a setup like PLEX or XMBC. I'm just suddenly thinking about whether or not I'll be sacrificing quality for convenience and a slick interface. I"m buiidling an HTPC based on OpenElec. So basically it's push a button and 20 seconds later I'm at my menu.

I was thinking about getting an OPPO for maybe first viewing before I rip the disc to my library if there's a difference in quality between the disc and ripped format.

Without any re-encodes the video quality can not possibly degrade. The only differences could come down to video processor. hardware chip in oppo vs gpu/software on the xbmc, but with high quality source as BD lossless rip (as in BD -> makemkv) I don't think there would be any differences at all...... Possibly on lower quality SD videos there could be some differences, but this is still up to debate....

Of course this is assumes that HTPC is properly configured and works in same color space as BD player - http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=106052

 

[adk highlander]

I have noticed absolutely no difference between viewing a ripped movie on my server via my Popcornhour C-200 vs. either my Oppos BD-83 or my new Denon 3313UD. My movies are ripped as movie only in Blu-Ray folder structure using anydvd HD.

 

[itschris]

Okay then. It's settled. I never really gave that much thought prior to actually ordering all the HTPC stuff. I think taking the time with proper setup will be the key. Thanks guys.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm talking about when you rip BD's to ISO or MKV and use a setup like PLEX or XMBC. I'm just suddenly thinking about whether or not I'll be sacrificing quality for convenience and a slick interface

Utterly no difference to my eyes (1080p) and ears (TrueHD & DTS-HD MA) between my $2K Denon BD players (has flagship video processor & flagship Bur-Brown DAC) and my HTPC's XMBC.

So no compromise in video & audio plus the speed and convenience of XBMC.

Thus I have two $2K Denon BD players sitting in the closet that can't even play any ISO, MKV, AVI, MP4 1080p files.