Is A Computer Better at Upscaling a DVD to 1080p Compared to a stand alone DVD Player

[Cytomax]

Before i start this thread let me say something

I UNDERSTAND that NOT everybody wants to have a PC as their DVD player and i dont care that is what they want

BUT

If the computer is better at it then i would love to do this because i already have a computer and have all the knowledge to do it

Hello all i was just about to buy a stand alone DVD player to upscale to 1080p when i stumbled across this thread
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31859

My questions are simple

1) Does a computer upscale a DVD to 1080p
2) What does the upscaling
3) Is the scaling to 1080p better than a stand alone DVD player doing the scaling?

**************************EDIT*************************
I just read the article
http://www.hardware.info/en-US/articles/am9nY2pqZA/ATI_and_nVidia_crush_highend_DVD_players/1
According to the article it never mentioned how all this was tested until the author replies to a comment

All DVD players as well as both graphics card were tested with a Samsung Syncmaster 242 monitor (24 inch widescreen). All stand alone players were connected with a HDMI -> DVI cable and the graphics cards directly through DVI.

All DVD players were set to 480p output resolution, both graphic cards were set to 1920x1200@60 Hz, with the video windows at 1x magnification (no scaling).

For all deinterlacing tests on the standalone players the Samsung monitor was setup in 1:1 pixel mode, meaning that there was no scaling done by the screen.

So the scaling quality (or lack thereof) of both the players and the monitor was no issue in this test. Scaling is not something that can be tested with HQV, so we made sure it was of no influence to the results

.

This seemed odd to me because my question was how well does the PC scale compared to a stand alone DVD player yet the author only played the DVD's at 480p while the PC was set to 1920 X 1200 @ 60Hz

Is there a reason he tested it like this or was this not an apples to apples comparison

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

 

[jonnythan]

A computer can upscale to any resolution you want. The output quality depends on a lot, from the software to the decoder to the video card, to the post-processing, etc.

All said, it's really hard to get a computer to look as good as a standalone player. If I were you I'd just get an Oppo.

 

[Cytomax]

My new PC will consist of

INTEL Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz FSB1333MHz 4M LGA775 Retail
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Now knowing the specs of the PC would you still recommend the Oppo

 

[jinjuku]

A computer with something like a Radeon 2400/2600 or the nVidia 8600 will eat alive any upscaling dvd player out there, Oppo, Marantz, Denon what ever.

When you install the video card suite of drivers, codecs are loaded. Usually your playback software will detect these codecs and use them (nVidia's Purevideo codec is an example).

 

[Cytomax]

Thanks for the response

I plan on purchasing the PureVideo Decoder for $50 when i set it all up
http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html

I just found this website talking about the old January Drivers for the video card

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_97.92.html

New PureVideo technology features allows GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS to achieve a score of 128 in the HQV video quality benchmark:

And those are the old drivers

I just like hearing other peoples input

Keep the replies coming

Eddie

 

[jonnythan]

You need a quality standalone video card. Will cost you $100 or so.

 

[jonnythan]

A computer with something like a Radeon 2400/2600 or the nVidia 8600 will eat alive any upscaling dvd player out there, Oppo, Marantz, Denon what ever.

Speaking from experience, you can get a truly excellent picture, but it requires a *ton* of fiddling with various programs, tweaking settings, etc. It's a pain in the butt and I never got a picture that was appreciably better than my Oppo.

 

[Cytomax]

To be honest it doesnt have to be better it doesnt even have to be the same as long as there is not like a HUGE difference between the 2 i will be happy with that but if there is a night and day difference that i can tell between the 2 from 12 feet away then i will surely go with the Oppo
Thanks in Advance
Eddie

 

[jonnythan]

What do you plan on using for a display?
What type of input are you going to use?
What are you going to use for a remote control?

 

[Cytomax]

Westinghouse LVM-47W1
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/televisions/flat-panels/westinghouse-lvm-47w1-1080p-lcd-display-review

Athena Technologies Micra 6 Home
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/satellite/athena-technologies-micra-6

DVI to DVI Cable

Logitech Harmony Remote Control

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

 

[jonnythan]

You can't control the PC directly using a remote control. You need some piece of hardware and another piece of software to get the remote commands into the computer. The software to automate the PC using a remote control is not overly simple.

Do you plan to dedicate the PC to home theater use, or is it going to be a general-purpose PC?

Where are you going to put the remote sensor? Be aware that it will have to be somewhere you can point the remote directly at it.

 

[Cytomax]

Well my setup is pretty simple..
I have my Monitor on my desk and my 47 inch westinghouse right above my monitor with a center speaker in between the monitor and the westinghouse

My bed is directly behind my computer chair and all i really wanna do is just watch movies so i wont really need a control for that... i just click on the play button and lay in my bed...

The logitech harmony control is just so that my reciever and my my tv all turn on and turn to the correct input...

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

 

[jonnythan]

If that's all you're doing, yes you can certainly get away with using your PC and you can have great results.

Be aware that you'll have to purchase a remote control unit plus the PureVideo software for a total of about $100. You'll also have to put in several hours to get everything working plus more hours to tweak the image and sounds to be good.

Personally, I'd spend the extra $100 or so and just buy a standalone Oppo. This is actually what I did. I spent many hours tweaking a dedicated HTPC machine and use was still a much larger pain in the butt than a simple standalone DVD player that required zero setup.

 

[Cytomax]

Well i already have the nvidia Pure Video Platinum working and looks good i just didnt know if there was much of a difference between that and a standalone DVD player. If there was then i would have to get some sort of DVI switch since only 1 HDMi port on the Westy fully supports 1080p and i dont have a reciever yet that has HDMI input and output so this way i can have my computer hooked up to both my monitor and my westy
All i was really looking for in this thread was if there would be a huge differnce between the oppo or just using my computer


Thanks for your response
Eddie

 

[louthewiz]

You can purchase a used scaler on audiogon or ebay that will make give you a better picture than any upscaling dvd player.
I used to have an oppo hooked into my projector and I thought the picture was great but when i got a used scaler and et it up the picture was light years ahead of the oppo.

 

[jcPanny]

Computer as DVD transport

For a few months I used a PC as my main DVD transport. I didn't try it, but you can get great scaling results with FDShow and a high end video card.

One thing I found is that the noise floor on a modern PC (without extensive modifications) is very high due to the fans, Hard disc spinning, DVD Rom spinning, etc. It is much faster and easier to pop a DVD into my Oppo DVD player and control it with the universal remote, etc.

I suspect it might cost you $200 or more in hardware and software to upgrade your PC and Oppo and others make some good upscaling DVD players in that price range. Also consider that an HD source is always better than a great scaler and HD-DVD players start around $250.

 

[jinjuku]

I treated my HTPC as a Saturday project. For me there wasn't as much work and theatrics as portrayed in this thread. I started with quiet components: Nexus PSU, Fanless Heatsink, Samsung HD, passively cooled video card. Next I modded a 120MM case fan to run off the five volt rail, totally silent, to exhaust air.

There isn't a bunch of tweaking on the video card drivers. For me it was load up the ATI CCC and make a few changes. I didn't have to muck around w/ ffdshow etc.. I did implement ASIO however.

nVidia (add the pure video codec) and ATI are going to work out of the box better than the OPPO.

 

[jinjuku]

You can't control the PC directly using a remote control. You need some piece of hardware and another piece of software to get the remote commands into the computer. The software to automate the PC using a remote control is not overly simple.

Do you plan to dedicate the PC to home theater use, or is it going to be a general-purpose PC?

Where are you going to put the remote sensor? Be aware that it will have to be somewhere you can point the remote directly at it.

Sure you can, there is a gyro based mouse/remote that is MCE certified. Please don't give out errant information. You can also get MS's keyboard/remote combo.

 

[jonnythan]

Sure you can, there is a gyro based mouse/remote that is MCE certified. Please don't give out errant information. You can also get MS's keyboard/remote combo.

You clearly didn't even read my post.

You can't control a PC using a Harmony (or other IR) remote without some additional piece of hardware.

The remote control you linked to is an example of such hardware. Of course, he still wouldn't be able to use his Harmony remote even if he purchased the thing you linked to.

He'd need to buy an IR remote control solution (receiver and remote) for his PC and then program the Harmony remote to act like the remote that came with the package.

 

[jinjuku]

You can't control the PC directly using a remote control.

I did read your post. Your post was a little lacking in details.