PC versus DVD Player

[Baz47]

This is a long shot but, does anyone know if I will get a better picture playing from a stand alone HDMI DVD player, rather than from the PC's internal DVD player.

I have a 24inch widescreen monitor, 1920 x 1200 pixels connected via DVI-D.

The monitor also has HDMI, conponent and S-Video inputs.

Also, is this monitor OK for playing HD DVD's, say from a PS3? I don't know whether HD is just the availability of enough pixels or something more is involved.

[peteblakemore]

A monitor in essence is just a device used to see what's going on! So yes, you can use that monitor for a PS3 as long as you have the right connectors (i.e. HDMI to HDMI, or HDMI to DVI and speakers, or HDMI to S-Video and speakers, or whatever).

In answer to whether you will get a better picture with an HDMI DVD player then the simple answer is no (but read on...). HDMI is just a connection type, it's a way of sending a signal. If that signal that is being sent is only SD (standard digital) then HDMI will carry a SD signal and the monitor will then display it. So if it's just a SD DVD player, but with an HDMI connection then there won't be any difference. However, there are some DVD players that have the HDMI connection and also have something called HD up-scaling. What this does is take SD and convert it to 1080i, which in effect means that you would have a better DVD player over your DVD drive in the computer.

Another thing about HDMI (high definition multimedia interface) is that it carries both video and audio, whereas S-Video, etc. only carry video and you'd need something else to carry audio. Clever HDMI.

*EDIT* By the way, using HDMI over SCART might give you a bit of a better picture compared to say SCART because it's a digital connection over SCART which is analogue, but it might not be worth spending the money on a new DVD player.

I hope that helps. If not, ask more

[KelvinS1965]

Just to add my 2p worth. A PC will upscale the Standard Definition DVD to High Defininition resolution (if not quality) using the graphics card. Depending on the driver and software codecs used the resulting image can be as good if not better than all but the most expensive standalone DVD players. I read a review somewhere on the net comparing some (then) high end Denon player against different graphics cars/driver/codecs and the PC won...I just can't remember where I saw it now.

The only issue with using a PC is that it can be a challenge to set it up properly and although remotes are available a standalone DVD player is often a simpler solution. I play DVDs from the hard drive of my PC on my projector and I think they look better than either my upscaling DVD player (Sony NS92V) or my BluRay player (BDS300)...it's just not so easy to control as my expensive Bluetooth mouse doesn't work from as far away as they claimed it would.

[Baz47]

Thank you both for the replies. Very interesting.

I watch most of my movies on the PC and most of my TV via a digital dual tuner dongle, whilst working. I have no issues with setup etc and am very close to the PC so don't need remotes and the like.

I am using a DVI connection at the moment so it sounds like I would just be swapping one digital connector for another, although it may be worth it for the "upscaling".

One potential problem did come to mind whilst reading the replies, my monitor does not have speakers and audio comes from the PC. If I were to run from a DVD player via HDMI would there be some other audio output for the speakers?