Best DVD device for a projector ?

[choccy]

I am going to buy a AE900 in a week or two and I am currently wondering what to buy to play films on it.

I currently have a bog standard dvd player with progressive scan.

I have thought about buying a better dvd player. Or I could build a media centre PC. Or I could buy an xbox 360 and set up a wireless connection to my PC and then stream things.

What are the pros and cons and which am I likely to get the best picture from ?

[Gary Lightfoot]

A dedicated HTPC will give you the best image for the money, plus you can save your fave movies/demo clips to hard drive so you don't have to change DVDs when people come over. You can also get HD stuff onto the hard drive too, so until you get a HD DVD player that might be an easier/cheaper way (provided you can find a source for the HD stuff that is).

You can use Media Center or X-Lobby as the front end to make things simpler if you like too. It's far more flexible than a standalone player but it's not everyones cup of tea.

Some people use a streaming device like a Snazzio (or 360) which will allow you to play back any media content from a network so you can use that as your front end and have all your media on a PC elsewhere in the house. It's got a remote control and makes things a lot easier for those who don't like to fiddle with a PC. The output quality may not be as good though, but it's more convenient.

Gary

[choccy]

Thanks that gives me something to think about.

So a HTPC would, depending on the graphics card etc that would give me the best picture quality ?

[Jammyb]

I tried connecting my PC to my TX200 and the DVD playbaqck was pretty awful compared to component from my ageing pioneer player. This was using PowerDVD 7 deluxe. Any ideas what I was doing wrong?

[theritz]

Formula for dvd-playing happiness :

Set the resolution of the PC to the native resolution of your projector, in the case of the TX200, 1280x720;

In Powerdvd, go into Configuration/Video and tick the box for Hardware Acceleration; set the picture settings to "Original";

In Configuration/Audio, set powerdvd to output sound via SPDIF;

Connect the PC to the Projector using a VGA or DVI cable;

Set the audio software that controls your soundcard to output a digital SPDIF signal;

Connect your soundcard to your AV receiver Digital-In;

Set your projector Source to PC Input;

If there's an option in the projector's menu to "synch" with a PC input, use it.


Sit back and watch............... I have yet to see a dvd player that will match a PC 1:1 pixel matched with a projector. From what I've read, various upscaling dvd players can come close enough, but I've yet to read of one that doesn't have firmware glitches of one kind or another.

Insofar as the other benefits of HCPC are concerned, try BBC HD and free-to-air satellite with full PVR, full HD movies, tv programs the day after they're broadcast in the States.......... Mmmmm...

Just for the record, Theatertek2, which uses nVidia Purevideo decoder (and FDDshow postprocessing, with Avisynth and Limitedsharpen if you like) is probably the zenith of dvd playing software. I'm not a huge fan of Theatertek, but have run a setup of Zoomplayer, nVidia Purevideo dvd decoder, FDDshow with Limitedsharpen running through an nVidia 6600 graphics card and it is very revealing, although it takes a little work to set up. It helps if you're familiar with that kind of software, if you're not Powerdvd will do perfectly well.

S.