which media players output 576i from ISO

henry1234

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I am being a bit lazy with this question but I have been away from home cinema for such a long time it's difficult to catch up with all the changes.

I want a media player that does the following:

Play DVD's from HDD that are ripped as ISO.
Ideally has a built in swappable hard drive (or space for one)
Output an uncorrupted 576i through hdmi
Not have any bugs glitches, micro stutters during playback
Separate SPDIF for Dolby Digital/DTS
No lipsync/clock issues.
Shows all the cover art for the DVD's so the children and wife can select the film. (like the high end custom installs in the magazines from about 8 years ago)

I would be happy to try and source discontinued models as I know the above request list could have been from a decade ago.

Side issues:
No need for network support.
No need for anything other than Dolby Digital or DTS.
No need for blue ray support BUT if it had a built in blue ray player then that would be a bonus, but it would need to output audio that my old age lexicon DC-2 can handle.
Likewise if it had an optical media drive it would need to be multi region for DVD.
 
The Popcornhour A300 might be another option, it takes a 3.5 HDD and the PAL setting will output 576i though I'm not sure you'd want to do this as it will make the GUI look awful, it's intended for HD displays. The A300 also has an internal jukebox that will scan the file names of the .iso images and download the relevant info.
 
Is there any player that will have 1080p GUI but a pure 576i signal when a DVD .ISO is played?

I think I will also rip blu ray to an iso image (but movie only not disk menu & extras), so now I want a player that will play that from hard drive at 1080p24 without applying any image processing.



Assuming it is not impossible to have a player that will output the gui at 1080p, a dvd iso at 576i and then a blu ray iso at 1080p24 all without changing any settings:

Which media player offers the best de-interlacing of 576i film based material without any loss of frames/resolution and also does then does the best job of scaling to 1080?
 
I'm fairly sure that ther are no media players that offer source direct (ie output media at its native resolution).

All media players and BluRay players do at least some image processing before outputting it to a display. But if the disc/rip is 1080p/23.976 and this is the output you set the media player to then the bare minimum of processing will be done.

The media players that tend to be regarded as having the best quality output are those using the Sigma Designs chipsets, rather than Realtek etc. These players are made by Popcorn Hour, HDI Dune, WD etc so range in price and features. The only players with a built in BluRay drive are the Dune HD Max and Dune Smart B1 players and they can be made BD & DVD zone/region free with a free software patch you install on the player. The PCH C-300 can have an optical drive added to it, but AFAIK this can not be made zone/region free.
Only Dune media players can decode the HD audio onboard for older AV systems that don't do it themselves. Only the Max (or Duo, but no optical drive) has 7.1 analogue outputs, the Smart B1 only passes the decoded multi-channel audio over HDMI.

Mark.
 
I'll give up on the source direct then, it's not like I have a £3000 scaler that I always wanted anyway.

Will the Dune:

1. Downmix the HD audio and output as high bitrate AC3 or DTS signal over SPDIF from a Blu Ray
2. Pass through a legacy AC3 640kbps 5.1 stream or core 1.5Mbps DTS stream.

My lexicon DC-2 only accepts Dolby Digital and up to 1.5Mbps DTS (no hd audio and no 7.1 analogue inputs). I am perfectly happy with the sound quality of DD5.1 or DTS through my system and it would be too expensive to change.

Mark, you seem to have some reference quality gear in your signature. What do you think of the picture quality of the Dune. I am concerned it would be a big step backward from my stand alone blu ray player. I notice you have an oppo 93, how does it compare to that?
 
I'll give up on the source direct then, it's not like I have a £3000 scaler that I always wanted anyway.
You and me both - I did previously have a Lumagen but that died and I don't have the money for a Radiance to replace it :(
Will the Dune:

1. Downmix the HD audio and output as high bitrate AC3 or DTS signal over SPDIF from a Blu Ray
2. Pass through a legacy AC3 640kbps 5.1 stream or core 1.5Mbps DTS stream.
Yes & Yes - my Prime only uses digital coax to my AV processor and I get audio from all my BD & DVD rips fine.
My lexicon DC-2 only accepts Dolby Digital and up to 1.5Mbps DTS (no hd audio and no 7.1 analogue inputs). I am perfectly happy with the sound quality of DD5.1 or DTS through my system and it would be too expensive to change.
Tell me about it - the AV processor I want to upgrade to is about £14K :eek:
Mark, you seem to have some reference quality gear in your signature. What do you think of the picture quality of the Dune. I am concerned it would be a big step backward from my stand alone blu ray player. I notice you have an oppo 93, how does it compare to that?
I went from a Sony BDP-S500 to the Dune Prime and IMO it is as good if not better than the Sony in most things.
The Oppo has some advantages as a disc spinner with excellent upscaling of DVD's, but is poor in comparison as a media player as it only uses DLNA. The Oppo also has bass management on it's analogue outputs that the Dune lacks, so is better when using them to my legacy processor to get the HD audio from a BD.

Mark.
 
Assuming it is not impossible to have a player that will output the gui at 1080p, a dvd iso at 576i and then a blu ray iso at 1080p24 all without changing any settings:

Impossible if you want the DVD to play back full screen. The TV will look at what it's getting and scale any difference to it's native resolution. Say you output a 1920 x 1080 image overlaid over a 720 x 576 DVD picture. The TV will simply display the 1920 x 1080 image full size and the 720 x 576 video at 720 x 576 as is with black borders. Output at 576i the HD epg has to be downscaled or you won't see all of it.

IF you have a full-HD screen then whether the source scales it or the TV or any combination thereof you finish up with 1920 x 1080 pixels. Quality depends on the scaling capability of each piece of kit. In this case TV versus nedia player.
 
Agree with all replies.
Just wonder why you want to output 576i because unless you are sending the signal to an external VP for upscaling to your Display the Display will do this for you anyway as Grahamt says.
 
I just didn't want the DVD signal messed around and wanted a pure interlaced feed with all the frames intact for my plasma display and projector to have first go at de-interlacing and scaling to 1080p.

I'd read somewhere that some media players would drop one frame and line double the other and only output 576p or some other messy way, so I thought the safest request was one that outputs source direct 576i for DVD.



I now seem to back to spending my life on AVforums and staying up at night researching technical issues rather than watching films!! I knew this would happen, I didn't want to start having to fiddle again but I will.

I will probably go for the Dune (probably one of the smart range) and read a guide on installing zappiti and fiddle a bit so that it looks nice for the family and is easy to use.

Does anyone know if either the Dune Smart B1 or the Smart BE extension can double up as a blu ray drive that I could connect to my laptop in order to rip Blu Ray (& DVD)?

My laptop doesn't have optical drive or esata (just USB & LAN). If not I am going to need to buy a portable Blu Ray drive to start making back ups.
 
I will probably go for the Dune (probably one of the smart range) and read a guide on installing zappiti and fiddle a bit so that it looks nice for the family and is easy to use.
Good choice IMO on getting a Dune :smashin:
and this should help with Zappiti (or just ask as it is what I use) - Guide: Setting Up Zappiti For the Dune
Does anyone know if either the Dune Smart B1 or the Smart BE extension can double up as a blu ray drive that I could connect to my laptop in order to rip Blu Ray (& DVD)?

My laptop doesn't have optical drive or esata (just USB & LAN). If not I am going to need to buy a portable Blu Ray drive to start making back ups.
The BE only connects to the other Smart players via eSATA so you wouldn't be able to connect it to your laptop via USB. The B1 has a USB Host port, but doesn't have USB slave port so can't be used either.

Mark.
 
Good choice IMO on getting a Dune :smashin:
and this should help with Zappiti (or just ask as it is what I use) - Guide: Setting Up Zappiti For the Dune

The BE only connects to the other Smart players via eSATA so you wouldn't be able to connect it to your laptop via USB. The B1 has a USB Host port, but doesn't have USB slave port so can't be used either.

Mark.

What about a BE connected to an H1, could I use USB slave port on the H1 to access the blu ray drive to connect to my laptop to rip a blu ray?
 
AFAIK the USB slave port on an H1/D1 is for access to an internal HDD only - the B1 does not have a slave port as it can't take an internal HDD.
The only way to rip your BD's is going to be to buy an external USB BluRay drive to connect to your laptop.

Mark.
 
if I bought an external blu ray drive that had both USB and eSATA (to rip blu ray to my usb laptop) could I then connect this drive to the Smart H1 eSATA port in order to play retail disks if needed?
 
I believe that retail BluRay discs wont play on any BluRay drive other than the Dune BE when connected to a D1/H1.

Mark.
 

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