Is the Bravo D1 and Samsung HD931 making a HTPC less neccessary????

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  • Gordon Moore
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Feb 2002
    • 3188

    Is the Bravo D1 and Samsung HD931 making a HTPC less neccessary????

    Aside from PVR and MP3 jukebox capabilities and games....

    if you were using your HTPC for mostly movies (either a do it yourself lowcost/hi-quality scaler/deintelacer or an all-in-one player/scaler/deinterlacer) do you think that a device like the Bravo D1
    is making the HTPC less necessary? Or does the lack of DCDI on the bravo still make HTPC a usable product?


    Then enters the Samsung DVD-HD931

    With DCDi and scaling up to 1080i...does this player put the HTPC to bed
    because, to quote Ron Popeil, "you just set it and forget it"?

    Or is there a middle ground where both technologies can come together?What's the thought out there?

    Is the thought still that you can't beat an HTPC for doing gaming, mp3, PVR, photoediting and hometheater with technologies like the Holo3Dgraph, TheaterTek, Dscaler, the ability to 1:1 pixel map, Powerstrip, UPGRADABILITY etc... for the price?

    (mind you adding a Holo3Dgraph makes your HTPC a wee bit pricey...)


    Or is it a difference based on the projector you own? CRT guys can really benefit from an HTPC in a way that the Digital guys can't due to variable scanning frequencies.

    So is that the difference? If you use a CRT....HTPC is the way to go and makes sense.

    If you use a LCD or DLP proj then HTPC makes less sense with things like Samsung's scaling/motion adaptive player now on the market, all digital paths are achievable and way less headaches are to be had all around?

    Is anyone out there ? :P




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  • JonMarsh
    Mad Max Moderator
    • Aug 2000
    • 15261

    #2
    Well, unfortuantely there are still a LOT of projectors out there without DVI inputs, and many with DVI inputs only accept standard computer resolutions, not HDTV resolutions.

    So, it's definitly a murky situation all in all.

    Then too, a DVD player can't be upgraded to play WM9 files, or to play NeverWinterNights, or Quake, etc.

    I responded a bit on this topic in the HT section for Denon players with DVI outputs (currently disabled for upscaling, until the DVD Forum approves changes in the rules).

    I think for a lot of folks, the simplicity of setup and use of a set top player is very attractive, and as things like better upscaling technology are more widely available, this will be a good deal. But I don't think I'm willing to give up the flexibility and added functionality I get with even what I'm considering a Low cost, trailing edge HTPC- just rebuilt one for my living room- I'll do a post on it, the details, and why.

    Much of what I use it for is just DVD oriented. The NVDVD player, for which another upgrade is coming out this fall, includes calibration screens which make AVIA and VE pretty much superflous for the basics, at least. It also features audio and video still captures- gee, not many set top players do that, huh?

    Also, on this low buck system I have a reference library of favoite demo movies and music video's which have been achived to disk in the format I want, without the menus, FBI warnings, undesired trailers/ads, and unneeded soundtracks. Uh, gee, I haven't seen a DVD player that does that yet, either.

    And of course, though this is a cheap system, with "only" a 2 GHz (PR2400) Athlon XP, it does play back HD WM9 just fine, including the T2 HD WM9 DVD. Hmmm, another thing my old Toshiba DVD player won't do.

    And for those quiet lulls between movies, there's a section of some of my favorite light jazz, arranged by artist, with "best of collection" I've assembled, archived in lossless compression WMA. DVD player won't do that, nor will my CD player, though I can play custom CD's on the CD player... that I burned on the HTPC.

    Just depends on what you want to do. I went HTPC, back when I wanted progressive DVD and it didn't exist on a set top DVD player, and I wanted it on displays as diverse as my NEC 29" presentation monitor (1280X1024, RGB), and my Sony VPL-W400Q (which was only compatible with standard 480i, or HD Component or HD GBR- made that work with an HTPC at 960X540 five years ago).

    Half the fun is seeing what can be done now, with the existing hardware/software, and wondering what might be possible in six months.

    The lack of dcdi on the Bravo is offset by the new projectors which have it built in- and the newest players, also. With the 12 bit, 108 MHz DAC s which are available for DVD, there's no reason for DVD players not to have excellent analog output, also- but for the DVD forum, which forbids it. Well, on my HTPC, I do pretty much what I please- and the 400 MHz RAMDAC's seem quite capable for the video performance required. If you go from standard component to upscaled DVI, it's a big deal. From HTPC to DVI, well, that's another story. Though for very high res digital projectors I'm sure that will be the way to go long term, just for signal integrity issues. It's a lot trickier getting perfect pixel dot alignment as you go up in frequency, unless youve got really clean sync edges- just ask the DILA folks who wrassle with this, trying to get their projectors perfectly synced to external 1368 sources!

    Best regards,

    Jon




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