http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/ Engadget Comments for ATI, nVIDIA graphics cards trump dedicated DVD players http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 1:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26

In essence you can run photoshop-like image processing filters on each frame as the movie plays for very near HD quality.]]>Sep 2nd 2006 1:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
Given that, I see no reason now to take sides in the High-Def DVD wars. HTPCs, be they with Linux and Myth, Windows Media Center, or Apple (?) are a much better investment than than a $500+ DVD-only player.

...and if you build it yourself, you can score extra Geek points. Something you can't say with HDDVD/BR players :-)]]>Sep 2nd 2006 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
At home, I have a digital projector tied to a HTPC that I've setup to output great looking 720p video and a $25 cheap Norcent DVD player (progressive scan, component). The DVD player is slightly lower quality than the HTPC but for the convenience of not having to worry about getting the computer booted properly to recognize the projector, navigating the menus with a lame PC remote, etc, I use the DVD player 99% of the time.

It suprises me but the convenience is worth something and the difference between the two isn't painful enough to setup the PC correctly each time.]]>Sep 2nd 2006 1:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 2:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 2:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 3:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 3:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
No, they are pretty much exactly like a standalone DVD player, except with worse video output. (The Xbox in particular has a notoriously bad video output DSP.)

I'm not sure what Conrad's beef is; it's been pretty well known for a long time that you can get better quality from an HTPC than from a dedicated DVD player. (nVidia's decoder is among the best in the business, hardware or software, and combined with the PureVideo features of their graphics card, it's a tough combination to beat, even without ffdshow.) The knock against HTPC's is, of course, that they're hardly plug and play. It takes some work to get the most out of them, and they're still a pain in the butt to use even once you've got them set up right compared to a standalone player. But the end results can be a lot better.

I honestly use my standalone player more often than my HTPC for watching DVD's just because I can turn it on and it works. My HTPC I have to sit there and wait for it to boot, then half the time various DVD's have issues that require me to change the overscan compensation or whatever. It's annoying when you just want to watch a movie. But the actual video quality is definitely better, when it works.
]]>Sep 2nd 2006 10:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 2nd 2006 11:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 3rd 2006 9:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 5th 2006 8:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
...Want radio? Add a radio/TV tuner card. Want HD? Get a new monitor...

Anybody get what I'm saying?]]>Sep 3rd 2006 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 3rd 2006 7:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/Sep 3rd 2006 11:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/ati-nvidia-graphics-cards-trump-dedicated-dvd-players/
Very very poorly. I haven't seen single PC-CDROM beating my beloved Harman/Kardon HD 760.

Audio is much simpler to process - compared to all the factors playing in in video.

You can get (often very) good quality with digital extraction of audio tracks, good audio card (e.g. Turtle Beach or Creative Live/Audigy/Value), pair of good hi-fi speakers, good amplifier and good cables. That what I use for my computer audio needs ;-)

P.S. Surprisingly to me, I didn't found USB sound cards to perform better than their PCI relatives. USB latencies are definitely adding noticeable jitter.]]>Sep 4th 2006 5:00AM