Topic: I finally did it.

[Touti]

Yep, I organised the PC in the living room to be used as a home theatre system.  I don't want to buy a HD-DVD or Blue-Ray player because my TV isn't HDTV (It's EDTV actually but that's a long story  ) so I was looking at buying an upconverting DVD Player and then it occured to me that I could probably do it with my PC.

I have a PC in the living room which I use as a small mail and database server but I set it up in a nice HTPC casing because I wanted it to be quiet and silent.  So 2 weeks ago I got home on the friday night and decided to play with it.  I found that my Sony DVD Dream System had a Digital Coax connection that I could use to get my 5.1 signal.  The big question was, can a PC actually do upconverting when playing a DVD.  Well guess what, it turns out that Windows MCE does.  At first it would only allow me to select standard computer resolutions but after I installed the latest driver from NVIDIA (instead of the Asus ones because I'm using the onboard video), MCE started showing 720p in the list of available resolutions.

I chose it, started playing some DVD's and voilà, I got myself an upconverting DVD Player for free...or almost because I had to buy the SPDIF connector for my 5.1 sound.

Only problem, when exiting MCE my desktop would not go back to the 1024x768 resolution that I had chosen but I remembered that it does with Vista............yep, I did it... I upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (Legally and Free, thanks to my MSDN Subscription) so now when I open Media Center my resolution goes to 720p and when I exit it goes back to 1024x768.  With my super Logitech wireless Dinovo Edge keyboard I can now use my PC as an upconverting DVD Player.

And for those who still wonder.....Yes, it does make a huge difference, get upconverting if you TV Supports 720p and you can wait for the media war to end before buying a HD player.

[RossRoy]

That great! It's always fun when you can recycle stuff you already have into something useful, or in your case, even more useful than it already was!

But I'm wondering, I thought all PC-based DVD player did upconverting? I use WinDVD on my PC to watch them on a PC monitor (yeah, I know, it's pathetic and only 20.1", but hey! It does the job and it's widescreen!), and it outputs at 1680x1050, so it is in fact "upconverting".

[Touti]

You're right about all pc players doing upconverting because they use whatever resolution you've set your video card to.  In my case however I'm not connected to a PC Monitor, I'm connected to a 42" Plasma TV that is (only) an EDTV.  That is Enhanced Definition instead of High Definition.  In layman's words, I have only 852 horizontal lines.  But it can take signals up to 1080i, regular DVD is 480p, upconverting is 720p which is what I wanted.  What I like with media center is that you can configure the resolution at which you want your DVDs to play and once I had the correct driver I saw 720p in the available choices.  In PowerDVD I couldn't find any place in the configuration where I could tell it at which resolution I want it to play, I think it just uses whatever resolution you're at when starting it which was a problem because I can't maintain 720p in my desktop because it's a bit larger and higher than 1024x768 so I would lose part of my desktop all around....including the task bar.

[RossRoy]

I'm connected to a 42" Plasma TV that is (only) an EDTV.  [...] I have only 852 horizontal lines.  But it can take signals up to 1080i, regular DVD is 480p, upconverting is 720p which is what I wanted. 

You know, I went shopping with a friend for a new TV set and we were looking at the HD stuff, and to be honnest, we both couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p 

We tried it with both my Xbox360 and a HD DVD player, upconverting a DVD and an HD. I could see an improvement in the HD content (he couldn't), but nothing to justify the investment necessary to build a full HD theater.

And don't even start me on full HD audio, or DD vs DTS.

BTW, he actually settled on a 36 or so inch LCD, and I think it's only ED too, though I'm not entirely sure.

[Touti]

I would be surprise if it was an EDTV, I believe no one makes those anymore.  As for the difference, your are very unlikely to see any in the store for 2 reasons, 1st there is way to much light in those places for differences that subtle to be clearly visible, 2nd these tv come out of the factory with settings that are intended to make them look good when displayed in a large store with lots of lights.

Actually, one of the best advice about setting up a new Plasma or LCD tv is to spend the 300$ or so to have it professionally calibrated.  If you can't afford it or don't have access to that kind of service your should at least spend the 30$ to buy a calibration DVD.

[RossRoy]

Actually, one of the best advice about setting up a new Plasma or LCD tv is to spend the 300$ or so to have it professionally calibrated.  If you can't afford it or don't have access to that kind of service your should at least spend the 30$ to buy a calibration DVD.

Actually, for the test, we brought the stuff back to his house (1 brand-new HD LCD monitor, and the used EDTV LCD (I don't remember how many lines of resolution, but it's not 1080), calibrated them as best we could and tried them for a whole night. Throwing at it HD DVD we rented, my own DVD, Xbox games (both original and 360), even the Wii got a spin on it.

We still couldn't see any really noticeable difference. My friend ended up keeping the used EDTV LCD, which belonged to his boss, who upgraded to the HD. He was kind enough to allow us to test it all out before taking possession