Blu Ray from the HTPC

I use a 52" Sharp Aquos as my monitor. I'm running my video card at 1920 X 1080.

Robert at the moment I use PowerDVD BD software. It works pretty well.I plan to try the Arcsoft again when I buy this new card and see how it pans out.I tried the trial version. It has more features than my PowerDVD software, that I do know.

For everyday use I would use a large LCD flat panel. The projector in my case...would mainly be for movies and sports viewing.The bulb life just isn't long enough for me to use on a daily basis.

LOL...Patrick..I had a singer over the other day...she loved the setup of course.

I get the 4% to 9% when only playing Blu Rays. The usage goes up considerably when I have a Blu Ray and a couple of standard movies playing at the same time. The PC starts to run out of steam once I play 1 Blu ray and more than 2 standard movies at the same time. Mainly it is running out of memory more than the processing power I think. I only have 3 GBs installed plus the 1 GB video card.

I was bored tonight, so a tested the system by playing 13 standard AVI movies simultaneously. CPU usage 17% to 27% and memory hovering around 52%. Those Quad cores are something serious! lol
I play a fair amount of movies directly from my hard drives that are converted from DVD to AVI format..

Nothing wrong with the Dells. I love my XPS 410 HTPC and the XPS 420 HTPC even more.
I have 3 of them in the house. Two HTPCs and a laptop. ;-)

Two of mine are a Dual core(laptop and secondary XPS 410 HTPC) and the other a Quad 6600(main HTPC XPS 420). I know it is the lowest on the Dell's Quad core totem poll, but still a beast for what I do with it.

Thanks for the link my friend!

Hi Patrickp that's great! What type of video card do you use? I just upgraded / added a new HTPC with a QUAD core processor installed using a Geforce 256 bit 1 GB ram 8800GT Nvidia for video. Referencing my CPU usage, the PC cruises between 4% to 9% when playing Blu rays.

Maybe next year the true HDMI audio/ video cards will be reasonable enough for me to buy and go direct for both video and audio without the need of my SPDIF audio.

I'm quite happy with the results for now. Being able to up convert and change standard DVD viewing with a few adjustments is indispensable. You should try the GOM player as well. It has so many adjustments, it is almost confusing.lol

You can even slow or speed up the audio portion of a movie if it seems to be out of sync...very cool indeed!

I plan to network my entire home with the HTPCs and flat panels. This way I can play movies, music or internet broadcast at will in any room I have a TV mounted.

Netflix instant downloads viewing is pretty good on the setup as well. I never run out of any thing to watch..that is for sure!

Holy smokes Patrickp!! You are definitley on game. Yup I'm in for around $160 on my video card as well.

I agree ..we are in the minority for sure! It is only a matter of time though.

I've got a panel in the master BR and the great room. I have 3 more to mount on the walls(kitchen, master bath and guest BR. It's kinda crazy I know...since I'm the only one in the house. lol.. makes for one heck of a bachelor pad though. ;-)

I always get comments from visitors about how cool it is to watch TV,surf the net, play music, video games and movies all from the same interface at the same time. They really get a kick out of it when I have 3 different movies and the TV broadcast playing on the screen in the great room at the same time. lol

BD is my preferred playback software for Blu ray. I tried the other two on the market. Both were over complicated IMHO compared to Cyberlink BD.

The card you mentioned sounds like a winner!Hopefully the video card makers will get this stuff rolling and make it more affordable for everyone.

Where's a good place too pick up one of those HDHomerun boxes?

Thanks

You can compress the movie down to 700MB if you like. The quality isn't quite as good as DVD.But it is as good as Netflix instant downloads. Take it up to 1.2 gb or so and add dlby digital or DTS to the mix. Here's one converter mydvdtools. I use ConverterXtoDVD to convert them back to DVD.

From time to time I'll burn them back to hard disk and put 5 movies on one DVD 4.3 Gb disk.

You can get a heap of movies on HD if you convert and compress them a little. It is very easy to get 400 movies on a 500Gb HD doing it this way. I have so many movies on HD I have a hard time finding a particular one I want to watch sometimes! lol
I will certainly let you know how it goes.

Yeah.. she's just a backup singer at the moment for a friend of mine that is the lead singer of a band, that just completed some tracks on Shania Twain's new album that is in the works. Infact they were just in the studios a week or so ago.

With the newer cards being released, You'll get all of the newest codecs by just plugging up an HDMI cable and using it with a processor or receiver that accepts the new formats.

Here's the info on the card Patrickp mentioned in a prior post Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 sound cards released .

PatrickP I didn't get to meet her unfortunately. I would have like too though. ;-)
It was my cousin's girlfriend(the lead singer of a local band) S.T. actually requested to be her back up singer for some of her new tracks. She basically came into town secretly and slipped out a few days later.

They couldn't get the tracks completed here because of recording equipment issues. So everyone went to a studio in Augusta, Georgia to finish up.

I agree she's a beautiful lady. Last I heard she was single again! ;-)

Sweeet Ig316b,

Nicely thought out system you have there. I was reading a review of this card recently ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 Deluxe review. That is one action packed card!!

I can't wait for it to be released here in the states! This could be my Christmas present to myself! lol
Looks like they used a lot of high quality parts in the card. I would like to see how this thing sounds skipping a preamp or processor and going straight to amplifiers.

My guess is it won't sound too shabby. Price wise it doesn't seem all that expensive when you subtract a preamp/prepro and a Dac from the equation.

I'm thinking seriously about building a home theater room around something like this. Add a in ceiling LCD projector and a 100 inch screen with 7.1 speakers and amplifiers to drive them..I would be in hog heaven! ;-)

Robert we're thinking a like my friend. I thought of mounting a in ceiling motorized screen. Have it to descend when I want to watch a movie. When it descends, it will come down in front of my flat panel. I'm still trying to figure out the most cost effective way to do it.

I've seen several homes setup in similar ways. I've also seen one fellow that had his flat panel hidden behind a picture that raises through a motorized system to reveal the TV..pretty cool in deed!

My Dell 20" wide screen monitor has one DVI and one HDMI connection.

Thanks Robert for the link! I've been salivating over this card! I'm so looking forward to its U.S. debut. Looks like there's a another HT card Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 HDMI sound card on the block.

Yes you are correct....I'm roughly 80 miles southwest of Morrow..the Columbus,Georgia area. Bummer about the Auzen..I have my heart set on the Asus..so I'll patiently wait. ;-)

Hey thanks Robert for the info. That manual gives me a good head start on what I need to do. I look forward to your assessment of the card!

Holy smokes!!! Robert I've been reading over some of this manual. This card is unbelievable!!

Using Vista I can drag the speakers and/ or the listeners in different relative positions "virtually" using my mouse, in real time using the menu display. Drop them any where and the Xonar program will adjust the virtual 7.1 accordingly.

Man ..this is going to be fun!!! ;-)

Thanks again!