I watch my DVD's on the Computer...

[Faust2]

I don't have a TV. (Because TV sucks und german TV espacially does so.)
So, I don't have a standalone. Instead, I just watch my DVDs on my 19-inch-philips monitor, in a conveniant armchair, and in some 1.5 meters distance, and some good computer speakers. I image, this ends in a picture size on my retina that can rival any TV set with a viewing distance of 3-5 meters. (but if someone proves to me the contrary, I will gladly learn.)

The reason why I post all this: some people keep telling me, the real DVD-Experiance is only to come with a "decent" standalone with "decent" mpeg2-decoding chips and a (of course) "decent" TV set.

:confused:

Is all this true or can i just stay with my method?

Generally, I'm quite happy, as it is, but ocasionally i watch my DVDs (and my backups) on friend's standalones and TV sets, and what I observe is this:

If you watch the poor TV resolution from near distance, its (of course) unbearable. If you watch it from distance, it looks quite good, especially encoding artifacts are disappearing (by distance/low res or by magic of "decent" mpeg-chips ?).

So my question is (in short words): Is video quality (meaning quality of decoding and displaying) with standalones (even decent ones :) ) and TVs really better than with a good monitor, graphic card and SW-player (PowerDVD or WinDVD)?



Maybe someone can give me his opinion about this...

[DK64_MASTER]

IMHO you need pristine sound to get the best movie experience. If you can hook up a 6 or 7 chanel speaker system to your computer, then you are set. I myself tend to like watching movies on a TV because you don't have to worry about any lag from you computer, you don't wear out your HD/DVD/CD drives, and you have have captions/subtitles/menus in 1 click of a remote, and you don't have to use the mouse and interupt your full screen movie. Oh yeah, HD space isn't an issue, and if you backup on DVDs, you'll wear our your drive.

[unmei]

i also watch solely on my computer.
I'm even closer to the screen than you, about 1m for the TFT and a bit closer for the CRT. Buth then again both are 17" and not 19".


What i observe is on the TFT you see much more artifacts than on CRT, so i would go for watching on CRT but unfortunately the P3 where my CRT is hooked up to is too slow for decoding my rips and even at the limit for fansubs :(

I mostly watch xvid, seldom the DVDs but when actually playing a DVD i use power dvd with hardware decoding and overlay on the radeon (no adjusts but i dont need them). I think this solution is at lest on par with any TV i've seen so far, but my friends don't have top-notch TVs..

What i always use on encodes on TFT (but not on CRT) is adding a little noise with FFDShow, but for DVD i wouldn't know how to do it (especially not with HW decoding).

I imagine if you have a really crappy DVD or encode it might look better on TV as you don't realise all the crap while you surely do on the TFT. But i don't feel like i miss something without a TV set..

I know this is a bit of a back-and-forth post. But this is because for me encodes on PC are more enjoyable than DVD on any platform (mostly because of the MPC controls and the better subtitles).

[Doom9]

Initially, my standalone couldn't handle R1 discs so I had to watch those on the PC. These days I have a 16ms 23" TFT screen (1920x1200 resolution so it's a 16:10 display), which is just perfect for watching movies (okay, the Apple 30-incher would be even nicer but it's expensive and there's hardly any GFX cards for it) - you don't get that kind of pristine picture on any TV screen (okay, there are some TFT TV screens with DVI input.. but standalones with DVI are rare and the digital connection really makes a difference). Of course it doesn't hurt if you also have a 5.1 setup connected to your PC like I do. Watching movies downstairs on a 80cm TV is still bigger, the stereo is better, but I don't mind the size much and quality is definitely better in my room.

[Faust2]

OK, Thx for the feedback :)

Generally, these are the reasons why i didn't buy a TV/Standalone, too. Regarding TFT-Monitors, I don't think i can afford any fast enough. Also i think, the CRTs are more bright (wrong?). The sound is admittedly a drawback. Can anybody recommend a way to have 5.1-sound at the computer?

As to resolution: the standard TV-res. is a joke, that's clear. But I don't even know what the HDTV-res. is and if its improving pic quality this much... :rolleyes:

BTW, whats a DVI input?

It would be nice if someone could comment on the "is-quality-of-decoding-really-better-in-standalones"-part...

[killingspree]

Originally posted by Faust2
more bright (wrong?).

brighter :P

The sound is admittedly a drawback. Can anybody recommend a way to have 5.1-sound at the computer?

creative audigy 2 retail (80$/€) (i've seen a really sweet deal at compusa for the platinum version for $129 - so if you're in the us, get it!) along with some creative inspire 5.1/6.1 (~100€/$) speakers will do a decent job - i won't say perfect - but enough for your pleasure in a smaller room! i run this setup for almost two years now (was a little more expensive back then!) and am completely satisfied! in addition this setup is almost a must have if you play some of the newer games featuring EAX2! FarCry simply sounds amazing with it!!

please keep in mind that i just mention this setup because i already own it! most definitely you can cut down on the costs by around 50% if you buy say a Terratec 5.1 card (which comes at 40 bucks - or so) and a friend of mind just bought himself a 5.1 set for less than $50 !!

As to resolution: the standard TV-res. is a joke, that's clear. But I don't even know what the HDTV-res. is and if its improving pic quality this much... :rolleyes:

hdtv res is 1920x1024 so if your tv really supports it and you got material in this resolution (like the t2 extreme edition) quality is supposed to be amazing. but your pockets should be fairly full too :P


BTW, whats a DVI input?

digital video input - another way to connect your computer to your TFT screen, provided both your grapics card and your monitor support it! since it is digital (in contrary to VGA which is analogue) it provides a much sharper picture!

It would be nice if someone could comment on the "is-quality-of-decoding-really-better-in-standalones"-part...
i would say, no - if you have a decent computer, a decent monitor - it should be better than the typical crappy TV screen!

hth
steVe
PS: i watch my dvds both on my standalone and on my computer, but mostly on my computer as i don't have a TV in my room :) the only real reason i switch to the TV is to make use of a dts soundtrack (which is kind of pain in the a** on a pc)

edit: formatting error; oh, and what i forgot to mention: if i ever happen to have to watch a VCD/SVCD i also do that on the TV - as you do not see the artifacts etc as much as on my 17" TFT screen!

[Mug Funky]

hmm.. HDTV is actually 1920x1080 at it's highest if i'm not mistaken.

and please don't buy an Audigy. the creative cards are notorious for upsampling EVERYTHING to it's native wordclock of 48000 HZ. this means CDs and anything else will sound terrible unless you use a high quality software upsampler in the chain somewhere (SSRC or something better). sample-rate conversion is a real problem in audio, in particular choosing the right antialias filters in a limited bandwidth (a steeper filter will ring more, but a gentle filter in 44100 HZ will cut into the audible range of frequencies).

of course, DVDs are mostly in 48000 HZ already, so it's not really a problem. it only becomes a problem when playing CDs.

when i get some good money together, i'll be getting a serious monitoring setup - an external sound card (edirol? maybe that's overkill) and 5 matched bi-amped nearfield monitors (the behringers look good for my price range). not sure if i'll get a subwoofer as well, or just route the LFE into the nearfields.

of course, this'll be in a few years :)

[killingspree]

Originally posted by Mug Funky
hmm.. HDTV is actually 1920x1080 at it's highest if i'm not mistaken.

oops sorry, my bad! of course it is 1080...

and please don't buy an Audigy. the creative cards are notorious for upsampling EVERYTHING to it's native wordclock of 48000 HZ. this means CDs and anything else will sound terrible ....
well honestly, who listens to audio cds in his pc? i got all my cds (approx 200) converted to AAC with iTunes and i really do like the sound of it in connection with the audigy. i had the possibility to compare it to an equal TerraTec card and the sound was audibly worse! and i'm not even willing to truly compare it to my onboard soundchip!

but of course this is just my opinion, best would be to conduct your own tests - and the buy whatever you like best! :)

[Mug Funky]

i should also have said anything coded from CDs...

this means almost all mp3s on the planet... (mp3 is useless above 44.1Khz because of it's sfb21 issues, and the fact that it is not tuned for 48Khz.)

of course, any sound card that supports SPDIF and kernel streaming (so it is guaranteed not to mess with the digital stream) can feed into an external converter. in that case you can buy yourself a nice 5.1 amp with digital inputs and use that to decode the DVD sound for you :)

[Soulhunter]

Originally posted by Mug Funky
...the creative cards are notorious for upsampling EVERYTHING to it's native wordclock of 48000 HZ. this means CDs and anything else will sound terrible unless you use a high quality software upsampler in the chain somewhere (SSRC or something better).
Thought 48kHz @ SBLive and 96kHz @ the Audigy... :confused: ...no matter !!!

Is there ds-filter for SRC upsampling somewhere ???


Bye