HTPC VS Standalone Blu-Ray players

[MADNOD]

Dear all,

i have a HTPC that is my gaming PC at the same time.
it has 4 GB ram E6600 at 3.25GHZ, ATI 4870, RAID 0 HDDs, and a Lite on 4X BD ROM, with Vista enterprise 64 Bit.

I am connecting my PC via DVI to HDMI converter to my Samsung 52A650. the software player is PowerDVD Ultra 8 (patched to the latest version), the image quality is good, but since i have nothing to compare i don't know if teh picture can get better.

can u please advise if a PS3 or an another standalone player will provide better image quality? did anybody tried both and found a difference?

is there any tweaks for Powerdvd and ATI 4870 (interlacing and other stuff?) to increase the image quality

BTW i am using creative audigy 2 ZS and T7700 speakers with DDTS-100 (4 years old setup) for the sound. and i am thinking about moving to S750 since i really have a relativelly small room (4.2 m X 3.8 m) and i have no place for a full fledge sound system.

for DVD upconverting i have a Sony DVP-NS708P which is doing a stunning job in upconverting my DVD collection.

thanks in advacne for your feedback.

[maxmcleod]

I have tried both, and currently use both, on the same setup, here is what I've noticed.

Picture quality, is identical, sometimes i feel the htpc is a little sharper/clearer.

Sound quality, i feel is pretty much the same, but I do feel the ps3 doesn't have as much bass to it. I have the htpc setup through a xonar dx analogs out to a onkyo 605, and the ps3 through hdmi to the onkyo.

but to be honest, they are pretty much the same.

[hoogoosedmoose41]

wondering which one runs quieter... although my ps3 is noisy at times i bet its still quieter than a gaming pc... now my samsung bdp 1500 is much quieter than my ps3 usually but i have to spend 10 minutes or so just to get my integra dtc to recognize the samsungs handshake... the ps3 its imediate.

[Hogmeister]

Originally Posted by maxmcleod

I have tried both, and currently use both, on the same setup, here is what I've noticed.

Picture quality, is identical, sometimes i feel the htpc is a little sharper/clearer.

same exact here, have my ps3 downstairs (well its dead right now, awaiting my box to get it replaced) and an HTPC i built after my ps3 died... have to say they both look nearly identical, i like the sound on my computer a little better but thats only because i feel theres a bit more control and various things i can do with it... but i'm forced to use spdif since i dont have a receiver with multichannel inputs (boo, i'm slowly working on getting a better audio setup, but for now i'm content with my 5.1 i have ;P )


so yeah enough about me, the picture quality looks damn near spot on with both but took some tweaking with my htpc, the ps3 looks good right out of the box imo. the audio again seems the same to me *shrug*


can't go wrong with either one... the htpc i have runs a LITTLE louder (not a lot) than my ps3 so as far as noise goes if you plan out the htpc you could probably get it silent if you wanted.. doesnt really much matter to me that much tho so i didnt really worry about noise.

btw have you tried using powerdvd to upconvert your regular dvd's ?? might be able to get rid of that dvd player in your mix if you try using your computer to upconvert them as well. just a little food for thought

[prerich]

Originally Posted by hoogoosedmoose41

wondering which one runs quieter... although my ps3 is noisy at times i bet its still quieter than a gaming pc... now my samsung bdp 1500 is much quieter than my ps3 usually but i have to spend 10 minutes or so just to get my integra dtc to recognize the samsungs handshake... the ps3 its imediate.

Don't think so. Last PC that I built was almost totally quiet...under load! And it only takes 3-5 seconds to load a BD. It's much quieter than a PS3. The noise from a PS3 has to do with the fan size and the speed at which it turns, Gaming PC's and HTPC's to a greater extent can incorperate silent video cards, Large CPU coolers and 120mm case fans that are very quiet.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Hogmeister

same exact here, have my ps3 downstairs (well its dead right now, awaiting my box to get it replaced) and an HTPC i built after my ps3 died... have to say they both look nearly identical, i like the sound on my computer a little better but thats only because i feel theres a bit more control and various things i can do with it... but i'm forced to use spdif since i dont have a receiver with multichannel inputs (boo, i'm slowly working on getting a better audio setup, but for now i'm content with my 5.1 i have ;P )


so yeah enough about me, the picture quality looks damn near spot on with both but took some tweaking with my htpc, the ps3 looks good right out of the box imo. the audio again seems the same to me *shrug*


can't go wrong with either one... the htpc i have runs a LITTLE louder (not a lot) than my ps3 so as far as noise goes if you plan out the htpc you could probably get it silent if you wanted.. doesnt really much matter to me that much tho so i didnt really worry about noise.

btw have you tried using powerdvd to upconvert your regular dvd's ?? might be able to get rid of that dvd player in your mix if you try using your computer to upconvert them as well. just a little food for thought

WinDVD 9 Plus BD upconverts very well (I have some screenshots posted in one of these treads). A yes, I agree, the OP can't miss with either one. However, you stated one thing - your PS3 is down, you can't fix that yourself, but if your HTPC ever went down, you could. That's one of the main reasons I prefer HTPC. Peformance wise its a wash - with the exception that you can tweek a HTPC and get that much more performance out of it - PS3 it is what it is (it is good though )

[maxmcleod]

Originally Posted by hoogoosedmoose41

wondering which one runs quieter... although my ps3 is noisy at times i bet its still quieter than a gaming pc... now my samsung bdp 1500 is much quieter than my ps3 usually but i have to spend 10 minutes or so just to get my integra dtc to recognize the samsungs handshake... the ps3 its imediate.

Mine are identical, no real difference in noise or heat generated from my ps3 or htpc... its all in how you build it, you don't have to have 8 gigs of ram or a 9800gtmotherf*&k video card to properly play bluray
my setup is modest
8500gt passive video
intel 2.33 core 2 duo with a really quiet cooling fan
and a 600 watt power supply... only noise generators that would be a factor

[rarredoa]

Originally Posted by maxmcleod

Mine are identical, no real difference in noise or heat generated from my ps3 or htpc... its all in how you build it, you don't have to have 8 gigs of ram or a 9800gtmotherf*&k video card to properly play bluray
my setup is modest
8500gt passive video
intel 2.33 core 2 duo with a really quiet cooling fan
and a 600 watt power supply... only noise generators that would be a factor

I managed to silence my PC due to fan noise, of all sorts, but another culprit i've been able to isolate is the chassis itself! My case has doors that open to the side... It's a coolermaster Mystique model. The fan from PSU causes resonances at the doors which create a humming noise. When i push the door up against the chassis, the noise goes away.

By moving the PS3 around and having adequate ventilation, u can dramatically reduce the effect the fan noise has on overall system performance.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by rarredoa

I managed to silence my PC due to fan noise, of all sorts, but another culprit i've been able to isolate is the chassis itself! My case has doors that open to the side... It's a coolermaster Mystique model. The fan from PSU causes resonances at the doors which create a humming noise. When i push the door up against the chassis, the noise goes away.

By moving the PS3 around and having adequate ventilation, u can dramatically reduce the effect the fan noise has on overall system performance.

Lol!!!!! Same thing here! I took the door off of my Thermaltake case and wah-la, noise went down! If you really want to customize you can use Dynamat on the interior of a case to cut the noise down also.

[MADNOD]

thanks all for your feedbacks,

actually the usage of the Sony Standalone NS708HP player to upconvert is for 2 reasons, first i tried using FDDshow and i found alot of hussle in it and in case i am re-installing windows i have to redo it again, second I don't have to deal with HD audio codecs that my DDTS doesn't support, so for DVDs i am using standalone devices while for the Blu-rays the HTPC allows me to use my current sound setup and yet have HD audio up to 7.1 discrete.

noise wize i have alot of 12 cm fans in my case (thermaltake Shark) that i control with fan controllers so i have sometype of "Movie mode" where my fans are turned down so there is no noise issues.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by MADNOD

thanks all for your feedbacks,

actually the usage of the Sony Standalone NS708HP player to upconvert is for 2 reasons, first i tried using FDDshow and i found alot of hussle in it and in case i am re-installing windows i have to redo it again, second I don't have to deal with HD audio codecs that my DDTS doesn't support, so for DVDs i am using standalone devices while for the Blu-rays the HTPC allows me to use my current sound setup and yet have HD audio up to 7.1 discrete.

noise wize i have alot of 12 cm fans in my case (thermaltake Shark) that i control with fan controllers so i have sometype of "Movie mode" where my fans are turned down so there is no noise issues.

Get WinDVD 9 Plus BD- you will thank yourself for it. All2hd almost looks like 120hz content !