CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:06 am Post subject: It works, it bloody works!

I was about to make a post on my torturous 11 hour battle, a part of that cleaning up the apartment in frustration of finding things to make this happen, to get help on what the problem is.

Anyway, I bought a LG CH10LS20 Blu-ray player Boxing Day (Day after Christmas sales for us Canucks) for $65. It shipped on Dec 31, arrived today at 1pm. Put in the HTPC, installed PowerDVD 8 and bam, it worked er... kinda. Artifacts like crazy, jerky playback... terribleness. I had no wireless installed and I lent out my long ethernet cable. I tore through the apartment yet cleaning it at the same time looking for my wireless card antenna to no avail. So, here I sit with the HTPC balancing atop my skiboots bag with the power cord stretched from one side of the room to the wall and the VGA monitor cable from the other trying to find a solution.

Reading online just brought me in circles pointing to PowerDVD being the issue or possibly the ATI HD 4200 underpowered. Then I thought, since this is my first ever Blu-ray maybe the whole HDCP via VGA is biting me in the ass and it's not gonna happen. Nice, another setback and one more strike against using a HTPC. Installing TotalMedia There 5 was no better. It played up to and including pressing 'Play Movie' in The Fifth Element, just no picture afterward, black. Okay, has to be HDCP issues I guess.

Finding no definite answer online I thought for the hell of it I'll try a driver update before I went crazy and wanted to smash stuff. I really see why, despite the extra cost, that stand alone equipment/boxes can be more of a pleasure to deal with.
Anyway, I hit up AMD for the latest ATI HD 4200 driver from Sept 2010, did a reboot not expecting much. Noticed the ATI system tray logo a lot smaller than before... cool. I checked my color profile I saved for greyscale, still there, looking good. Sure enough when I opened PowerDVD it worked! It BLOODY WORKED! No more artifacts or jerky frames... instead Smooth, High Detail images being projected back at me from my 14" CRT monitor! I was excited! I tried TMT 5, it WORKS there also!!!

So, the rest of the night despite being so late will play out like this, connecting the HTPC back to the projector, me getting a shower, firing up the BBQ for another feed of this from yesterday...

and relax to one of my 23 new Blu-rays while drinking a homebrew. Thumbs Up

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I spent quite some time watching "Pacific" on Sunday night and Monday during the day. That is a great movie. Probably right below Band of Brothers for story and audio/video quality. I am fascinated by WWII events and time period.

Great to have some time to watch movies every now and then!

I got a BR drive in my HTPC but didn't feel justified to buy any software (can get standalone player for same price!) so I use it solely for ripping to convert to MKV's to watch on the HTPC.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:26 am Post subject:

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:26 am Post subject:

Yeah, I considered that Greg, ripping everything. I even D/L AnyDVD again and ripped The Fifth Element to disk while figuring out the problem. At 36GB per movie it won't take long to fill this 500GB drive. I was loving ZoomPlayer as it just always works, is uncluttered and the FFDShow decoders work great so who knows, I may get a few extra drives and take it from there.

I really didn't want to jump into buying a stand alone BR player then have to buy a HDFury/Moome/Lumagen, etc. either at this point with $400 already invested in the HTPC. So far it works again and I'm pleased. Mr. Green

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:31 am Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:47 am Post subject:

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 5:02 am Post subject:

Thx! I can't wait to get it started. They actually pricematched to farmhousebrewingsupply.com so I ordered 3 525's for $23.99 each. I originally had 1 425 as I considered getting a bottling tip and 1 525 at first but the 425 was also on back order. When it did finally arrive I changed my mind anyway but now I'm STILL waiting on the shanks. Any idea on a price on 4" stainless steel shanks? I'll keep that in mind in the future Kal as I may add a 4th keg/faucet in the future

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Posting food like that should be considered illegal. You didn't share!

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:58 pm Post subject:

Couldn't happen, sorry... too delicious. Just go find some cow, season with Texas Roadhouse steak spice if you can, I don't have any; sear, to get those beautiful grill marks, and cook at 450-500°F for 2 min then turn for 2min, flipped for 2 and tent on a plate for 5. I tried this the day before but I ran out of propane. Must have had a small leak as the tank was full but not shut off. I only had the BBQ regulator/burner knob off and as a result I had to pan fry it in butter. Complete disappointment, tasted like liver and was tough.

Take 2 on the BBQ resulted in a entirely different experience, so juicy and tender. Served with roasted garlic mashed yellow potatoes, onions sauteed in butter until sweet and slightly browned, spinach salad with sun-dried tomato & oregano dressing and a slice of lemon. *Missing from photo is extra old cheddar I added to the salad once I remembered.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:31 am Post subject:

So I take it you like your beef medium?

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

LOTREE · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:17 pm Post subject:

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:51 pm Post subject:

I like mine well done, black burnt to a crisp. If there's any red or pink in it I won't eat it. Razz

So it's not red meat when I'm done with it.

LOTREE · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:39 pm Post subject:

LOL, that's terrible. All the flavor and juices are cooked out of it then sure making the fat the most succulent part! Although it's how I thought steak was cooked when I grew up. Load up the round black 3 legged BBQ with charcoal, douse it in lighter fluid and cook a steak until it was gray in the center. Just past still mooing is the best. How'd you guess mine came out near medium? Lucky guess or experience?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:56 pm Post subject:

mc86 · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:25 pm Post subject:

I'm surprised you are still using those plates, given the nasty gash you got! :-0 What output do you have the HTPC send to your ECP 4500?
I am on the verge of buying a HD Fury 3, but this intrigues me as I already have a Win7 (media center) setup for the wife. Right now that PC takes our $6.79/mo, 16-channel analog cable and acts as DVR...I have a USB 800x600 wireless video transmitter send to a crappy old LCD PJ. On summer nights I setup the LCD in the side yard for the kids -- the wireless is nice for that. ANYWAY, I thought any non-HDMI AV outputs from a HTPC would be cut back to something crappy. I guess I am ASSuming on this? I had planned to run my LDs and DVDs into the 4500 via some yet-TBD processor and to just hold off on BR for a few years before getting serious about an upgraded CRT PJ. But.....if I can "reasonably easily" play BR out of PC at 1080i, maybe I should spend the time/$ now to do so...thoughts?

Matt

LOTREE · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:15 pm Post subject:

The plate does look nice there though, the food was even better, but it was post nasty gash and stitches so they're out of commission now. I have to return them to the store for a refund based on the recall.

As for using non-HDMI video sources Matt, I primarily use VGA/HD15-BNC from the HTPC, always have with either projector. Currently I'm outputting 1280x720P on the Zenith through VGA. Looks great. I connected up a HDFury 2 to the HTPC and my friends PS3 to see if there was a difference in white clipping since the upgrade to BR but it was unchanged. The IQ from my LG internal BR drive over VGA and HDMI vs a PS3 was nearly identical in all aspects.

You can see Blu-ray screen shots in this thread https://www.curtpalme.com/forum_archived/viewtopic.php@t=24992.html and in my Album http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/album_personal.php?user_id=179 . The ones posted Jan 2010 are from the ECP but DVD quality only, 720P/768P I believe.

The ECP 4500 has been in the closet for a year since the upgrade but I really miss tinkering with it. I was tempted to take it out last night to see how BR would look but I'd rather not hurt the gimp finger. IQ should look fantastic or as fantastic as you can get on the 4501. Personally, I always thought the picture looked great when setup correctly. I only upgraded because I found the projector I always wanted. 1080i should be no problem or 1024x768P for a basic 4:3 image. I'd say try it, that's what 1/2 the fun is about. I think you'll be a little giddy on how good the image will actually look.

mc86 · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:43 pm Post subject:

Wow, this will cause a huge shift in my thinking. It is strange -- somehow I had it in my mind I could not output any HD (1080i, 720p, etc) from BR over VGA/HD15-BNC on a PC. Damn my ignorance! I knew about HTPC up-converting but perceived BR got down-converted severely (like to DVD 480i quality) when pushed to analog. For my PJ at work, no need for HDFury3.

For home, this would be a no-brainer but...unfortunately for me, it looks as though my home MB (Asus P5K-E) was a few months early for enabling the full lossless audio, despite my MB and video cards looking good to go on PDVD's video hardware reqs. UGH, this makes matters harder. So looks like:

1) HTPC [win7 Media center integration is a must for marriage reasons]
$250 for an approved lossless-digital audio card like Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD [cheaper suggestions?]
(or maybe a newer MB that uses same processor/memory but with PDVD lossless-audio compatible)
$80 for internal BR player
$50 PDVD 10 standard (integrates with Win7 Media center, check)
Get almost everything from one, easy to operate source.

OR

2)
$150 for acceptable entry BR unit
$300 for HDFury3 stuff

The idea of having my HTPC handle all video [BR, DVD, Analog Cable TV/DVR, and Netflix] except my laserdiscs and the odd SVHS/VHS tape is very appealing. We watch movies 90% and TV very little. Having to spend $250 to get the lossless audio out to my pre-pro and 5Ch amp seems excessive when the HDFury3 would do that as well. And HDFury3 nice to have should I graduate to days of a better CRT PJ...and computer stuff will be fine next time I upgrade...

thoughts?

Matt

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:54 am Post subject: