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Darren Wadsworth
Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Tacoma, Washington
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: HTPC desktop set to 1080p. What is the downside? |
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Nvidia 8600gt
Last night in preparation for installing my BD/HDDVD combo, I set a new profile on the Marquee, set the desktop resolution to 1920x1080, and adjusted the Marquee for 1080p desktop.
After playing some 1080p content from the hard drive (which looked incredible), I decided to try other sources,
avi
dvd
1080i .ts
720p files.
From my POV, Everything looked that much better.
The usual consensus for DVD playback suggests either 1440x720 or 1280x720 desktop.
Raising the resolution essentially upscales everything to 1080p.
What is/are the downside(s) to doing this? Artifacts, etc....?
Thank you
Darren
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larryk
Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 106
Location: Edmonton Alberta
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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I see you are using an 8600gt. I have the same card. So far, contrary to the huge expectations for HTPC from this card it has so far been almost a bust. I don't know what model of Marque you have but what I have learned so far is for the most part 1920 by 1080P is a waste of band width when viewing anything but 16 by 9 source that is at least 1920 by 1080 i to start with and your PJ has enough pandwidth and tube size to handle it with some headroom. If you are running scope movies, 1920 by 800 or 860? is exactly the same as using the full res. just no black bars, but you will be drving your PJ less hard and that could both improve PQ clarity and punch. What I am struggling with right now is the refresh rates. I have the same card you have, I'm running Vista. So far there is no way of inputting custom refresh rates which basicaly renders this card useless for crt based HTCP. The other problem is there is no way to adjust porches so I can't even get 1920 by 800 by 60hz. In my opinion this makes or breaks the watchability of the picture. Judder drives me crazy after a while when you know it doesn't have to be there. Have you resolved these issues with this card?
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Darren Wadsworth
Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Tacoma, Washington
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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| larryk wrote: | | I see you are using an 8600gt. I have the same card. So far, contrary to the huge expectations for HTPC from this card it has so far been almost a bust. I don't know what model of Marque you have but what I have learned so far is for the most part 1920 by 1080P is a waste of band width when viewing anything but 16 by 9 source that is at least 1920 by 1080 i to start with and your PJ has enough pandwidth and tube size to handle it with some headroom. If you are running scope movies, 1920 by 800 or 860? is exactly the same as using the full res. just no black bars, but you will be drving your PJ less hard and that could both improve PQ clarity and punch. What I am struggling with right now is the refresh rates. I have the same card you have, I'm running Vista. So far there is no way of inputting custom refresh rates which basicaly renders this card useless for crt based HTCP. The other problem is there is no way to adjust porches so I can't even get 1920 by 800 by 60hz. In my opinion this makes or breaks the watchability of the picture. Judder drives me crazy after a while when you know it doesn't have to be there. Have you resolved these issues with this card? |
I am using XP. Custom res. (refresh, porches etc) is easy with nividia driver. I have heard that you can't with the Vista drivers. I am a computer tech and in my experience Vista is a bigger "bust". I refuse to use it. No benefits (other than ram limits expanded)
Unless powerstrip gets updated (I read that it is actually nvidia that is slowing that process) you would have to use and ATI 2600XT.
I have thought about changing my card to that, as the reviews have it processing HD content better.
How about just changing the desktop res (on the fly) for only the HD content and view the DVD's etc with 720p?
Darren
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larryk
Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 106
Location: Edmonton Alberta
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the advise on the video card, I guess I will have to choose, 120.00 to buy xp wmc. or about the same or more for the video card. Did the reviews show a significant improvement with the ATI card?
As far as the 720P goes for SD DVD, yes it looks good and is probably the most easy resolution to view with your desktop but if you want to maximize your PJ's PQ with SD DVD, film based, line quadrupiling would be better, or 1440 by 960? That res also processes black bars during movie playback. I guess it also depends on the quality of your pj. I 9 incher focused to the max may show scan lines at that res. I don't know as I have never been lucky enough to see a PJ of that calibre although at 1920 by 1080 i I see scan lines with HDTV content, but I am not willing to refocus to smudge the view. I am not an expert with this stuff so I may be corrected by someone who knows more about it.
Larry
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Darren Wadsworth
Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Tacoma, Washington
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| larryk wrote: | Thanks for the advise on the video card, I guess I will have to choose, 120.00 to buy xp wmc. or about the same or more for the video card. Did the reviews show a significant improvement with the ATI card?
As far as the 720P goes for SD DVD, yes it looks good and is probably the most easy resolution to view with your desktop but if you want to maximize your PJ's PQ with SD DVD, film based, line quadrupiling would be better, or 1440 by 960? That res also processes black bars during movie playback. I guess it also depends on the quality of your pj. I 9 incher focused to the max may show scan lines at that res. I don't know as I have never been lucky enough to see a PJ of that calibre although at 1920 by 1080 i I see scan lines with HDTV content, but I am not willing to refocus to smudge the view. I am not an expert with this stuff so I may be corrected by someone who knows more about it.
Larry |
From what I have read, the Nvidia processes about 70-80% of the HD. Whereas the ATI is 100%. I still have more research to do , but, that was the general info.
Darren
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Brian Hampton
Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 1173
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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Everything is 1080p here.
But it's via PS3 not HTPC.
DVD's upconverted to 1080p look about the same to me as DVD's upconverted to 1080i or 720p or 960 or whatever.
And 1080p is sharp on my 8 inch pj (G70.) I went back and forth a lot between 1080i and 1080p and 1080p looks best to me even if it's not fully resolved out to the edges. When I go to the PS Store there's lots of text which looks as sharp as on my laptop's LCD screen so I figure it's resolved "enough."
-Brian
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:00 am Post subject: |
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| Brian Hampton wrote: | Everything is 1080p here.
But it's via PS3 not HTPC.
DVD's upconverted to 1080p look about the same to me as DVD's upconverted to 1080i or 720p or 960 or whatever.
And 1080p is sharp on my 8 inch pj (G70.) I went back and forth a lot between 1080i and 1080p and 1080p looks best to me even if it's not fully resolved out to the edges. When I go to the PS Store there's lots of text which looks as sharp as on my laptop's LCD screen so I figure it's resolved "enough."
-Brian |
Wow a CRT'er that's 'happy' with his set up  
Finaly got it dialed in did you Brian? 
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HD done right!
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:05 am Post subject: |
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| Darren Wadsworth wrote: | | larryk wrote: | Thanks for the advise on the video card, I guess I will have to choose, 120.00 to buy xp wmc. or about the same or more for the video card. Did the reviews show a significant improvement with the ATI card?
As far as the 720P goes for SD DVD, yes it looks good and is probably the most easy resolution to view with your desktop but if you want to maximize your PJ's PQ with SD DVD, film based, line quadrupiling would be better, or 1440 by 960? That res also processes black bars during movie playback. I guess it also depends on the quality of your pj. I 9 incher focused to the max may show scan lines at that res. I don't know as I have never been lucky enough to see a PJ of that calibre although at 1920 by 1080 i I see scan lines with HDTV content, but I am not willing to refocus to smudge the view. I am not an expert with this stuff so I may be corrected by someone who knows more about it.
Larry |
From what I have read, the Nvidia processes about 70-80% of the HD. Whereas the ATI is 100%. I still have more research to do , but, that was the general info.
Darren |
I went back and forth before I bought my 8600GTS card too. I have had nothing but problems with ATi for the last 2 HTPC's but, I heard the 2600HD card really did justice to the HD-DVD.Kai told me a friend of his dropped an ATi card in his old AMD XP computer and was able to play HD-DVD. Almost made me want to upgrade one of the old HTPC's to a 2600HD card, but I don't have 6 months to argue with the drivers. 
LarryK - DO you need XP WMC? I just run XP Pro.
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HD done right!
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larryk
Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 106
Location: Edmonton Alberta
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:54 am Post subject: |
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Right now I have a lowely antena on the roof for TV. My PJ is my only video display at present. When I hook up Sat. I will consider running the SD signal through the PC to use it as a PVR and hopefully improve the PQ as compared to running it straight to the PJ. HD will run to the Moome ext. HDMI input from the Sat. For this reason I thought MC would be benificial unless someone has a better idea.
So you can get full control with your 8600 and XP with powerstrip? I will have to try putting XP on another harddrive next week and see what happens. I have an oem version for my old system, I will see if I can get it to install unregistered and be usable enough to test before I buy a new version.
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Darren Wadsworth
Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Tacoma, Washington
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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| larryk wrote: | Right now I have a lowely antena on the roof for TV. My PJ is my only video display at present. When I hook up Sat. I will consider running the SD signal through the PC to use it as a PVR and hopefully improve the PQ as compared to running it straight to the PJ. HD will run to the Moome ext. HDMI input from the Sat. For this reason I thought MC would be benificial unless someone has a better idea.
So you can get full control with your 8600 and XP with powerstrip? I will have to try putting XP on another harddrive next week and see what happens. I have an oem version for my old system, I will see if I can get it to install unregistered and be usable enough to test before I buy a new version. |
I am using the 8600gt custom resoultions in the Nvidia Driver itself. Not sure if Powerstrip supports it yet. Last I heard, I did not.
Darren
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