DVD Upconversion with Media Center 2005 ( 1 Views )

I have a Windows Media Center 2005 HTPC connected to a 1080p LCD TV. I'm curious if the Media Center software upconverts DVDs to the native resolution of the display at all, since I've never really seen anything on this topic. Thanks

(muhammed, Timor-Leste)

I believe you can use ffdshow to help out there. I'll be trying that myself soon, as I just got a sweet deal on a HP Z558 at Fry's

(mustafa, Andorra)

yes, you'll need FFDSHOW and a player which supports utilizing a postprocessing filter. I'm sure there are ways to use ffdshow in MCE, but I'm not familiar with them.

I use MediaPortal, and it does take a bit of tweaking with ffdshow...but when done...the results are absolutely astounding. My wife and I can NEVER go back to a standard DVD player...progressive scan or not. FFDshow just does such a tremendous job of cleaning up the picture and upscaling it that it's as close as you're gonna get to real HD movies.

Don't get me wrong though...REAL HD content still looks better....but looking at an ffdshow processed dvd and a regular dvd (even progressive) is almost like comparing dvd to vhs.

Check out the following sites for some insight.
www.htpcnews.com
www.avsforum.com

there is a "guide" although a bit outdated on htpcnews. It even has some example pictures of a before and after...and yes, that's what it looks like after you literally tweak the shit outta ffdshow. took me about a full week to finally get a truly awsome picture from dvd's on my Mits 1080p set.

(þakir, Cayman Islands)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nst6563

yes, you'll need FFDSHOW and a player which supports utilizing a postprocessing filter. I'm sure there are ways to use ffdshow in MCE, but I'm not familiar with them.

I use MediaPortal, and it does take a bit of tweaking with ffdshow...but when done...the results are absolutely astounding. My wife and I can NEVER go back to a standard DVD player...progressive scan or not. FFDshow just does such a tremendous job of cleaning up the picture and upscaling it that it's as close as you're gonna get to real HD movies.

Don't get me wrong though...REAL HD content still looks better....but looking at an ffdshow processed dvd and a regular dvd (even progressive) is almost like comparing dvd to vhs.

Check out the following sites for some insight.
www.htpcnews.com
www.avsforum.com

there is a "guide" although a bit outdated on htpcnews. It even has some example pictures of a before and after...and yes, that's what it looks like after you literally tweak the shit outta ffdshow. took me about a full week to finally get a truly awsome picture from dvd's on my Mits 1080p set.

I wish someone would write an updated guide on this, I'd like to try and get it working.

(mevlut, Tajikistan)

Quote:

I wish someone would write an updated guide on this, I'd like to try and get it working.

Why do you need an updated guide? Both guides he listed still very much apply.

(hüseyin, Italy)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vader

Why do you need an updated guide? Both guides he listed still very much apply.

Oh well the other poster made it sound like it was outdated or something.

(arman, Cape Verde)

maybe "outdated" wasn't the correct term, but "dated" (as in...from 2004). As in, it's an older guide, and was written for the apps of that time. Some of the settings in the apps may/maynot have changed...but it's a good primer.

here's the direct link
http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...=132&Itemid=48

(murathan, India)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nst6563

maybe "outdated" wasn't the correct term, but "dated" (as in...from 2004). As in, it's an older guide, and was written for the apps of that time. Some of the settings in the apps may/maynot have changed...but it's a good primer.

here's the direct link
http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...=132&Itemid=48

Cool

(hasan32, Solomon Islands)

Quote:

Originally Posted by enelson125

Oh well the other poster made it sound like it was outdated or something.

Actually they are outdated. There are a lot more better ways to use FFDShow then are shown in those two guides. Yes, it is a nice walkthrough for FFDShow but it doesn't cover all the possible tweaks you can do for better image quality with FFDShow.

But since we're talking MCE it hardly all matters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorn

I have a Windows Media Center 2005 HTPC connected to a 1080p LCD TV. I'm curious if the Media Center software upconverts DVDs to the native resolution of the display at all, since I've never really seen anything on this topic. Thanks

If you're desktop resolution is set to 1920x1080 then yes it's resizing the video to this resolution much like how you can resize a 1024x1280 JPEG file to 1600x1200 which is the best upconverting method open to you since FFDShow doesn't work with DVDs in MCE unless you use My Movies and TheaterTek.

Now, what FFDShow does is much different. FFDShow uses up your CPU to redraw the video frame by frame to it's new set resolution letting you apply filters to help clean it up. Thats not to say that NV's MPEG2 codec doesn't do the same thing (it applies filtering like noise reduction) but FFDShow gives you many more options then the basic filtering that most codecs do.

I should say that the newest Purevideo codec looks pretty damn good without FFDShow.

(songül, Togo)

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrimandEvil

I should say that the newest Purevideo codec looks pretty damn good without FFDShow.

I'd definately agree there...but after a bit of tweaking...ffdshow still comes out on top (at least on my system with my eyes it did)

(Fatih, Syrian Arab Republic)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nst6563

I'd definately agree there...but after a bit of tweaking...ffdshow still comes out on top (at least on my system with my eyes it did)

Like I said, it looks pretty good without FFDShow which is good for you MCE guys out there. ;)

(coco, New Caledonia)

Well I installed FFDShow, and got the TheaterTek 2.4 Pro demo, set TT to use FFDShow post processing, and I find the picture looks absolutely no better than what it does in MCE. Actually in some scenes/cases it looks worse, too soft. It was definitely nothing like the demo picture of Yoda in that guide that made such a huge difference.

(Muharrem, Monaco)

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrimandEvil

Like I said, it looks pretty good without FFDShow which is good for you MCE guys out there. ;)

but like I said :p

just messin' :D

Zorn...It takes a LOT more tweaking than just those couple steps in the guides. They're just the tip of the iceberg really. What settings you have ffdshow at really depends on your equipment. I have ffdshow running on two htpc's and each one has different settings. One tv is a 62" Mits 1080p DLP, the other is a 32" LCD. What creates an excellent picture on the Mits looks bad on the LCD and vise versa.

For one, don't set Lanzcos to 10...you'll get horrible "ringing" around text and some edges. If you read through the forums on the links I posted, most people are running lanzcos at anywhere from 1-4 with other filters like Denoise 3D, postprocessing, etc. It really all depends on your setup.

(betul, Guinea-Bissau)

Although everone has offered Zorn (the OP) some very sound advise concerning the use of FFD show and hardware acceleration, have we answered the OP's question: Does the software in WMC upsale DVD video play back? The answer, No! (really, not so sure; but hoping that the geniuses on this thread will help me out if wrong.

It is my understanding that the DVD codec used by the player sends the video processing info to the video card, and that most of the initial processing is perfomed there (including upscaling and deinterlacing)-- assuming one is using a modern Dirext X card, and not disconnected the videa acceleration features to use FFDshow.

Coincidentaly: I get great DVD playback using the NV Purevideo DVD decoder with my video card. Perhaps at some point video card processing will get so good that we won't need FFDshow anymore; definitely the case if HD-DVD ever becomes affordable.

(buðra, Guinea-Bissau)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rblews

Although everone has offered Zorn (the OP) some very sound advise concerning the use of FFD show and hardware acceleration, have we answered the OP's question: Does the software in WMC upsale DVD video play back? The answer, No! (really, not so sure; but hoping that the geniuses on this thread will help me out if wrong.

Yes, I already did.

(eda, Bahrain)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorn

Well I installed FFDShow, and got the TheaterTek 2.4 Pro demo, set TT to use FFDShow post processing, and I find the picture looks absolutely no better than what it does in MCE. Actually in some scenes/cases it looks worse, too soft. It was definitely nothing like the demo picture of Yoda in that guide that made such a huge difference.

Did you just install the software or did you set up FFDShow too? Heres an example of those optimzations I was talking about earilier: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....hlight=FFDShow

(zey, Luxembourg)

So the upscaling and de-interlacing are performed by the DVD decoder. What exactly does the video card do in the processing of DVD playback?

(münir sait , Madagascar)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rblews

So the upscaling and de-interlacing are performed by the DVD decoder. What exactly does the video card do in the processing of DVD playback?

... The deinterlacing, upscaling and other video "things." The decoder processes the info and then sends it to the video card to carry out the deinterlacing and such. Very simple explaination though.

(emre, Antarctica)

how about a guide on using purevideo decoder. I would like to learn more about how to set that up please

(ece, Burkina Faso)

http://www.htpcnews.com/forums/index...howtopic=20763

(osman , Spain)

DVD Upconversion with Media Center 2005 ( 1 Views )

Related Topics ... (or search in 1.720.883 topics !)