New user, thinking about keeping DVD player

[weyker]

Hi all,

I recently set up a budget home theater PC. I have it connected to a 21" DEC CRT monitor from a Nvidia Gforce 4000 card via VGA cable and to my basic 2-channel stereo.

I think TV looks way better on the monitor running at 100Hz than on my old TV but I'm not so sure about DVDs that we play through the DVD drive with a software DVD player. I also miss being able to use the DVD player remote and don't want to fool with trying to control the Power DVD playing software with the Hauppaugue remote control. I also expect the DVD player's sound-out will be better than the sound the computer's built-in sound (no slots left for a sound card after a video card and two hauppauge 250s).

I noticed that the back of the monitor has 5 bayonet BNC connectors and a switch on the front to go from VGA to BNC and my DVD player has 3 RCA BNC component connectors.

The questions:

If I got three RCA-bayonet BNC cables and ran them between my DVD player and monitor would the monitor work with it? The extra two connectors are labeled "Comp HD" and "VD"

The back of the monitor has a 75 Ohm/ 1K Ohm switch.
What should I need to set this to for the DVD player?

If the monitor did work with the DVD player, would the screen image look a lot better than the software DVD player?


--Shayne

[PGPfan]

Hi Shayne,

The 3-bnc connectors are called "component" outputs. They will NOT work directly with the monitor you have. The additional 2 connectors are for Horizontal sync, and Vertical sync. The only way to do that hook-up is to use a device called a transcoder in between them.

As far as DVD playback goes, I personally use a program called TheaterTek. The pc's DVD playback has so far been VASTLY SUPERIOR to every stb player I've compared it to.

Hope this helps answer some of your questions.

-PGPfan

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Hi Shayne,

The 3-bnc connectors are called "component" outputs. They will NOT work directly with the monitor you have. The additional 2 connectors are for Horizontal sync, and Vertical sync. The only way to do that hook-up is to use a device called a transcoder in between them.

Not to mention the fact that Component (what DVD players output) and RGB (what your monitor uses) are completely different colorspaces.

As far as DVD playback goes, I personally use a program called TheaterTek.

Theatertek is probably overkill. Sage's internal DVD player will do at least 90% of what TT can, especially if you get the nVidia decoder pack.

The pc's DVD playback has so far been VASTLY SUPERIOR to every stb player I've compared it to.

If you've got an HDTV then definitely

To the original poster:
What is your DVD player connected to? You can get USB/Firewire soundcards that will either equal (if you use digital) or probably beat (if you use analog) the output of your DVD player.

Digital out:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...it-main-1.html

Analog out:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...er-main-1.html

[weyker]

Hmm. I'd never heard of digital signal using BNC, I thought those connectors meant the monitor could work as a component TV monitor too. Oh well.

Right now my DVD player is disconnected and I'm using the DVD drive. Would it be worth it to get the sonic DVD decoder software?

Can anyone suggest some cheaper analog out USB sound cards, since it would be just going to a 2.0ch stero tuner?

[PGPfan]

Hey Stanger89,

Yes, TT 'may' be overkill in Shayne's situation, but having used Sage's DVD player and TT your 90% figure is a bit high. Sage's player, while functional, will merely do about 60% at best of what TT is capable of regardless of decoders used.

My guess would be you haven't tried it? Well worth considering, if you haven't.

Also, keep in mind Shayne was asking for advice on using a PC monitor for DVD playback. With the monitor he's using, it IS comparable to an HDTV (except for aspect ratio).

Just my .02 cents, don't ask for change back

-PGPfan

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by weyker

Hmm. I'd never heard of digital signal using BNC, I thought those connectors meant the monitor could work as a component TV monitor too. Oh well.

Right now my DVD player is disconnected and I'm using the DVD drive. Would it be worth it to get the sonic DVD decoder software?

Can anyone suggest some cheaper analog out USB sound cards, since it would be just going to a 2.0ch stero tuner?

Shayne,
There is a good reason you haven't heard of digital over bnc. It's because it isn't digital. It's analog, as are ALL CRT based displays. No getting around that. The digital connection is DVI and it applies to LCD and DLP displays (not sure about plasma's though).

-PGPfan

[mls]

And DVI connectors may already be obsolete with most newer devices now having HDMI instead. Basically though that's just DVI video with extra audio lines (digital of course).

[weyker]

I was originally cofused by thinking computer video output (RGB) was only carried by (S)VGA cables while TV component video output (YCbCr) was only carried by component cables. So when I saw what looked like YCbCr connectors on the monitor I thought it would work with the DVD player. The monitor is, as you say, RGB and the DVD player YCbCr.

I guess there's confusion about what I meant by analog.
I was calling RGB "digital" since the source is a computer and YCbCr "analog" since its source is TV video equipment.

Again. Is it worth it in my case to tell Sage not to use my copy of Power DVD and get the Sonic Cineplayer DVD decoder? Do software DVD players interlace progressive movie DVDs before displaying the movie on a computer monitor? Is there a way to avoid that?

--Shayne

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by weyker

Again. Is it worth it in my case to tell Sage not to use my copy of Power DVD and get the Sonic Cineplayer DVD decoder? Do software DVD players interlace progressive movie DVDs before displaying the movie on a computer monitor? Is there a way to avoid that?

All software decoders output progressive natively, in fact it's difficult to impossible to get them to output interlaced.

As for PowerDVD? I'd take a look at the new nVidia decoders.

PGPFan,

I guess I consider the basics to be 90% of a DVD player. You're right, I haven't used TT, but saving positions, bookmarks, per-DVD AR settings (heck any per-DVD setting) don't appeal to me. When it comes to actually watching a DVD, there's nothing I can't do in Sage, I chalk the remaining tweak feature up to about 10% of the value. Kind of like ffdshow, despite all the "It's WAY better with ffdshow comments", ffdshow will only gain you that last 5-10%. If I missed a huge feature of TT let me know, I'm always on the lookout for great HTPC software (I know TT is).