CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

km987654 · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:18 am Post subject: To HTPC or Lumagen Moome

Need some direction please..

I have been using a Lumagen Vision Scaler with my PJ. I was thinking of upgrading to a Lumagen HDP (or better) and adding a Moome EXT-FullHD for HDMI and gamma correction. That adds up to a reasonable outlay. So perhaps its better to simply add a HTPC and gain scaling and gamma control that way but I am not sure what would produce the best PQ????

huggy · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 10:20 am Post subject:

I've had both,first scaler/player/hdfury combo and now HTPC,and can tell you there is no difference in pic quality.If you are p.c savvy I wouldn't hesitate.

Dave

km987654 · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:09 am Post subject:

Dave

Thanks. I am PC savvy as you say. Is there anything special that I should consider with a HTPC??

huggy · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:25 am Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:34 am Post subject:

Like Dave, I run a PC.

But to get the best out of it, you will need to convert your Bluray discs to MKV files - to get Gamma and full res audio.

If you just want to put a disc in and play...don't go the PC route.

km987654 · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:55 am Post subject:

Mark

Thanks for the feedback. I will spend some time in the HTPC Thread.

k.berger · Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 84

First, if you go VP route, something like Lumagen HDP is (almost) ultimate Gamma adjustment device.
You could use something like Furry2 (or perhaps "1"?) for HDMI -> RGB conversion (I use original Dtronics device). No need for Mome as far as Gamma Correction is concerned. Quality of HDMI -> RGB conversion may be an issue, some say that Moome is better than Furry (1 or 2).
Second - with Processor, you get out-of-the-box optimized, stable device, quality of HTPC output will depend on YOUR skills and patience...
And I am IT pro (and hobbyist too) with 20+ years experience...

Have fun,

Kris

Mark_A_W · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:04 pm Post subject:

Nah.

It's easy to get a PC running well, I have it sorted (after years of trying..)

This is my setup for perfect playback of Bluray converted to MKV.
Coupled with a nice front end (XBMC, but set to run an external player), it is a brilliant solution:

- Q6600 Quad at 3.0ghz instead of 2.4 ghz - but CPU doesn't seem to be a huge issue, my TV PC with an E5200 is fine too.

- ATi HD2600XT. Old by today's standards, but enough for madVR - note, madVR is extremely GPU hungry. You need a good video card, no onboard junk. I plan to upgrade my video card.

- Vista32, trimmed down a bit, indexing off, UAC off, some services off. Aero OFF.

- Zoom Player 7 (or 6), running on secondary monitor. MPC-HC works fine too.
- Haali Splitter
- Ffdshow tryouts SVN version for video decoding (except set to wmv9 in codecs section for VC-1)
- madFLAC for audio decoding of FLAC (ffdshow is 16 bit!)

- Ffdshow audio decoding all other formats (and processing FLAC after madFLAC to get speaker delays), set to process 32 bit internally and output 32 bit float

- Reclock (basic out of box settings should work, except it needs to be set to WASAPI for PCM output, with 24 bit integer or 32 bit float output, depending on what works). Connected via analogue out on my Xonar Deluxe soundcard

- madVR Video Renderer 0.10 (set to TV levels, which retains the video levels without expansion...the description is reverse to all other decoders/renderers). Running VGA out to an NEC switcher

-Powerstrip for custom res and gamma (linear only or it bands). Or Video Equalizer for Gamma if you need a bump in the curve. If you want to set an interlaced res you must set 1080i 30hz in Vista display properties or CCC before tweaking in Powerstrip

-Eventghost for the remote, running an old xbox dvd receiver with a usb cable soldered on it. Eventghost has plugins for it and it's cheap

I playback .mkv files with lossless FLAC audio (or AC3 or DTS if the disc only has that):

- Created with eac3to 3.16

- Using the HD-DVD/BD Stream Extractor Gui SVN version(all on Doom 9).

- Mux to MKV with mkvmerge, and subtitles processed with BDSup2Sub.

The only non-free decoder needed is the Arcsoft TMT2 audio decoder for DTS-MA as using libav (inbuilt) eac3to will only do 5.1 not 7.1. I own Arcsoft as it came with my soundcard.

And of course, you'll need Anydvd HD.

It's not *that* hard, and you can build an easy to use Media Library.

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

Actually, the question back to you is "Do you want something that works very well and is hassle free or do you want to have to f*ck with your equipment all the time?"

There are some that have the HTPC thing down (and it takes a LONG time to get it down). I for one have never been to an HTPC owners house and seen it be as reliable and trouble free as my Lumagen. I'm a software guy with 4 software patents to my name and *I* don't want to have to f*ck with a PC in my theater!

Mark_A_W · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:06 am Post subject:

Well, by that reasoning you'd have to have a digital projector or flat panel display too.

Zolzar · Joined: 26 Jun 2009 Posts: 252

I personally gave up on the HTPC about a year ago when making the switch to Bluray. I purchased an AMD Quad Core 64 bit system and had never ending problems with audio playback, specifically DD 7.1. I'm sure there are solutions the problem that existed with the audio but I'm out of the loop now on that stuff. Apparently PowerDVD sucks......at least it did for Bluray at the time. I never had problems with standard DVD playback and the DD5.1 audio.

I'm sure I could have got things to work the way I wanted but was running out of time and patience and thus opted for a stand alone Bluray player and a HDFURY 2. This simplified the setup significantly.

HTPC's are great! Please don't misinterpret my personal experience. If you have the patience go for it! I used a HTPC exclusively for 7 years and didn't have any problems at all until I started tinkering with Bluray.