HD DVD Playback via a Computer

June 27, 2005 8:07 PM

I'm running DVI out of my PC into HDMI on my HDTV, but I'm wondering how to playback DVD movies in 1080i...

I've got a 30' CTR HDTV connected via a twenty-five foot HDMI cable to my PC, which is running an Nvidia FX 5600+ AGP card. Games look great, and most run in near-HD resolution (my graphics card can't handle video games in 1980x1080), but I haven't had any luck getting DVD movies to play back.

I've searched around the internet for a few hours, and can't really find too much information, aside from some new Nvidia software that coming out "after Thanksgiving" that may or may not do this. Does anyone know of software that will upsample DVD movies to HTDV quality? Anyone connect their PC to an HDTV?

posted by SweetJesus to technology (4 comments total)

What happens when you try to play DVDs?
posted by Jairus at 9:57 PM on June 27, 2005

Well, DVD movies aren't 1080i, they're something like 720x480, and most display devices don't work best with 1080i. Is your display digital? If so, what's its native resolution? That's what you should be sending to it.

See avsforum.com's HTPC section for more details. (Not linked becase I have personal issues with the management, but they are the best source.)
posted by trevyn at 10:31 PM on June 27, 2005

standard DVD resolution is limited to 480p. There are a couple competing HD DVD formats being thrown around, but no products supporting them yet.

If you're looking for 1080i movies, there are usenet groups that traffic in 1080i HDTV, but they require 3-4 Ghz chips to parse it before sending to your CRT.
posted by mathowie at 2:36 AM on June 28, 2005

Well, DVD movies aren't 1080i, they're something like 720x480, and most display devices don't work best with 1080i. Is your display digital? If so, what's its native resolution? That's what you should be sending to it.

Newer progressive scan DVD players have little DSP chips that up-converts the video into higher resoloution formats. I've looked at a few Toshiba models that do this, but the good ones are pretty expensive. What I'm looking for is software that will do something similar.

Windows is pumping out an HD signal ok, because I see the desktop at 1920x1080 with the latest Nvidia drivers. My display is a CRT HDTV, with a native resoloution of 1080i, connected via HDMI - so everything is digital. I got it to sort-of work last night using WinDVD 7, but the quality isn't even close to what I've seen on an HDTV with a really good Toshiba or Samsung progressive scan DVD player.
posted by SweetJesus at 10:02 AM on June 28, 2005