zhopudey
Galvanizer
Eazy, who says you have to give up one hobby to start another? 
hyeah:
A Home Theater PC is a computer which does the job of a number of components commonly found in a home theater.
By home theater, I mean at least a dvd player connected to a large screen TV, thru an AV reciever powering a 5.1 speaker system.
I'm not reffering to a vcd player connected to a mitashi speaker system, and I am not speaking about mp3/divX playback.
The HTPC will replace the CD player, DVD player, Set Top Box, Video Recorder, CD/DVD changer, etc. It can also replace your gaming consoles, as most games today are available for all platforms.
Note: - Some of the above features may not work in india. e.g. set top box.
Lets consider the first point -
HTPC as CD/DVD Player:- What can it do, and why should you bother?
The most obvious use of a HTPC would be as a CD Jukebox. Simply rip all of your CDs onto the hard disk, and you'll never have to search for any song again. And if your music is properly tagged, you can use the custom playlist generators found in many software players. Play songs according to your mood, or by your favourite artist, or even songs from a particular year. All this and much more without getting off your chair.
As a replacement to the CD/DVD player, the HTPC can not only equal Audio/Video quality of any player upto Rs.50K, with some effort, it will greatly surpass.
High-end sound cards from M-Audio, EMU, RME, Lynx etc can provide output which far exceeds CD players costing many times more.
Similarly, todays graphics cards provide image quality which will wipe the floor with all the DVD players upto Rs 50K.
But the HTPC can go even further.hyeah:
1> Audio Nirvana
Even when you have the best CD player, DAC, amplifier, cables and speakers, your system can still sound bad. Because you'e ignored the most important component of your system - Your Room. The room can make or break any system.
If you have the molaah, you can get one of these -
http://www.tactlabs.com/Products/RCS20/index.html
The Tact Room Correction System preamp, costing > $1000 :S
But if you aren't rolling in the greenbacks, or if you want something even better, fire up your HTPC and use this -
http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/doc/drc.html#htoc189
What this nifty piece of software does, is measure the impulse response of your room at the listening position ( you need to hook up a mic ), and then generate an Inverse Impulse Response. This is done for each channel. Now, just convolve this IIR with your music ( you get plugins for Foobar and Winamp), and....Magic!!! The negative effect of your room just disappears!! :hap2:
There's a nice guide to DRC here - http://www.mooneyass.com/DRC/
2> Video Heaven
Todays mass market DVD players offer way more quality than players which costed many times more, just a few years ago. But this much quality is ok for normal 29" TVs. If you are lucky enough to possess a widescreen RPTV, or even better, a really good Projector, you are going to need more.
The DVD has a resolution of 640*480. This is Standard Definition, or SD. This is output to your TV either as 480i (interlaced), or 480p (progressive, or deinterlaced). This depends on the capabilities of the player as well as the TV.
I'll explained the difference between 480i and 480p some other time. Right now just remember that progressive is better than interlaced
Almost all the rear projection TVs, as well as projectors meant for home theater ( as against ppt presentaions), will except progressive input. But the DVDs native resolution, 640*480, is too little for screens larger than 42". The picture quality would be equivalent to using a 640*480 image as full screen wallpaper on your 1024*768 desktop. The picture will be blurred.
High-end setups include a video processor, such as this one -
http://www.meridian-audio.com/faroudja/prod_dvp-1010.html
The Faroudja DVP-1010, Starting from $3000 :S
Good news for the HTPChyeah: Your $150 Athlon 3000+ has more horsepower than the faroudja chip. And in the digital world, almost any problem can be solved if you throw enough DSP at it.
Enter - FFDShow
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
What this means, is that FFDShow can solve all of your postprocessing needs, such as Resize, Sharpen, Deinterlace, etc to give you a picture quality which can easily beat your nearest Multiplex! :hap2: I not kidding! :cool2:
For a quick guide on FFDShow and some Before/After screenshots, go here -
http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1
More to come later....Stay tuned :cool2:
hyeah: A Home Theater PC is a computer which does the job of a number of components commonly found in a home theater.
By home theater, I mean at least a dvd player connected to a large screen TV, thru an AV reciever powering a 5.1 speaker system.
I'm not reffering to a vcd player connected to a mitashi speaker system, and I am not speaking about mp3/divX playback.
The HTPC will replace the CD player, DVD player, Set Top Box, Video Recorder, CD/DVD changer, etc. It can also replace your gaming consoles, as most games today are available for all platforms.
Note: - Some of the above features may not work in india. e.g. set top box.
Lets consider the first point -
HTPC as CD/DVD Player:- What can it do, and why should you bother?
The most obvious use of a HTPC would be as a CD Jukebox. Simply rip all of your CDs onto the hard disk, and you'll never have to search for any song again. And if your music is properly tagged, you can use the custom playlist generators found in many software players. Play songs according to your mood, or by your favourite artist, or even songs from a particular year. All this and much more without getting off your chair.
As a replacement to the CD/DVD player, the HTPC can not only equal Audio/Video quality of any player upto Rs.50K, with some effort, it will greatly surpass.
High-end sound cards from M-Audio, EMU, RME, Lynx etc can provide output which far exceeds CD players costing many times more.
Similarly, todays graphics cards provide image quality which will wipe the floor with all the DVD players upto Rs 50K.
But the HTPC can go even further.
hyeah: 1> Audio Nirvana
Even when you have the best CD player, DAC, amplifier, cables and speakers, your system can still sound bad. Because you'e ignored the most important component of your system - Your Room. The room can make or break any system.
If you have the molaah, you can get one of these -
http://www.tactlabs.com/Products/RCS20/index.html
The Tact Room Correction System preamp, costing > $1000 :S
But if you aren't rolling in the greenbacks, or if you want something even better, fire up your HTPC and use this -
http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/doc/drc.html#htoc189
What this nifty piece of software does, is measure the impulse response of your room at the listening position ( you need to hook up a mic ), and then generate an Inverse Impulse Response. This is done for each channel. Now, just convolve this IIR with your music ( you get plugins for Foobar and Winamp), and....Magic!!! The negative effect of your room just disappears!! :hap2:
There's a nice guide to DRC here - http://www.mooneyass.com/DRC/
2> Video Heaven
Todays mass market DVD players offer way more quality than players which costed many times more, just a few years ago. But this much quality is ok for normal 29" TVs. If you are lucky enough to possess a widescreen RPTV, or even better, a really good Projector, you are going to need more.
The DVD has a resolution of 640*480. This is Standard Definition, or SD. This is output to your TV either as 480i (interlaced), or 480p (progressive, or deinterlaced). This depends on the capabilities of the player as well as the TV.
I'll explained the difference between 480i and 480p some other time. Right now just remember that progressive is better than interlaced
Almost all the rear projection TVs, as well as projectors meant for home theater ( as against ppt presentaions), will except progressive input. But the DVDs native resolution, 640*480, is too little for screens larger than 42". The picture quality would be equivalent to using a 640*480 image as full screen wallpaper on your 1024*768 desktop. The picture will be blurred.
High-end setups include a video processor, such as this one -
http://www.meridian-audio.com/faroudja/prod_dvp-1010.html
The Faroudja DVP-1010, Starting from $3000 :S
Good news for the HTPC
hyeah: Your $150 Athlon 3000+ has more horsepower than the faroudja chip. And in the digital world, almost any problem can be solved if you throw enough DSP at it.Enter - FFDShow
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
What this means, is that FFDShow can solve all of your postprocessing needs, such as Resize, Sharpen, Deinterlace, etc to give you a picture quality which can easily beat your nearest Multiplex! :hap2: I not kidding! :cool2:
For a quick guide on FFDShow and some Before/After screenshots, go here -
http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1
More to come later....Stay tuned :cool2:
