Using a pc with an AV amp

[admin_exported]

I'm not sure if these are embarrassing or stupid questions but I thought they were worth an ask if any one would like to comment.

What sort of audio/visual quality could be expected from a computers DVD palyer, compared to say a GBP200 separate components player/recorder?

If it is feasible to play DVDs with "acceptable quality" from a computers DVD drive, and I connect it to the AV amp (using an HDMI cable), will I still get full 5.1 or 7.1 functionality?

Thanks

David

 

[Messiah]

It should give 'acceptable quality'. As for the 5.1 etc it may depend on the souncard but I expect so...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

I ran a media pc through my Onkyo amp until I bought a sony S350. I was very pleased with it the only let down was the fact that there was no soundcard able to play the new HD audio codecs, this has now changed but they cost a fortune (£180 last time I looked!)

I was able to play any media file through the pc and dvd and blu-ray disc's. Sound wise the DD was great (I used an Auzentech prelude 7.1 card)and I had no problems. The software you use depends on the file you are playing but majority of the time I used Power DVD and MEDIA CENTER, ÿas long as the right video codecs where installed they would play most things and of course any region.

Had the sound cards been cheaper I may still have been using my Pc because I now have to use three players to do the same job as the Pc was , on the other hand I can now have True HD and DTS MA and the picture quality is better from the Sony with Blu-ray( the pc was still good but not quite as a standalone player)

Hope that helps.

Bc.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with the above post, it is possible to get more than acceptable DVD quality from a PC DVD provided you have a reasonable quality graphics card and sound car.

I built a media centre PC with Blu-Ray / HD-DVD playing capabilities and the picture was very good. Normal DVD's can be played with the media centre software and gives quality picture and i use Digital coax cable to the amp which gives quality DD and DTS Sound.

For the playing of Blu-Ray the picture is very good (not quite as good as a dedicated player). I use PowerDVD software to play this and the picture is passed through HDMI to my receiver (Denon 1909). The sound is something different as you cant send the HD sounds formats through the COAX / Optical digital cables, they cant handle the bandwidth. As the above poster suggests the sound cards to support the sound through HDMI are only just coming out and are expensive. I did quite a lot of research on these cards and at the moment they are quite buggy and dont work quite right yes, give it 6 to 12 months and i think they will be there.

So i bought a standalone Blu-Ray player for about the same price as one of those card.

i do use the media centre PC to play DVD's and other downloadable content.

 

[Anonymous]

just a quick update to the previous post PowerDVD can decode the the HD sounds into multi-channel outputs and then you can feed that into the multi-channel input on your amp it it has one

 

[cram]

ajeffo:just a quick update to the previous post PowerDVD can decode the the HD sounds into multi-channel outputs and then you can feed that into the multi-channel input on your amp it it has one

I think it down samples the audio though so you wouldn't get "true" TrueHD. The downsample is still better than a DVD though

 

[cram]

ajeffo: As the above poster suggests the sound cards to support the sound through HDMI are only just coming out and are expensive. I did quite a lot of research on these cards and at the moment they are quite buggy and dont work quite right yes, give it 6 to 12 months and i think they will be there.

Some video cards do pass 7.1 sound through HDMI. The ATI 4xxx series do. However, the only way that I'm aware of of getting unmolested TrueHD out of a PC is via the Asus Xonar HDAV cards (approx £130)

I do use a HTPC for my DVD and Bluray playbacks. Whilst I'm happy with the results and don't want to go back to separates being completely honest it has been a PITA to setup. If you get into this stuff then be prepared for a lot of tinkering.