Thanks Ryan,

basically i get some answers at the following link too.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1022/1/p...tion/index.html

It appears things are quite tricky. I hope users with MSI diamond plus can post some comments. Basically I would like to buy this MSI diamond plus, but just that I dont want to end up with a old version that dont support hdcp.

Also i notice 7900gs price and diamond plus is closing the gap. i will probably just wait few more weeks for the dust to settle.

Tested ur script. Mostly ok except for channel 13 got errors. Anyway, nobody cares about channel 13...i removed it anyway.

Btw, anyone tested on VISTA MCE yet?? Last night i tried...wasted 3 hours...TVXb works fine (but needed tweaking to 'security' tab of the BladeRunner folders as it doesn't belongs to TVXB...i foresee lots more of these VISTA "security features" actually giving more headache).

Unfortunately, Blade Runner Pro refused to run...it just give a message by VISTA (some useless message about the program can't start and need to be check blah blah). I dun remember my Blade Runner Pro version...latest is 3.5 i believe, but i had revert back to my original MCE already last night....sheesh..

Actually VISTA MCE looks very nice, performance also seems good on my rig. I managed to watch live TV and recorded movie ok.

Need to check which version of BladeRunner Pro i'm using.

Terence: Is there anyway to get the file into MCE other than Blade Runner Pro since TVXB already extracted to an XML file?

I also heard that vista MCE very nice. But its not even launched yet. What bladerunner does is that it updates MCE EPG database though the back door. If Vista works differently than windows xp mce then I dun think blade runner will work properly.

I will get my lazy ass to start researching on Vista MCE once its launch. At the mean time work work work and play xbox360

Matrix, Thank you so much for testing the channels

hi ppl,

can use a laptop as a htpc? and what kind of spec i need to look for?

is any software available that capable upscaling video signal up to 1080i/p?

thanks

It depends on what function you want to use it.

Use it as a DVD player, music player or downloaded movies/tv series player then is fine. If you want to view TV from laptop then you will need an additional external TV tuner.

You can try ffdshow to do upscaling. You need a very fast system to do that.

Y do you want to use a laptop? There are alot of benefits using a desktop over laptop as a HTPC.

hi terency,

thanks for replying. i read your blog about MCE with Astro EPG, nice writeup,

i wanna use it as a DVD player, play d/l movies n stuff... probably i might get a tv card to connect it to astro or something..

ffdshow? found few articles/guides to it at google... will try out...

the reason i wanna use laptop is budget.. i moved/travel around so much and i wish to invest the money only in 1 system.. and i always do my work on laptop often...

a notebook with DVI output can deliver good quality img? i wish to connect it to my LA32R71B thru DVI-HDMI cable... can comment on that?


thanks

FFDSHOW can be used to upscale the video..

thanks

one question, if im gonna connect my notebook to my LA32R71B (DVI-HDMI cable), do i need to make/adjust custom resolution (using POWERSTRIP) to get the highest possible img (1080i)?

I'm currently using the VGA cable to connect my HTPC to samsung R7 and the quality is flawless to me. Downloaded movies/series looks awesome on it. Can't comment much bout HDMI coz I don't have any equipment that uses it. Since R7 can support up till 1366x768 and VGA cable also can deliver at that resolution than i guess its not necessary to use HDMI.

U mean adjust custom resolution is to upscale playback images to 1080i? I tried to realtime upscale astro images to 1360x768 resolution but frame rate very low to the extend its not watchable. So unless you laptop is super fast stay away from it. Downloaded series like prison break, supernatural are all in HD format already. I viewed them full screen on my R7 and its super nice. DVD still have letter box bcoz they are not in 16:9 format.

terency: what i meant was not upscaling for astro... for others (DVD and d/l movies).. do i need to adjust the resolution?

what resolution and refresh rate u use for ur htpc to R7? using powerstrip? are all the hd format movies played in hd resolution? (1080i)

sorry for too many questions, i just need some info the bottomline is i want to play dvd frm my notebook at 1080i resolution... hope someone can guide me...

This post has been edited by apisgogo: Jan 26 2007, 05:15 PM

I'm using 1360x768 on my R7 refresh rate not very sure.

All the HD series are compressed using divx/xvid so they are not true HD resolution. Just that the size is in 16:9, when played in MCE it will full screen to the entire TV without any black bars on top and bottom.

Its the same for DVD but has black bar coz its not full 16:9 format. There is a guide on upscaling the resolution and sharpening the image of DVD playback. I followed the guide and also got quite jerky picture.

You should see the quality of blue ray and HDDVD man. I am lucky enough to witness both of them in 1080i and 1080p(blue ray) resolution on a 100in screen in KLCC. The sight makes you don't wanna watch DVD anymore. Oops off topic

Terencey: Is there something wrong with ASTRO?? The TVXB can't download the guide from ASTRO website since today. It just keeps hanging halfway. I've tested on my other PC and it's still the same!!!

Arrggghhh!!! What's wrong with it!!! Anyone knows?? Or is it ASTRO doing something to prevent us from downloading the info???

I think you are confused.... let say on the normal PC monitor, the resolution is set as 1024x768, as long as your pc is powerful enough to playback 1080i/p, the image on the monitor has no issue at all due to the fact that your GC will scale the image to fit 1024x768...... the same apply to SD media...
With LCD TV, on VGA connection, the TV will be the monitor, hence there is no implication as long as you can get your GC to display at the native resolution of the TV to getthe best image. if i'm not wrong, 1360x768 @60hz is fine on VGA of R7 but not HDMI due to overscan issue. GC driver may help on reducing the overscan to fit the TV but you won't get 1:1 pixel mapping as what the VGA can do on R7. remember, overscan at the HDMI is the TV issue, not GC & its driver.

what's the point of playing DVD at 1080i while your tv is 1366x768? this will be double scaling- 1.FFDshow to scale to 1920x1080 then your GC to scale to the TV resolution??

i got the problem few days ago, but yesterday was ok though...

This post has been edited by ryansia: Jan 29 2007, 09:53 AM

what if im using DVI-HDMI cable? wont it help to output 1080i in playing DVDs? we can set the GC thru powerstrip to scale to 1080i? im confuse... help...

but from what i know and experience, scaling to the lcd's native resolution is the best, rite?

Hmmm haven't been meddling wiv my HTPC for awhile. I try to access astro site also very slow to lag. Maybe its bcoz of the website or internet line got problem.

If they did change their site then I would need to look into the webpages and make modifications for TVxb to extract the EPG data.

We'll c how 1st until their site is back up.

Yeah, HDMI is nothing but DVI+Digital Ouput in disguise. The whole idea is for HDCP so that companies can control the software via DRM. In short, they're selling a copy protection scheme for their benefit which the consumers have to pay...

Something to share - A multi language beautiful liquid crystal display with remote for HTPC User.







MFP51

Wow cool stuff. But what can we do with it other than displaying what is played currently? I check the website it doesn't say much about its functionality. how much does it cost?

@matrix,
Astro website back up. You can download the EPG. They didn't change anything.

Wow..another soundgraph product...

Hi... i still new in HTPC, i thinking to using MCE system, but i wanna know that it is from MCE,
1. Can we link to another pc to play video file(in MCE)?
2.Homebrew serial IR receiver can use in MCE?
3. Where to get the receiver?
4. Can anyone expert here recommend me a TV Tuner card which support MCE with controller. Budget under rm250>rm300

Here is my HTPC system(Still not decide what OS to install yet ) :
AMD64 X2 3800
Asus M2NPV-VM(onboard HDTV - out)
Kingston DDR2 512MB 667
Linksys WMP54G/ Wireless-G PCI Network adapter
LG DVD Writer
Maxtor 120G SATA