So finally, I've gone to Richer Sounds & talked to someone who can tell me all about HD.

Replaced the old rear projector with a 1080p Samsung, an Onkyo receiver, Onkyo upscaling DVD player & Tannoy speakers.

Surely the chip in the upscaler must be powerful to do what it does, but its still not powerful to process GMC/QPEL.

The receiver allegedly upscales everything to 1080p via the HDMI output although I dont see how as when you press the Info button on the telly, certain things arent showing 1920x1080.

The worst of these is SKY & the XBOX.

As the DVD player upscales to 1080p & the XBOX doesnt seem to, whats the solution for the future to replace XBMC ?

Resolution multiplication isn't as hard as pre-post rendering a series of frames, or at least its programable. Its all down to how its wired.

Xbox can only upscale to 1080i because it lacks wires to do so.

As for XBMC, it has been released for PC... you can buy a quiet pc or laptop:
http://xbmc.org/blog/2008/10/06/xbmc-at ... v-support/
http://xbmc.org/download/

Buy a PS3. It plays Blu-Ray (so no upscaling), upscales DVDs, plays and upscales DivX, and, oh yeah, it plays games, too. I haven't thrown much at it, since my PC is hooked to my TV, anyway, but what DivX I have looks and plays fine. And, really, you're gonna want a Blu-Ray player for your new TV.

XboX? the 360 is 1080p in the settings or do you mean the original?



I'm considering this option as it would seem that Sony have nailed it again. I've read that the latest 360 update allows you to play divx but thats a lie as without networking to the pc & using the built in media centre you still can't.

Seems like MS had their head up their multi billion dollar arse & forgot how important their customers are again.

Is it right that the PS3 goes live without having to pay £40 a year for the privelage?

Original.

All this is now besides the point;
XBMC is available for windows, mac and linux.

Check mate to all media players and formats! People at fh are buying all sorts of nasty cheap laptops and getting the best media player out of it.

Thinking about it, as x264/AAC/MKV seems to be the future, how does the PS3 handle these?

Does a happy shopper pentium3 400mhz with 128mb of sdram 100 run the above smoothly?

The other thing is the remote control... I dont want to add a keyboard/mouse to my huge pile of remotes on the coffee table if I can help it.

how does the old xbox upscale to 1080i?

Its only got the old red/yellow/white leads.

The SkySD box loks awful on this telly & thats the same.

Coulda compressed those 3 posts into 1 but nevermind

how does the old xbox upscale to 1080i?

Its only got the old red/yellow/white leads.

you can get component cables for it and it makes a diffrence i think. and has anyone seen this
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572
it play up to 1080p,mkv,avi,iso well there really is nothing it cant play

indeed, you can get component cables; 1080i and optical fibre for audio

I'll try out an mkv and let you know.

It's not a lie Divx / Xvid will play from a disk / usb on the 360 without the need for networking a PC, it has about the same media playback capabilities as the ps3, neither will play back MKV which is the biggest problem for both.



No, the ps3 doesn't go on Live as Live is a Microsoft service, the PS3 has its own (inferior) network service called PSN. It is free though.

hey PCa, do you have both?

I've been thinking about buying a console... now i might get a wii because its cheap and there's two games i want to play on that; mario kart and super smash broters. On the xbox there is a single game I really want to play: Fable 2. On the PS3 there's currently squat (really, is there anything at all? I'm not a sports or simulation person at all)... In the future I want RE5 too which is multiplatform.

I don't have an interest in bluray or buying downloadable content. What would you recommend?

I have both, the 360 wins by a MILE for games, the ps3 has MGS4 (I'm not a fan TBH, although I know some people are), Little big planet which is fun and is probably the ONLY must have title on the ps3 IMHO.

I didn't bother with the Wii, although My son has one, Mario Kart for the Wii is not a patch on the last GC version and I've never been a fan of SSB, Super Mario Galaxy is good though, but the Wii is a total rip off, it's £50 more than the 360! LOL for a GC with a different controller. Nintendo are taking the piss big time on that one LOL

But having said that spud, I'd hold off, fable2 is apparently coming to the PC in February which may well make the 360 irrelevant to you as well

I tried a disk loaded with xvid films in the 360 & it didnt work. Can you explain how to do it please?

Thanks PCA

I can't stand MGS, I've never liked them and find them greatly over rated. I hear LBP has scored well but lasts about 30mins before you get bored (sandbox game)? It looks okay but I don't think I'd enjoy it for very long. i'd rather play something like Total War that's sandboxy but more structured. I think you've confirmed there's no point me getting a ps3.

@wii, yeah its a ripoff but i sold my last one at a profit. which is absolutely ridiculous. As shit and last gen as it should be, its the only one that's offered me games I can't get on the pc and enjoyed, even if they are 10 years old by all rights. I've completed mario galaxy, re4 and zelda. Then sold it due to lack of play before SSB and Mario Kart came out.

They have mario kart in the office and I like it, its got all the courses in from the other games. I think i'm taking the piss a bit though, since I keep taking breaks to complete a Grand Prix . Its shit with the wheel but i use the nunchuck and wiimote and its much better. The ironic thing is, mario kart and SSB are better with a GC pad i'm told... now that is taking the piss!

@fable 2... really? That's AWESOME Is it confirmed? For me Fable was by far the best game on the xbox 1; its the only one i enjoyed... that you couldn't get for the pc.
If so the PC totally dominates all platforms; take the top 10 games for the xbox360 off of metacritic:



Kind of puts it in perspective for me.

If its true, then I'll spend the money on a pc/gaming laptop instead... "GTA IV: *PROPER* Reason: Crap Controls, poor visuals", Empire: Total War and now Fable 2 are out in the next three months. The only thing outstanding is RE5; I'm really hoping capcom sort out their terrible, terrible history of ports.

Put the disk in - go to My xbox >Video Library>Current Disc

Select the movie and play it

That's for the new dash, on the old one, skip the My xbox bit and you should be ok.

As for fable II, that's the rumour : http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=34097

May I add: popcorn hour and also this nifty media player device from Western Digital for half the price (WD TV HD Media Player). No more extra computers, etc.

The WD device goes for less than $120, and if you ad a WD external HD (750GB), you are out another $100. In there you can easily store over 110 movies.

Really, though, most 1080p stuff I'll be watching will be disks. I doubt I'll download many rips. I mean, they are usually full DVD size, right, and I don't download full DVDs, now. For me, I need the Blu-Ray player, too. Otherwise, that WD thing looks pretty good.

takes about a couple of hours or so on newsgroups for a 1080p, slam it on a hdd. Problem solved.