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**mid** · 06-04-2004, 10:10

Is 1024x768 actually your plasma's native resolution? Most of the difference in picture quality between a prog. scan standalone DVD player and an HTPC from what I've seen is down to having better resolution scaling at the PC than the screen does, so if you don't run at the monitor's native res then you're missing out.

**marcus** · 06-04-2004, 10:18

Ive looked on the net, and this is the plasma I have - according to that its 852 x 480.

AFAIK that res isnt selectable via windows, perhaps PowerStrip can set it to this. You think at that res I may have a better image?

**mid** · 06-04-2004, 11:27

At 852x480 I honestly don't think you're going to get a dramatically better picture than the 720x480 native res that your DVD player will be outputting being scaled up to 852x480. But as you've got the hardware there, it has got to be worth a try.

To be honest, by far the easiest thing for spotting incorrect resolutions is plain-ol' text in Windows, I find. Turn off any anti-aliasing settings you might have and display a bitmap font in black and white at the different resolutions until you don't get any smoothing.

**marcus** · 06-04-2004, 11:50

Ill try that out, thanks. Are you aware of what 1:1 pixel mapping? Is that choosing a resolution that matches that of the DVD itself, or is my guess totally wrong?

**mid** · 06-04-2004, 13:25

1:1 pixel mapping sounds like what I've been describing; matching the screen resolution to the monitor resolution exactly.

Basically, though, NTSC DVDs are stored natively at 720x480 (its 720x576 for PAL by the way, so on your screen I'd definitely buy NTSC where possible). The monitor, if its not a CRT also has a native res. So if you want the best picture possible, you either set the player to the DVD-native res (which your prog. scan standalone player does) and do all the resolution converting within the monitor, or you set the player to monitor native, and do all the resolution converting in the player.

What you're actually doing right now is converting a 720x480 image up to a 1024x768 one, and then back down to 852x480 again, which has got to leave your picture less crisp than it would be if you only scaled it once.

**marcus** · 06-04-2004, 13:46

So my objective would be to set either the plasma or DVD software resolution to be 720 x 480 to get 1:1 pixel mapping? (or 720 x 576 if PAL)

Im surprised that my plasma displays something over and above its native resolution, Id of thought a 1024 x 768 would of been out of range myself if the native res is 852 x 480.

**mid** · 06-04-2004, 16:24

Depends, really.

On the first point I'd expect that getting your PC to output 852x480 would give better picture, as the PC's scaling is probably going to be better than the plasma's.

On the second, its not that rare at all - after all, most TV-out cards will happily output a 1024 desktop and need faffing about to get a native resolution setup as well.

**marcus** · 06-04-2004, 17:39

Strangely enough, I today received a Radeon 9600 Pro card which I cancelled the order for last week

Happily installing that at the moment, then Ill see if I can tell any real difference between this and the Geforce FX I used previously.

**mid** · 06-04-2004, 19:17

Well, if you don't, then I could probably be persuaded to buy it off you, to be honest.

**NeilMcRae** · 07-04-2004, 07:49

pixelmapping is aligning the pixels of the screen display to the exact pixels and resolution of the display. It prevents the need for the Plasma to do any type of scaling and makes pictures look awesome.

Neil.

**marcus** · 07-04-2004, 07:52

Annoyingly, they did bill me for it Ive found out today despite me cancelling the order previously. Its all installed now so I may as well keep it, but they are also sending me a Radeon 9600 TV-Lite today which you are welcome to buy if interested. I wont be opening it or anything, if not Ill send it straight back.

Re the resolution, I must admit Im probably confusing myself here but I still cant get this right. I want the truest image possible, and have used powerstrip to set the desktop res to 876 x 480 and 720 x 480 but the results were less than desireable. Text was illegible, and the image didnt appear right. It was better at 1024 x 768 I found. Also switching to 16:9 image stretched the picture disproportionatly. Ive got numerous threads on various AV forums doing the rounds at the moment so hopefully I can crack it in the end.

The display from the Radion is improved over the Geforce though. It also came with a remote, which Im hoping will power all my devices (unlikely I know).

**Tom Salter** · 07-04-2004, 08:38

I can't help with any of that, but have you thought of installing Microsoft Windows Media Edition? Or whatever they call it. I'd just like impressions, that's all :P

**marcus** · 07-04-2004, 08:48

I did think about that, but AFAIK its only available on selected pre-built PCs? I also need to be able to use dedicated software like Theatertek, Ive not seen Media Edition but beleive the front end isnt like your typical windows and Im not sure if it supports 3rd party installations. Be interested to know what people think if they have tried it though, if its a decent GUI and is flexible then I might well look into it.

**tankplanker** · 07-04-2004, 13:40

Microsofts Media Center looks alot like the early builds of Xbox Media Center - they switched the layout as it was too close to MS's version for copyright reasons.

Its ideal if you want to just use a remote, I find that trying to use a remote with windows far too painful, most apps aren't suited to it.

In my humble and no doubt wrong opnion I would recommend setting up your PC as a media server and using a chipped xbox running Xbox media center to connect to the movies, mp3s, pics, etc. etc via a CCXStream server setup on the PC. This is what I do and it gives good performance for native DVD rips (the full sized VOBs), SVCDs and VCDs.

The output resolution from the xbox media center is tweakable right up to 1080i and I suspect might be a better match for your plasma.

Disclaimer: Obviously DVD performance from an Xbox isn't going to match a good quality DVD player, but this isn't what I use the Xboxes for, as my solution was cheap I had plenty of cash left over to buy a proper standalone dvd player.

My setup:
1 debian "server" running CCXStream and Samba
2 laptops hooking into debian server via Samba via 802.11g
2 chipped xboxes, hooking in via XBMSP to the debian server

To be added:
Freeview TV Tunner card for server
Additional disk space for server

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