We often discuss the difference in quality of a normal, everyday, progressive scan DVD player, with the fancy upscaling types, that promise better image quality. Some say they are great, others say it's all hype.
In this interesting comparison though, Hardware.info compares 12 high end DVD players, to a PC housing a decent graphics card. In this case, they are looking at ATI and nVidia cards. They make their comparisons using the popular benchmarking program, HQV, which is used by many sites to help in determining picture quality. Even though they stack the PC cards up against some big name DVD players like Denon, they have come to some interesting conclusions, as we can read from the not so cryptic headline!
| Until recently the most important reasons for purchasing a certain graphics card was either image quality or speed in 3D games. Nowadays the PC finds its way to the lounge and is used more and more as a multimedia centre. Because of this change in usage the quality of playing movies and video files is becoming an important factor in choosing a graphics card to power your system. Both ATI and nVidia have invested a lot of time and money in developing their video technology, and both claim to be able to produce the best quality. We found this a perfect reason to compare not only ATI's Avivo and nVidia's PureVideo, but also 12 stand alone DVD players, varying in price between $200 and more than $2000. We try to answer the question which is best for your new LCD television, a top of the range DVD player or a PC? |
Why not take a look at their findings and post back with your thoughts here? In my home, we have a HTPC now with a plasma screen, using a GeForce 7800. I must say, that just by the naked eye, I can tell no difference in video quality on the 720p plasma, between the nVidia PC setup and our Oppo Digital OPDV971H upscaling player, when using a DVI connection.
This player has some very good, if not best, ratings when benchmarked over at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. However, both methods are just excellent for handling todays DVD movies and it is a joy to watch them, either way! The Oppo has some nice features, such as very fine control over the zoom, for poorly formatted films, that makes for easy adjustment to fill up the screen without a lot of fuss. Not to mention, I don't have to boot up the PC and the Oppo is a heck of a lot cheaper.
Source: Hardware.info
