WDTV Live to TV vs HDMI (video card) to TV, which has better pix quality?

[tigerb]

I'm gonna get a 40" LCD HDTV soon......

I'm currently using WDTV Live to TV (old tube TV) and I'm thinking of getting a 15 FT HDMI cable to try to connect from the video card's HDMI to the new TV.....

1) Which one would produce the better pix quality? (WDTV LIVE HDMI to TV HDMI - video card's HDMI to TV HDMI)
2) Iis there a MAX length of HDMI cable from the PC/video card to TV before the pix quality suffers?
3) With WDTV LIve, I simply use the provided remote control...how about from the HDMI port to TV? use a remote mouse and use VLC full screen mode?

Thanks.

[mh2360]

I have tried a Geforce 9400GT -> LCD TV using a DVI to HDMI plug, and the quality wasn't as good as my WDTV (IMHO anyway). Playback was a lot smoother with the WDTV as well.

[tigerb]

Thanks mh2360 8)

It's surprising....cause the video card's GPU/memory is more powerful, expensive and more capable than the chip set/processor that's inside the WDTV Live and yet it's not producing better pix quality?

[jagabo]

I have a WDTV Live and a computer (Nvidia 8600 GT) connected to a 1080p Samsung LCD HDTV. Both at 1920x1080p60 RGB with the HDTV set for pixel-for-pixel mapping (Samsung calls this Just Scan). They look pretty much the same.

[mh2360]

Thanks mh2360 8)

It's surprising....cause the video card's GPU/memory is more powerful, expensive and more capable than the chip set/processor that's inside the WDTV Live and yet it's not producing better pix quality?

I was using Windows 7's default codecs. HD material wasn't that bad, but lower resolution stuff like DVDs and AVIs looked a little blurry to me when compared to the WDTV. A few AVIs were a little out of sync as well, which never happened with my WDTV.

This would probably be fixable by using 3rd party codecs maybe.

[Constant Gardener]

I have a WDTV and a Radeon HD 2600XT both connected by HDMI to a 34" CRT HDTV. The picture is about the same. Occasionally I encounter a file that has issues with sound sync on the WDTV, so I play it from the computer.

I'm using a 12 foot cheap HDMI cable from the computer to the TV. Works fine. Since the computer is in the next room, I use a wireless mouse and keyboard.

[tigerb]

Thanks again mh2360, Constant Gardener and jagabo 8)

a 1080p Samsung LCD HDTV

, woot great...I was told that for pix quality, Samsung and Sony are very good....I'm kinda looking at the Sony Bravia Z 240Hz KDL40Z5100 for about $1300 + taxes, I couldn't find the Samsung equivalent, cause I might save $ 100- $200 if I can the Samsung in same specs.

Occasionally I encounter a file that has issues with sound sync on the WDTV, so I play it from the computer.

I'm using a 12 foot cheap HDMI cable from the computer to the TV. Works fine. Since the computer is in the next room, I use a wireless mouse and keyboard.

Yes, that's one of the MAIN reason, cause a few of my 1080p vids, WDTV Live wouldn't play at all.

My PC is about 11 -13 FT from my TV and I can't see my PC from the sofa watching TV...will the remote mouse/keyboard still work?

[redwudz]

My PC is about 11 -13 FT from my TV and I can't see my PC from the sofa watching TV...will the remote mouse/keyboard still work?

I have a 45 foot HDMI cable running to my projector with no problems.

For the remote mouse/KB, it depends on the units. My wireless RF KB and mouse works well from 15 - 20 feet and goes through a KVM switch after that. Not all wireless devices work that well. I have a couple of wireless mouses that barely work at 3 feet. The 2.4Ghz ones seem to work fairly well.

[creamyhorror]

VLC was and probably still is a crappy player for HD H.264 material, don't use it. It's single-threaded (slow, may stutter) and glitches (or used to). Use CoreAVC, DivX HD, ffdshow/ffmpeg-mt or some other dependable player. Or rely on DXVA decoding with your video card.

There should be no real difference in smoothness between the WDTV and PC-based playback. If there's skipping or jerkiness, your PC setup has a problem. The actual image will differ only if 1) scaling is being applied, e.g. 720p being upscaled to the TV's native 1080p, or 2) if levels settings in the WDTV and the PC player are different. The differences should honestly be minimal; there will be no difference in the fundamental image before scaling. All compliant H.264 decoders will put out identical streams.

Convenience would be a bigger priority for me. The remote of the WDTV is a better solution, although you can get a remote for your PC as well. I'm using a wireless mouse in my own setup, and it's troublesome because I need to place it on a surface to skip to particular points in the movie. Pausing, resuming, and adjusting volume is fine with a mouse, though.

[jagabo]

I use an infra red wireless keyboard and a programmable remote. The IR receiver is in the room with the TV, computer in next room. I usually run MPCHC or Boxee on the computer.

[redwudz]

I don't have any issues with VLC and HD H.264 playback (BD>MKV files) It also shows all four cores of my Q9550 being used, along with DXVA being used. But MPC-HC is probably a better choice.

I think one reason the WD works well for playback is the software/firmware is set up just for media playback, so not as much processing power is wasted as on a regular PC with many other duties to perform. Maybe an unfair comparison, but a Xbox seems to do much better with gaming playback than very expensive PCs, probably because it was custom designed for the task.

[tigerb]

Thanks guys for all the help 8)

I've like 5 TBs of vis :P and of course I don't watch them from beginning to end, usually beginning - middle - end part...so the connection from PC to TV is good cause I can use the slider of the video player (VLC/MPCHC/SMPlayer...) to FF/FB which is more convenience (fast/accurate) than WDTV Live's remote FF X/2X/4X...or the FF/next to skip 10 mins....

WDTV Live is great but now at least I have another option when WDTV Live couldn't play those problematic 1080 clips . WDTV Live could play all my 1080p clips except those from one particular studio.

Best regards.

[creamyhorror]

I don't have any issues with VLC and HD H.264 playback (BD>MKV files) It also shows all four cores of my Q9550 being used, along with DXVA being used. But MPC-HC is probably a better choice.

Surprising, since video decoding either uses DXVA or CPU cores and not both. VLC certainly didn't do multicore decoding half a year back.

[jagabo]

I don't have any issues with VLC and HD H.264 playback (BD>MKV files) It also shows all four cores of my Q9550 being used, along with DXVA being used.

Just because you see all four cores being used in Task Manager doesn't mean the decoder is multithreaded. Windows usually bounces a single thread through all the cores to even out heat generation. Unless you see significantly more than 25 percent CPU activity (on a quad core) the application may be single threaded -- and VLC's h.264 decoder is single threaded (unless a new version has been released recently). A single thread on a Q9550 is probably fast enough to decode 1080p24 h.264 video.

[redwudz]

I don't have any issues with VLC and HD H.264 playback (BD>MKV files) It also shows all four cores of my Q9550 being used, along with DXVA being used.

Just because you see all four cores being used in Task Manager doesn't mean the decoder is multithreaded. Windows usually bounces a single thread through all the cores to even out heat generation. Unless you see significantly more than 25 percent CPU activity (on a quad core) the application may be single threaded -- and VLC's h.264 decoder is single threaded (unless a new version has been released recently). A single thread on a Q9550 is probably fast enough to decode 1080p24 h.264 video.

That sounds reasonable. I just assumed as Task Manager showed activity on all cores, the player was using them. CPU activity is about 20% or so during playback. But VLC still works fine for MKV playback on my PC.

[creamyhorror]

It's still a crappy player in my reckoning And its overexposed levels are suck, although I didn't look very hard for an adjustment option. Only good for DVDs that MPC-HC doesn't handle properly.

[tigerb]

I can't use MPC-HC right now , dunno what happened since svn 1503, 1529 and the latest 1539 http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player...inema-x86-x64/, cause I got double images/videos in 80% of all my videos in all extensions at the top part of the screen and the bottom part of the screen is all black posted here http://forum.videohelp.com/topic378595.html.