DVD->PC->TV Same Quality as Standalone DVD Player?

[stevendm]

I am considering spending some time trying to get my PC to be a HTPC.

I want to set up a fast computer with a good video out card (e.g. ATI 9700) to output to a TV. If I run an application such as WinDVD to play DVDs will the quality be the same as a standalone DVD player outputting to the same TV?

My experiments say that the quality from the PC is significantly less than a standalone DVD Player. Is this everyone elses conclusions?

Thanks

Steven

[GabeB]

I've found the ouput to be the same as a standalone DVD Player except for the fact that the ouput from the video card is not progressive (as most DVD players are now). This will only be important if you have an HD TV set though.

[redwudz]

I don't know about the quality difference between PC and a standalone DVD player, but it seems a little ridiculous to tie up a $2000(US) PC to replace a $75(US) DVD player. Sure, it would be nice to have 100 DVD's instantly available on my PC drive to play on my TV, but my PC has other things to do and I can get up from my couch occasionally to change DVD's in the player.

[stevendm]

Yea, I understand. I was going to spend about $500 on the PC, not $2000. But I have a bunch of AVI, RM, and WMV files that I would like to watch also. The current set of DVD players in the US do not do DivX very well and do not do the other formats at all. The new Linksys DVD player does look promising, though.

All in all, no standalone DVD player will grow with all of the growing technologies, but a computer will.

At least that is what I am thinking.