play HD DivX from PC on HDTV

[proctor]

Hi,

I recently purchased the LG 42" 42PC7RV Plasma HDTV and I want to be able to watch HD DivX (either HR or 720p/1080i).
How can I accomplish this using my PC?
Do I need a special Video card with HDMI output or what?
If after putting in a new video card, and Windows Media Player plays these files, is that all I need to make sure that the output is HD?

Thanks for you help in advance!

[Baldrick]

You don't need any special video card but I would get a dual DVI or HDMI card. And if you plan to watch HD-DVD or Blu-ray I would get a hdmi card with HDCP support.

[jagabo]

It appears that TV has HDMI, VGA, and component inputs. You could use any of those -- whatever your graphics card outputs.

If you plan to use a regular computer monitor and the HDTV you'll need a graphics card with dual outputs. If you plan to use the HDTV as the computer's only monitor you can use any graphics card.

If your graphics card has only DVI you can use a DVI->HDMI cable for video.

A normal VGA cable (D15 shell at both ends) should work for VGA and any graphics card.

If your graphics card supports component video it probably came with a short adapator cable.

[jman98]

Some HD TVs only allow certain video inputs from PCs. My Samsung only allows VGA according to the manual. I know that works. Find out what input your TV will accept from a PC (hopefully you have the manual or can get a copy online) and connect your PC and play.

You don't necessarily need a new video card or HDMI. In theory a regular VGA video card will work if the TV can accept VGA connections. It depends on your TV, not your PC.

[proctor]

FYI, I ended up getting the DViCO TVIX HD M-4100SH media streamer and connected it to my HDTV using HDMI and to my receiver using the optic cable for audio

Now I can play all my HD media via a network share

[hulinning]

For playing HD sources and other movies format such as AVI or DVD, I bought a Ziova Network DVD Player CS-505. The unit still struggle with many FW updates. It is up to FW 2.0 RC6 now. But there are still a lot of minor problems that would make you disappoint about the unit.
My unit have a hard time to boot it up correctly if it hung up during playing movies. The unit provides a way to recover the firmware at anytime through USB port. However, it still does guarranty that it would boot correctly and recognize the USB to perform the recovery process.

If I think about it carefully, I would bought a PC and good video card and play the movie direct from PC to my HDTV set.

I did buy a used Dell GX280 2.8 GHZ (($129 from ebay)and a good video card ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. Based on the review from http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=426 It got this card because its overall performance for the money. It does not consume too much power from PC as NVIDIA 8600GTS does. It can support HDCP content and can play Blue-Ray/HD-DVD sources.

One important feature for playing movies from a PC directly to a TV set is it does not limit to any format. If the video card cannot support the new format to perform internal decode then PC would take over. It could cost more CPU power to decode than the video card.

A network DVD player will be obsolete some days since its internal chip cannot support new formats.

Of course, I need to leave my PC on all time and connecte its to one of my HDMI port. When I need to view movies from my PC I can switch my TV video to this port and select movies from Windows to play. It is not convenient as playing from DVD, but it would bother me as long as I can play all movies format and all subtitle formats as long the PC can support. Most of the time PC can support them all.

Thanks

[joytimeday]

That seems a very troublesome problem .

[evol4pm]

the Ziova player has Nero Digital certification only and it still plays HD DivX. Interesting!!

maybe Nero Digital and DivX are compatible!!

[jagabo]

Nero Digital includes both MPEG 4 ASP and MPEG 4 AVC (I don't know if a certified player has to support AVC). Divx is MPEG 4 ASP. So it's not so surprising that a Nero Digital certified player can play Divx.

I just went to their web site and looked -- they claim to support "MPEG-4 ASP@L5 (720p & 1080i), such as XviD, 3ivx, HDX4 etc." That would include Divx. Sounds like a nice player.

http://www.ziova.com/

[dun4cheap]

The Buffalo Link Theater with DVD player hooks up to you lan, plus it has USB2 and progressive DVD player. It plays DivX-hd and WMV-HD right from you lan, DVD or flash card or external HD.

[hulinning]

All network dvd players seem to be capable of playing all kind of media over the network or external device (usb, usb hard drive). However, they do all have issues. I got my network dvd player for about 1.5 month and I have to return it for warranty service after the unit fais to update the firmware correctly.

I thought it would be much much better to hook my GX280 P4 2.8 GHZ PC directly to my HDTV set using DVI-HDMI cable. The video and sound are all great and I do not have to worry about new video format or different video format that would not be playable. All my movies is stored from a different PC in a office room. I just use this pc to direct the video output to the HDTV. Of course you need a good HDTV video card and sound card that would support AC-3 and SPDIF pass through. I have ATI Radeon HD2600 XT and I can play all kind of video format without a problem.



All network dvd player got the same limitation is the chipset itself. It will be obsolete at some point in time when new video format coming out and the chance is you have to buy a new one to play it if you want to.

A PC never has that kind of problem when new video format is coming out since all can be supported by new software or updating the software.

Thanks

[dun4cheap]

I bought 3 of the Linktheaters from Frys for $200. I have no complaints. I run one in each room and they all use the same share. I have one setup wirelessly and 2 are on the LAN. Crisp picture at 1080i..

[jagabo]

I thought it would be much much better to hook my GX280 P4 2.8 GHZ PC directly to my HDTV set using DVI-HDMI cable.

I agree, a PC is the way to go. I use a C2D and nvidia 8600GT hooked up via DVI->HDMI cable at 1080p to my 46" HDTV.

[dun4cheap]

I have my media center hooked up as well and for ease of use a purposes the Linktheater is much smoother. I have both hooked up to my Vizio 47" LCD...

[hulinning]

I have my media center hooked up as well and for ease of use a purposes the Linktheater is much smoother. I have both hooked up to my Vizio 47" LCD...

I agree that network dvd player is a bit convenient than HTPC since you do not have to use a mouse or keyboard to select your movies. For video/sound quality, they all the same as long as you got good video/sound card. Problably, you could even produce better video/sound quality with external plug-ins that are widely available to HTPC users.

Nevertheless, this is last time I will ever spend my money ($250 + $50 for repair + ????) for network dvd again. It is way too many problems to keep it or too expensive to replace it with new one.


thanks