Talk Back: Merging home theater and computers; where is the benefit?

[dang]

Checkout our latest Talk Back: Merging home theater and computers; where is the benefit? (http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback14.html)

[Ioman]

The benefit is a more customizable home theater. The drawback is that you have to be pretty technical to figure it out!

[llbbl]

Benifit of having the pleasure to build and configure a system on your own without buying a prebuilt branded system.

[Monkeyboy]

I merged my HT with my PC about 6 months ago and it was the best thing I've done. It really wasn't difficult to set up or use... in fact, the reason I set it up was to make it easier to use than our DVD player.

I have it set up as a jukebox with over 50 dvds and lots of CDs, all uncompressed. It's much easier to see an image of the movie cover and click on it than digging out the disc, cueing it up, etc. Also, if you subscribe to a service like Netflix, you can easlily timeshift your viewing. I have about a dozen movies I haven't seen yet on my PC - as soon as I see one I delete it, and load in a new one when it comes (every few days).

The quality is excellent - better than my standalone player which is considered one of the top rated models - the Panasonic RP82. I have it connected to an LCD panel in my kitchen and a 106 X 52 inch projector screen in my family room.

When I have friends over they ask what the device is called when they see the "jukebox" and can't believe that it's a PC. This scares them from going this route, as they'd prefer more of an appliance, but it's definitely worth it (especially if you have toddlers who like to watch movies).

With my CDs so accessible now, I'm listening to a lot more music than before. It is definitely worth exploring.

[dang]

what software are you using?

[Porsche911]

So you are playing DVD's through your computer to your home theater system? Is this through your network or is the computer hooked up directly to your home theater system? Are you using S-Video or component video out?

[Monkeyboy]

The software I use is XLobby (http://explode.ca/xlobby2) . I play my movies directly off my hard drive most of the time, but occasionally from my dvd burner. Both my projector (Sony VPL-VW10HT) and LCD (Sampo LME17S1) have RGB inputs, so I hook them up like any other monitor and get higher resolution than component or s-video.

I haven't tried playing dvds over my network, but it should work. My ever-changing library is currently on 440 gigs - 2 internal 120 gigs and a USB2 200 gig drive.

More details can be found
in this thread. (http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=51&threadid=33269&STARTPAGE=1)

EDIT - here are some photos:

http://www.sharemation.com/gastwirt/kitchen1.JPG
http://www.sharemation.com/gastwirt/kitchen_back.JPG
http://www.sharemation.com/gastwirt/LightsON.JPG
http://www.sharemation.com/gastwirt/LightsOFF.JPG

[Cloud]

Originally posted by Monkeyboy
The software I use is XLobby (http://explode.ca/xlobby2) . I play my movies directly off my hard drive most of the time, but occasionally from my dvd burner. Both my projector (Sony VPL-VW10HT) and LCD (Sampo LME17S1) have RGB inputs, so I hook them up like any other monitor and get higher resolution than component or s-video.

I haven't tried playing dvds over my network, but it should work. My ever-changing library is currently on 440 gigs - 2 internal 120 gigs and a USB2 200 gig drive.

More details and photos can be found
in this thread. (http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=51&threadid=33269&STARTPAGE=1)

I love the pics. Can you post those in here so people can see them without leaving the forum? I love the LCD display in the kitchen btw.

[dang]

That's some pretty cool looking software. Might have to give it a spin on my old box and see if i can make it into a htpc.

[ebabier]

You have an interesting perspective to the use of computers in home theater. But I think there is room for varying degrees of computerization in this arena, styled according to the needs and inclination of the home owner.
I simply would like to have help in utilizing my computer for playback of my music library in a manner similar to the cd/dvd juke boxes available from Pioneer and others. I would like to network my computer to my receiver and have a program that plays my pre-recorded and arranged programs.
Any help on the setup needed will be appreciated, as to the network needed and the a recommended software to setup a library and to organize programs for playback.
Thanks