Why so many junk postings on usenet?

[EyeBaller]

I also have used DVDFlick to convert to vob. Fast and open source.

[chitlinpita]

Laptop -> VGA output to LCD HDTV and sound goes to 5.1 system via usb soundcard

I also use a VGA output to LCD HDTV, but the audio input to go with the VGA is only a headphone jack type plug. Is there another way to route sound so that I get good surround sound, or at least stereo sound?

[Sporkk]

you could use a 1/8 jack that splits into the red and white audio cables and plug them into your home stereo. Radio Shack has them.

[EyeBaller]

you could use a 1/8 jack that splits into the red and white audio cables and plug them into your home stereo. Radio Shack has them.

Yep, just get a 3.5mm headphone cable -> RCA, that can connect to pretty much any stereo system. Like this http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2453699

[Beck38]

There are some fairly complicated methods for backing up blu discs to regular dvd. They come out looking nearly as good as the original disc. With a dual core it still takes around 10 hours. The disadvantages are that they can be movie only and you loose the hd audio track. I'm surprised these arent more common on usenet. They are called bd-(5,9) or avchd. The few that are on there usually have dutch subtitles hard coded on them. I'm going to wait for a program thats more refined before I mess with it.

I've always wondered how most of you watch mkv files. I know of a few other options like building a htpc or using something like a sage media extender but thats even more trouble.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but AVCHD is a VERY mainstream HD format, in fact, most HD camcorders use it, and there are hardware boxes out there (the Hauppauge HD-PVR H.264 box is among the most popular), but you're right about 'dumbing down' the audio, 'standard' Dolby is about all you get.

I've hacked and hacked on the mkv stuff, every couple of months I try another 'run' at it. I believe until a major commercial HD s/w player handles it (maybe in the last 'couple of months' one has), it will continue to be too wacky to be usable.

I have a quad-core machine I built a bit ago to 'play around' with the HD stuff, but like I said, I thing it's going to be a couple more years before things come together. But I have d/l'ed some Blu-Ray stuff that looks REALLY good output to a decent HD display. But don't have either a BD burner, and, there isn't any decent commercial s/w to hack at the stream out there yet; a bit of pd s/w, but I went through all that with standard DVD's (the full doom9 set of tools) years ago.

It'll have to be really good for that road to be followed yet again.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program..!

[EyeBaller]

I've hacked and hacked on the mkv stuff, every couple of months I try another 'run' at it. I believe until a major commercial HD s/w player handles it (maybe in the last 'couple of months' one has), it will continue to be too wacky to be usable.

You're right...Western Digital have a hardware player that plays HD content from mkv files, and it's on sale at bestbuy right now for only $99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218008588808

More info on buy.com here http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-med...209975073.html

Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

[rippinitup4fun]

You're right...Western Digital have a hardware player that plays HD content from mkv files, and it's on sale at bestbuy right now for only $99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218008588808

More info on buy.com here http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-med...209975073.html

Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

There is also the 'Popcorn Hour' by far the most advanced of the bunch and modestly priced. This thing handles all of it...literally. There is nothing this thing cannot play. It handles 99.999% of all formats/bitrates/audio and has many, many more features.

I went with the A110 model as it has on-board decoding/pass through of: DTS, Dolby Digital, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinesto...0&category_id=

I have thrown every imaginable HD video at it and it plays it without a single hiccup or snag. Even 1080p videos with bitrates as high as 40+ MB/s, all played networked VIA MYihome or SMB/NFS shares. Hell the thing even has built in usenet downloader and torrent downloader provided you install an HDD in it (not necessary though).

There is also the A100 model that does everything the A110 does except the HD audio decoding/passthrough
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinesto...0&category_id=

[Beck38]

There is also the 'Popcorn Hour' by far the most advanced of the bunch and modestly priced.

YEP. Have had this in my sights for a long time, that new model (the A110) looks great, I'm just thinking that maybe I haven't jumped on it due to STB (set-top box) fatigue. But it has component outputs and I haven't taken the plunge on a HDMI switcher yet, particularly as the hi-end HD set in my home theater (formerly the "living room"), is component only, waiting for the next generation of decent (OLED?) displays. But I already have HDMI to component conversion, however.

Again, all these boxes. I think they're next step is to support all the streaming services from Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, et. al. One quickly gets up to speed with the "fatigue".


FYI, yet another STB made it's appearance today, the "MOXI" from Diego (Paul Allen's company). Will have to wait on any decent reviews of it; unfortunately, in doing a quick scan of it's specs, is VERY cabletv centric. Yuck.

What, there's about 10+ "stand-alone" STB's on the market now, some do one thing, others yet more, but isn't it all just ridiculous..

[Sporkk]

Looks very similar to the sage tv media extender that I tried. It would freeze up a lot and didn't seem to work very well. I have been interested in a good alternative.

Does it do a better job at playing mkv files than a ps3 using mkv2vob?

[rippinitup4fun]

Looks very similar to the sage tv media extender that I tried. It would freeze up a lot and didn't seem to work very well. I have been interested in a good alternative.

Does it do a better job at playing mkv files than a ps3 using mkv2vob?

Dont know as I do not have a PS3. I have thrown 50+ 1080p/720p movies at it and a few full blu-ray and not had 1 problem, playback is smooth.