Buy DVD player with DivX or PC to TV?

[doogie88]

Need opinions.
What's a better option?
Buy a DVD player that can play DiVx so I can burn a few movies on one DVD, or should I just wire up my TV to my PC and watch it off there?

DVDs are like what, $50?
Other option I would need a new video card with SVideo out, buy about 20ft cable, plus for audio. Plus everytime I wanted to switch from TV to Computer, I would need to crawl under the desk and switch the audio outs, correct?

[DefX]

Plus everytime I wanted to switch from TV to Computer, I would need to crawl under the desk and switch the audio outs, correct?

Thats what i do except i dont crawl under a desk since my pc is ON the desk. As for your question, im biased towards using TV-out since thats what i do. It's very inexpensive, convenient and you dont have to burn movies that you dont end up liking.

[grchl3]

I'd probably opt for wiring the PC to the TV route as well simply because you can play videos of all types of codecs and not have to worry about compatibility. I don't think you'd have to switch the audio outs every time you wanted to switch to the PC unless I'm missing something. Couldn't you just switch the tv input from the remote. I had an old universal remote that had a button like that. As for how practical or easy it would be to control the pc playback from a remote I'm not too sure. It's something I've always wanted to do but never actually got around to.

[parking_jedi]

I have a cheap DivX multi region PAL/NTSC DVD player that is awesome. Stuff I dont want to keep I burn to RW and wipe it after. Keepers go on DVD-R.
Player brand is "Nextwave" it was 6000yen - whats that $50US?
It plays DivX and xvid no worries - only 264codecs it wont play.

[adriand]

Get yourself one of these
Silvercrest KH 6507
JPG/JPEG
DVD-JPG
DVD-WMA
DVD-MP3
MP3 long filename
MP3 ID3 TAG
DivX
MPEGISO
Divx playback is fast and there are no problems with subtitles. There are two card readers capable of showin 7 different card types.Plus USB 2 so you can play movies direct from stick

[Gogen]

I'd go with a soft-mod Xbox. I know someone who recently did their's up with XMBC, and it plays absolutely everything, not to mention it plays Xbox games as well as backups. You can also set up emulators on it if you're feeling a bit nostalgic.

[Busyman™]

Need opinions.
What's a better option?
Buy a DVD player that can play DiVx so I can burn a few movies on one DVD, or should I just wire up my TV to my PC and watch it off there?

DVDs are like what, $50?
Other option I would need a new video card with SVideo out, buy about 20ft cable, plus for audio. Plus everytime I wanted to switch from TV to Computer, I would need to crawl under the desk and switch the audio outs, correct?

Get a Philips DVP-5960. It plays Divx/Xvid, has a USB port, and upconverts to HDTV. List price is $80 and I usually see it for less.

If you have a HDTV, it'll make your downloaded movies look pristine. You can hook up a USB thumbdrive or external hard drive to it, browse to the file you want, and play any clips or movies you select.

I watched all the Battlestar Galactica webisodes with it. The player made the files look better than on the PC and I watched on a wide bigscreen.

[gossard25]

Need opinions.
What's a better option?
Buy a DVD player that can play DiVx so I can burn a few movies on one DVD, or should I just wire up my TV to my PC and watch it off there?

DVDs are like what, $50?
Other option I would need a new video card with SVideo out, buy about 20ft cable, plus for audio. Plus everytime I wanted to switch from TV to Computer, I would need to crawl under the desk and switch the audio outs, correct?

Get a Philips DVP-5960. It plays Divx/Xvid, has a USB port, and upconverts to HDTV. List price is $80 and I usually see it for less.

If you have a HDTV, it'll make your downloaded movies look pristine. You can hook up a USB thumbdrive or external hard drive to it, browse to the file you want, and play any clips or movies you select.

I watched all the Battlestar Galactica webisodes with it. The player made the files look better than on the PC and I watched on a wide bigscreen.

Same her philips is a good buy although I paid a bit more around 70 quid :(

[lightshow]

I'd go with a soft-moded Xbox. I know someone who recently did their's up with XMBC, and it plays absolutely everything

This by far is the best bet for you. Xbox Media Center is able to decode almost all the current gen formats including but not limited to

mov, avi, xvid, divx, ogm, mkv, mpg(and variations), etc.

It supports network streaming (so you just add a share on your pc and access it on the xbox remotely)

You can find out more with google.

Basically you just need a particular retail xbox game, an action replay cheat device, and you can "soft mod" your xbox to run unsigned code.

I can't recommend this enough.