I'll give you an SGI computer for ... no wait, I already did ;-)

Note: This area of the forum has been set up to discuss/debate the use of cables, interconnects and tweaks. It has not been set up to offer an opinion that has not been asked for. If a member asks which brand of interconnect, etc. to buy this does not give anyone the right to tell them not to buy them in the first place in that same thread. If the member asks you for your opinion on whether to buy a product or not then your opinion is welcome. Posts that are made for the sole purpose of offering an opinion that was not asked for will be deleted!

'cause no work gets done at 3:20 AM.

it's basically my entirte HT.

My question, though, has to do with whether having both players, my stand alone Kenwood 5900M with DCDI and an HTPC with whatever software is needed. What would I gain by having the HTPC side by side with my DCDI/DVD player? I have an extra motherboard and an extra processor that I could use to configure an HTPC or use in some other capacity

Looking for a player that has does all this:
Great DVD Playback DCDi chipset, Plays CDs/DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/SACD/DVD-Audio and MP3s etc.... And under $1500 or less.

The most positive thing we can say about this player is that it's the best Pioneer player we've looked at. Sadly, that really isn't enough. This player should be better, given its price and its THX certification. Given that you can now get a universal SACD/DVD-A player from Yamaha with excellent video, we can't recommend this player at all.

We recall the Sony 7000 fondly. At the time, the 7000 was the best built and best looking DVD player around. Sony really did make a statement with that piece. We are still waiting for Sony to make a replacement that exceeds their work on the 7000.

The 7700 was the direct replacement for the 7000 and it was a step backwards in the performance department for Sony. It was also the first Sony player to have the Chroma Upsampling Error, something the 7000 did not have.

Sony replaced the 7700 with the 9000. In the build quality department, the 9000 was better built than either the 7700 or 7000, but it still suffered from the Chroma Upsampling Error. It had some impressive video performance but wasn't so good in the deinterlacing department.

It appears the new 999 is the replacement for the 9000, but just like the 7700 did not meet the bar set by the 7000, the 999 does not meet the bar set by the 9000.
...(and in conclusion)...
In general, we think Sony can do better than this. Especially at this price point, it's just not competitive with other players that get more core details right. The shimmering problem with high detail scenes is alone annoying enough to keep us from recommending this player.

While the RP82 delivers one of the most accurate images we have seen, combined with top-notch deinterlacing, it can be improved on. To start with, we hope that Panasonic can speed up the layer change and response on future players. That said, we certainly recommend this player highly. It is clearly the best value in DVD players as of this writing.

This is the first and only progressive scan DVD player to receive the Secrets Recommended 480p award.

Finally a universal player (capable of playing both SACD and DVD-A) that actually produces good video. This is the only universal player on the market as of this writing (January 2003) that does not have the Chroma Upsampling Error.
...snip...
In general this is a very good player from a video standpoint, though the chroma delay is disappointing. The flaws, however, are relatively minor, and for the most part this is equivalent in video quality to the Panasonic RP-82, which is one of the best players we've seen. Certainly this player is head and shoulders better than any of the other universal players we've looked at.

Genesis/Sage/Faroudja vs. Silicon Image

These two chipsets are clearly the best available right now for progressive DVD applications, and the question often comes up of which is better. Unfortunately, it's not a simple answer. For video-sourced material, the Genesis has the better picture with fewer obvious jagged artifacts. The DCDi™ processing can really improve difficult video signals. It's not a panacea, and it can't make video look like film, but it does improve things. That said, the Silicon Image video deinterlacing is very good as well. But we'd have to give Genesis the edge here.

In film deinterlacing, the two are also very good, though they each have their strengths and weaknesses. The Silicon Image is better at staying in film mode when there are hiccups in the 3-2 cadence, which is good because is maintains the full resolution as much as possible. The Genesis chip's tends to go into video mode more often and stay there longer. Because of the DCDi™ processing, it's not always obvious when the Genesis goes into video mode, but careful attention to the high-detail areas of the scene show that the Genesis chip does tend to drop into video mode more often.

Because the Genesis chip goes into video mode more often, it is slightly less susceptible to combing, because at the first indication of combing, it immediately goes into video mode, and stays there until the cadence is clean again. On the other hand, during the time it's in video mode, the viewer is losing much of the fine detail in the scene. We found quite a few films that tripped up the Genesis, even though the cadence was fine. On most of these, the Silicon Image would stay in film mode the whole time, but the Genesis would drop in and out of film mode.

We've done extensive testing on the 2-2 pulldown performance of the two chips, and it's clear that the Silicon Image is much better at detecting 2-2 pulldown and staying in film mode with 2-2 material. In its default configuration, the Genesis doesn't have 2-2 pulldown enabled at all for NTSC, though it is enabled when it's in PAL mode. Even in PAL mode, the FLI2200 doesn't do quite as good a job at properly detecting 2-2 progressive. On the flip side, though, the Silicon Image combs more often on video material, because it more often incorrectly identifies video as 2-2 progressive. This just serves to highlight how difficult it is to always 'do the right thing' in deinterlacing.

Still, much of this is splitting hairs. Both of these chips are excellent, and in our view represent what you should expect from a progressive DVD player. Either one of them will deinterlace the vast majority of discs with no noticeable artifacts. If you watch a lot of video sourced material, or you want the chroma bug hiding or cross-color hiding features, the Genesis is probably a notch better. But for film sources, it's a tossup, with perhaps a slight edge to the Silicon Image.

* DCDi is not applicable to image from film sources.

Computers won't be able to decrypt the signal (or, at least not be able to record encrypted signals).