[mythtv-users] Does MythTV Obviate a DVD Player?

[David]

Stephen Tait wrote:

> At 08:18 03/09/2004, you wrote:
>
>> Michael T. Dean wrote, On 9/2/2004 3:00 PM:
>>
>>> I personally like my Myth box better than a stand-alone DVD player 
>>> because I can apply filters to the output (i.e. xine's chain 
>>> reaction) to improve (or, at least, adjust to my taste) picture 
>>> quality.  I'm using an old 6x DVD-ROM I bought in 1999, and it works 
>>> like a charm...
>>
>>
>> The only reason I haven't gotten rid of my DVD player yet is that I'm 
>> not sure what the best route to get 5.1 digital out sound working.  
>> Any suggested setups?  Right now I'm using using standard analog 2ch 
>> sound from my onboard VT8233...  Works fine for TV and cable 
>> recordings, but doesn't cut it for DVDs.  Any tips or documentation 
>> anyone can point me to?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dave
>
Yes, look at the wiki:
  www.mythtv.info

>
> Get yourself a decent Linux-supported soundcard (anything based on the 
> emu10k1 chipset will work fine - I have two Audigy cards, I've heard 
> good things about the M-Audio soundcards too) with an SPDIF output.

No need (IMHO) - get a dirt cheap (supported) soundcard with SPDIF out - 
onboard motherboard will do fine. It's all digital so it makes not a 
blind bit of difference. The one thing I'd say is use optical cable if 
possible to avoid any electrical hum.

I drive my lounge system like this and it's fantastic.

>
> Back OT, Myth has completely replaced every DVD player in the house. 
> Quality was never much of an issue (a PS2 and a cheap chinese job 
> which did MPEG4 as well), but Xine comfortably blows their pants off. 
> I've never had Xine crap out on me yet (touch wood), and everyone 
> loves the ability to skip those annoying bits at the front and 
> timeshift the DVD by ripping to HD. Not to mention seamless access to 
> my rather vast collection of DVD rips on my file server.


seconded - but :)

I'm keeping my DVD player around. I've seen some DVDs with really 
complex structures which seem to have sections too small to crack the 
CSS. I wonder whether this is why the LOTR mentioned earlier wont play? 
I have one disc (can't remember off the top of my head) that *won't* 
play on xine/ogle etc etc and works fine on HW DVD. I'm fairly sure I 
got DeCSS errors.

David