[mythtv-users] Frontend for home theater

[Isaac Richards]

On Friday 04 November 2005 08:18 pm, Michael Tiller wrote:
> At work we just got a $700 computer projector that looks fantastic. I
> hooked my laptop up to it while watching a widescreen DVD and it even seems
> to support the widescreen format quite nicely.
>
> So, I'm thinking about getting one of these for my basement. My plan would
> be to mount it on the ceiling and project it against a wall. I'd also like
> to hook a very simple MythTV frontend up to it. My plan would be to have
> only a DVD reader, small hardrive (if necessary), network and video card in
> it (i.e. no tuner cards and no direct live TV feed to the projector...only
> live TV from a backend over the network).

http://www.mythtv.org/basement/6-Projector/1-screen_mounted.jpg

That's my production mythtv setup.  Panasonic PT-AE700U projector, homemade 
screen.

> Here are a few questions:
>
> 1) Any comments on why this might be a bad idea? :-) It sure looks
> attractive to me.

The biggest negative is that it's really not the best use of bulb life to be 
doing stuff like listening to music for hours.

> 2) Any special issues with video cards? When I hooked my laptop up the
> projector we have at work, it seemed like my laptop was putting out a
> special resolution on the output port and that the projector was matching
> it. The widescreen version looked great. Will all video cards+X.conf be
> able to provide the optimal widescreen resolution or is this a special
> feature to look for?

Most digital projectors these days have vga and hdmi/dvi input, and fairly 
standard resolutions.  I've had no problems displaying 1280x720 on mine.

> 4) I've got a fairly nice 5.1 receiver plus speakers. Anything special I
> need to hook that up to a computer? If I play a DVD, will it send a
> pro-logic encoded signal over normal "line out" or do I need to have a
> sound card that can split it up locally and then send out all the signals
> separately? I may just skip the 5.1 for now use simulated surround sound.

I don't do DVD playback on mine (still prefer to use a standalone dvd 
changer), but you can pass through the audio with a digital out..

Isaac