Standalone Bluray Player vs High end Gaming PC: PQ only

[chinu_hark]

I have read a thousand threads about HTPC vs bluray player but none of them seem to consider a PC with a high end GPU. I find it hard to believe that a little Bluray player can be better than a core i7 with GTX560 or above. I already had a PC with a GTX460 and got the entry level BDP S380 instead of a bluray drive. This may be in my head but I think that MKVs (high quality ones ~10GB or above) and other high quality material seem equal to or sometimes even better than (in terms of pure WOW factor) than actual blurays on the S380. This makes me think that maybe I made a mistake and how awesome blurays would look on my PC.
So just for discussion sake and for whenever in the future I upgrade what are your thoughts? Which has better PQ?

 

[reignofchaos]

Actually a high end GPU is no good for media playback. What you need is just enough GPU processing power to run a good renderer like madVR with a state of the art scaling mechanism. This basically means you max need a card of GT640/HD7750 level to get all you need.

A big hot card means more noise and more power. Neither is particularly good for movie watching.

As far as comparing a low end bluray player to a dedicated HTPC is concerned, with a good renderer on the pc, its a no contest!

I use an i3 CPU with a tiny scythe heatsink and an AMD HD6570 in my dedicated HTPC. It totally murders my PS3 in output video quality. I hope to do a comparison with an Oppo soon.

 

[arindamcc]

I think stand alone BD player is best option.I am currently using GTX 550ti for bluray playback but i am not satisfied with pic quality.Computer is Jack of all trade but Master of none. :sad::sad:

 

[musicbee]

PC hands down but not just the processor, you also need a GFX and also to play Blu-ray discs you need a player like CyberLink PowerDVD.

That combo definitely betters my PS3.

 

[rud3dawg]

I m using a GTX 590 and Must tell you the clarity with which I can play if I connect to my 3D Plasma TV is amazing.. have come across a regular BD player (Sony/Phillips/samsung ). The same content I still feel my PC leaves the BD player in dust.. Cannot say much about high end ones..I was in pursuit of a Plasma when I went around carrying my HD content. But these can also be dependent on other factors like the TVs. I played the same content in Samsung/LG/Sony Plasmas. I somehow feel PC does a much better job with a good enough Graphic card ofcourse!!!

Just my 2 cents (Darn with the $ rate conversion to INR should start posting only my 1.5 cents )

 

[Shivam]

I use a BluRay player since it doubles up as a SACD transport for me.
A PC would have been redundant for me and more power consuming than the player.

 

[reignofchaos]

I think stand alone BD player is best option.I am currently using GTX 550ti for bluray playback but i am not satisfied with pic quality.Computer is Jack of all trade but Master of none. :sad::sad:

What player, what decoder, what renderer, what scalar? All these matter more than what graphics card you are using.

 

[chinu_hark]

What player, what decoder, what renderer, what scalar? All these matter more than what graphics card you are using.

I have a Core i5760+GTX460. What kind of software should I use to get highest possible PQ? Please. All those things you mentioned got me really interested. All I do is use Powerdvd 11. A guide would be very much appreciated.

 

[arindamcc]

What player, what decoder, what renderer, what scalar? All these matter more than what graphics card you are using.

Power DVD 12, Media player classic with madvr and luvcodec.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

 

[vasishta.sushant]

Nobody talked about KMPlayer ? I use KMPlayer with core codec and the combo beats all the stuff I ever saw.

And power consumption can be insanely low, if components are selected properly. Even my high end core i7 (ivy bridge, 3770K) eats just 5W at idle.

Blu ray player can probably match the quality but can't even come close when it comes to tweakbility PC offers. PC all the way for me.

 

[baijuxavior]

I'm using KMPlayer on my laptop as the default media player. The latest version has 3D support also.

 

[musicbee]

Nobody talked about KMPlayer ? I use KMPlayer with core codec and the combo beats all the stuff I ever saw.

And power consumption can be insanely low, if components are selected properly. Even my high end core i7 (ivy bridge, 3770K) eats just 5W at idle.

Blu ray player can probably match the quality but can't even come close when it comes to tweakbility PC offers. PC all the way for me.

Check out Daum PotPlayer. Its by the same author and updated more frequently. I found its GUI more intuitive/easy to use. I use this the most and VLC is always around.

 

[saikatbiswas82]

IMO, a HTPC can never be compared with a BD player and never should be. I think both are different devices used for different purposes.
If I have an AVR, I think I would be more than happy not to rely on the DAC (or audio processing) of the BD player itself.
Here comes the BD combo player (or writer) of a HTPC. It does not have any processing capability, it just playes the disk and leaves the processing part on the AVR (considering the fact that I still have the AVR ).

Now, coming to the future upgrade plans for your system, if you need DTS-MA passthrough over HDMI of your graphics card, you need to forget NVIDIA. Because, even top notch NVIDIA cards do not support DTS-MA passthrough yet. Get an ATI card of 7xxx series or higher instead.

 

[just4kix]

ATI cards are an edge ahead of nVidia in some respects.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

 

[chinu_hark]

IMO, a HTPC can never be compared with a BD player and never should be. I think both are different devices used for different purposes.
If I have an AVR, I think I would be more than happy not to rely on the DAC (or audio processing) of the BD player itself.
Here comes the BD combo player (or writer) of a HTPC. It does not have any processing capability, it just playes the disk and leaves the processing part on the AVR (considering the fact that I still have the AVR ).

Now, coming to the future upgrade plans for your system, if you need DTS-MA passthrough over HDMI of your graphics card, you need to forget NVIDIA. Because, even top notch NVIDIA cards do not support DTS-MA passthrough yet. Get an ATI card of 7xxx series or higher instead.

Thank You for the reply sir, but I just wanted a discussion on Picture Quality and Picture Quality only of HTPC vs Player. This is because I agree with you that in other respects comparing the 2 is futile and we all know where that discussion goes since each has it's own pros and cons.
As far as forgetting Nvidia goes, I have a GTX460 (released 2010) which has full support for DTS-MA and TrueHD bitstreaming which is confirmed by my Onkyo AVR. Nvidia did damage it's reputation in this regard a while ago but I would like to mention that ever since bitstreaming came to PC only 4 Nvidia cards (470,480,570 and 580) did not support it. All other cards released since 2010 do.

 

[chinu_hark]

ATI cards are an edge ahead of nVidia in some respects.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

I respectfully disagree(Sorry for sounding like a fanboy)

 

[manniraj]

IMO, a HTPC can never be compared with a BD player and never should be. I think both are different devices used for different purposes.
If I have an AVR, I think I would be more than happy not to rely on the DAC (or audio processing) of the BD player itself.
Here comes the BD combo player (or writer) of a HTPC. It does not have any processing capability, it just playes the disk and leaves the processing part on the AVR (considering the fact that I still have the AVR ).

Now, coming to the future upgrade plans for your system, if you need DTS-MA passthrough over HDMI of your graphics card, you need to forget NVIDIA. Because, even top notch NVIDIA cards do not support DTS-MA passthrough yet. Get an ATI card of 7xxx series or higher instead.

I disagree with the point that Nvidia cards not able to bit stream DTS-MA. I have the basic Zotak GT440 which bitstreams perfectly for both DTS-HDMA and Dolby Tru-HD. Many of our FM's have the Nvidia cards and they are pretty happy with the same. Also when it comes to ATI they have some problem with the playback with respect to MadVR rendering which is not an issue with Nvidia cards. If somebody is happy without MadVR then both Nvidia & ATI are same with respect to the video/audio quality.

Thanks

 

[musicbee]

I respectfully disagree(Sorry for sounding like a fanboy)

+1... another NVIDIA fanboy here. Despite having both PS3 and Wii I still use my PC for gaming (and always have).

 

[cmsajith]

IMO, a HTPC can never be compared with a BD player and never should be. I think both are different devices used for different purposes.
If I have an AVR, I think I would be more than happy not to rely on the DAC (or audio processing) of the BD player itself.
Here comes the BD combo player (or writer) of a HTPC. It does not have any processing capability, it just playes the disk and leaves the processing part on the AVR (considering the fact that I still have the AVR ).

Now, coming to the future upgrade plans for your system, if you need DTS-MA passthrough over HDMI of your graphics card, you need to forget NVIDIA. Because, even top notch NVIDIA cards do not support DTS-MA passthrough yet. Get an ATI card of 7xxx series or higher instead.

I have ATI HIS Silent 5670 which bitstreams DTSHDMA and Dolby THD

 

[saikatbiswas82]

I disagree with the point that Nvidia cards not able to bit stream DTS-MA. I have the basic Zotak GT440 which bitstreams perfectly for both DTS-HDMA and Dolby Tru-HD. Many of our FM's have the Nvidia cards and they are pretty happy with the same. Also when it comes to ATI they have some problem with the playback with respect to MadVR rendering which is not an issue with Nvidia cards. If somebody is happy without MadVR then both Nvidia & ATI are same with respect to the video/audio quality.

Thanks

@manniraj.. my sincere apologies. I should have checked that GT440 could bitstream DTS-HD.
While comparing cards, I did consider NVIDIA 560 or higher. I should have mentioned that in my post. Sorry about that.