Window Media Center DVD Upscaling by PC

[Texas]

Does anyone now a how to upscale a DVD via Windows Vista Media center. Will this is possible that Media Center can upscale DVD automatically through some application. Here I am confuse a little bit. Is there any external hardware device which can do this. I do not thing so that this can be done but still I am making a guess. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Bon-Z]

There are possibilities that a computer can upscale a DVD by software. I do not think so that there is any particular hardware for this. If you have Windows Media Center 2005 with Vista Ultimate then there are high possibilities for the same. So the main aim for yours is to get a high resolution picture. I will recommend you to try FFDShow. It will give you a great result.

[Gonzo]

There are some dedicated DVD players for the same. They are called extenders. But if you are not using any then probably you are using a DVI/HDMI between your card and display. Here the choice of Video card will not bring much effect. But if you want you can look for such hardware other wise you can upgrade to a good quality video card and see weather it can be done or not. I think FFDShow is correct option of it.

[Regina]

You can buy a Linksys Wireless Media accelerator. It is a dedicated DVD player which can be easily sync with your Media Center Edition. You can upscale you DVD with it. You can enjoy you favorite movies and sound at a high definition quality. You can see, record, pause the live channels and it is very easy to setup also. It is additional extender which supports multiple audio and video formats.

[myangeldust]

My Win7 PC came with Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 installed. The program is integrated into Windows Media Center so WMC has a "PowerDVD" item in the main menu. When you load a movie you can select PowerDVD as the player (other option is WMC's native DVD player). Once PowerDVD is running you can set it to play any DVD in "enhanced visuals" mode. This allows WMC to upscale regular DVD movies. If you have movies already on your hard drive there's an option that allows those to play in enhanced visual mode, too.

[Koman]

That was quiet a informative reply. Usually according to my experience if you have a good extender then that might do the work. I was really frustrated with old videos upscaling on media center and a good router. This is surely going to add more in the cost, but if you need a free flow system to get dvd videos to work on the media center you might need to carry out a complex setup.

[myangeldust]

Usually Blu-ray and HD-DVD players come with software (and firmware) that allows your the image to show as intended, video card and monitor permitting. But if you use WMC you will need software, and add-in, or codec to translate those Hi-Def images to your screen. To my knowledge, WMC doesn't come with upscaling features for DVD playback. Without it I don't think even an extender relaying the signal can help you. Are there WMC extenders that upscale DVD images?

The easier setup would be to connect an upscaling BD/DVD player to your TV and switch inputs whenever you want to see a movie.

[Pugsly]

There is one such device Linksys DMA2200 that has built-in DVD player that upscales video content up to 1080p resolution for watching DVD videos in high definition on your HDTV. Also, check this thread for instance - Consumer IR-based interface vs. Windows Media Center add-in: DVD (ISO image) playback