Re:that's why i have a home theater (Score 1)

I have a dedicated home theater with a 10' projector and 5 speakers. I chose to build a PC from spare parts, a cheap DVD-ROM drive and a hardware decoder. This is showing me a progressive scan image that is worlds better than the 3:2 pull-down, interlaced junk that every stand-alone player puts out. I honestly would not have a dedicated player in my theater.

Gee, and how much did you pay for all that?

You missed my point. By forking out the dough for a projector and REAL speakers, you crossed over into home theater turf. You simply used a PC for the "dedicated" player box.

I was reacting to the idea that someone can buy a generic PC with DVD-ROM, play the movie on a 17" monitor with cheesy PC speakers, and then pretend it's anywhere near the Perfect Theater Experience. Like vast hordes of uninformed consumers are doing right now. Uh... No. Sure, you might get a progressive scan image. But what's the point, if you don't have full surround sound and you can't just kick back and watch it on a reasonably large screen with a couch, a few friends, and a bucket of popcorn?

Good point about defeating region codes and macrovision. They shouldn't have bothered with that in the first place.

Also note that I'd like to have DVD playback in a notebook computer. It would be awesome for traveling. Expensive hotel pay-per-view channels? Who needs them? :-)