Anyone familiar with this card from Immersive? It's a PCI card and optional daughtercard that accepts high definition inputs (multiple DVI, 1 RBG, and 1 component) and will scale the image (w/o any pixel loss) to whatever you set your PC graphics card to. It also accepts a 480i SDI input, which is great for professional use. Set your Radeon or whatever to 1920x1080 and you've got a real High Def HTPC. Only have 1600x1200, or 1280x1024? No problem. This thing will downscale it with minimal pixel loss. The card uses a top-of-the line hardware scaler, and it is compatable with Dscaler. The card is $800 I believe, and the daughtercard is $300. That may sound like a lot. Trust me, it's a ridiculous steal. Look at how much certain devices cost that the H3DII can function just as well as:
1) An external scaler. High def scalers are thousands of dollars. And of course, you have no benefits of an HTPC with these things.
2) A high def capture card (such as the Kona-HD) is about $8000. And there are only Mac drivers for it.
3) A UXGA frame grabber (that can do 30 fps) is also around $8000.
What interests me the most is that this card can eliminate the need for an LCD controller if you want to take advantage of a 15" high res laptop screen. Take a Dell Ultrasharp 8500 WUXGA for example. You could theoretically dismantle the screen, but keep it plugged into the laptop. You would need to add a PCI bus the the laptop. I think there are docking stations and/or PCcard adapters that can do this. Voila. 1920x1080 DVI, RBG, AND component inputs.
The H3DII can kill three birds with one stone. The need for a high def capture card, high def scaler, and LCD controller are all eliminated. Here's a link:
http://www.cellarcinemas.com/cgi-bin/store/HD3.html
I know I sound like a salesman, but this thing is very promising to those of us looking for DIY HD and I'm excited about it. Oh yeah, the card also has an internal pin header that connects directly to the $250 MyHD card (an OTA HTPC high def decoder). That just rules.
1) An external scaler. High def scalers are thousands of dollars. And of course, you have no benefits of an HTPC with these things.
2) A high def capture card (such as the Kona-HD) is about $8000. And there are only Mac drivers for it.
3) A UXGA frame grabber (that can do 30 fps) is also around $8000.
What interests me the most is that this card can eliminate the need for an LCD controller if you want to take advantage of a 15" high res laptop screen. Take a Dell Ultrasharp 8500 WUXGA for example. You could theoretically dismantle the screen, but keep it plugged into the laptop. You would need to add a PCI bus the the laptop. I think there are docking stations and/or PCcard adapters that can do this. Voila. 1920x1080 DVI, RBG, AND component inputs.
The H3DII can kill three birds with one stone. The need for a high def capture card, high def scaler, and LCD controller are all eliminated. Here's a link:
http://www.cellarcinemas.com/cgi-bin/store/HD3.html
I know I sound like a salesman, but this thing is very promising to those of us looking for DIY HD and I'm excited about it. Oh yeah, the card also has an internal pin header that connects directly to the $250 MyHD card (an OTA HTPC high def decoder). That just rules.
Oh yeah, I forgot. The thing also eliminates the need for an external HD switcher. Many people would like to convinently (with a remote) switch between HD Sat reciever, external DVD player, PC, HD Xbox, PS2, VHS, etc.
Any idea how much a multiple HD DVI switcher is? With the H3DII, you can have EVERYTHING running through an HTPC, so switching between applications and inputs is just a simple task with the right RC and some cheap software.
So make that four birds with one stone.
Any idea how much a multiple HD DVI switcher is? With the H3DII, you can have EVERYTHING running through an HTPC, so switching between applications and inputs is just a simple task with the right RC and some cheap software.
So make that four birds with one stone.
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