Poll: How do you watch your downloads?

hi all, hopefully this isn't a repeat topic.

the question is - do you watch your vid's on your pc or your tv?

if tv is your answer - how do you accomplish this?
xbmc, xbox360, windows media center, appletv, burn to dvd, etc, etc.

i'm curious what people are using to get the vid's on their new hd flat screen
tvs.

here are my answers.

1. tv(usually)
2. ftp to xbox running xbmc

xbmc doesn't play the 720p files so i'm looking for an alternative.

peace

pc mainly. or tv out to my television.

depending on the show and its quality, either the pc or my tv, using a vga
connection with ~720p resolution.

a pc alone is sufficient for me, but fact is there are plenty of ways to watch
a video file, and plenty of ways to combine those many ways.a poll like this is
dubious, many probably use both listed methods interactively/interchangeably
along with other methods.

we have three networked pcs - all the movies are downloaded and stored on my
computer until archived ... our 32" lcd tv is connected to my hubby's win98/xp
machine as his monitor and we watch thru the network. the kids machine was
connected to their tele till they wrecked the cord so their down to watching on
their 19" monitor thru the network ... and i also burn dvds for the littler
kids to watch on their set-top box.

tv via tv-out from pc.

pc to tv set to not underscan perfectly for my tv so i get the full 16:9 picture
when watching ws stuff
audio 5.1 dd then coaxial spdif out, if 2ch mp3 then often analog speaker out
converted to composite audio cables.

i just use regular windows xp and a wireless mouse to navigate shared network
folders and a bunch of shortcuts on the desktop

for 720p/1080i/p usually the best/only option for most people who want to view
on tv is connecting a pc or laptop to a projector/hdtv by vga, dvi, hdmi, or
what ever works thats better then component rbg.
spdif coaxial/fiber is the minimum you want to get 5.1 dd audio. both will give
equal sound quality but coaxial has interference issues in some cases.

same for me.

i used to hang a large (at the time) disk array off of one of my unix boxes,
and would archive all my downloaded stuff there.
one day the controller died, and i realised that i missed virtually none of
the stuff that was now unavailable. i had never looked at 95% of it ever again.

these days i just dump the occasional thing worth keeping onto dvd, but it's
infrequent, and i don't miss the big on-line array at all.

normally tv.

on very rare occasions i burn to dvd to watch on tv.

1. (if required) transcode the file using mediacoder into a suitable format.
2. transfer the stream to a dreambox 7000 (linux based sat receiver / pvr +
300gb internal disk) over the house lan.
3. watch on a 42" plasma via component video out / ac-3 -> 5.1 receiver.
4. after ~14 days delete as i know i won't watch again and seed ratio is >1.5 🙂

i'll prob. upgrade to a high spec linux based media pc with a permanent hdmi out
to the plasma after xmas.

ditto.

hubby, watches on pc though, simply 'cause it's quieter out here, and the kids
tend to stay out (after being yelled at a couple of times!)

edit: on reading the second page, i must agree that i very rarely ever watch
anything more than once. the only exception being star trek (choose a series)
and sg-1 and atlantis. i have all of the sg-1 and sga on original dvd, and
will definately watch again. i'm getting st from a friend, and am eagerly
waiting to watch them all again.

for pc i tend to watch in wmp. then when i have 6 files (i normally download
sitcoms) i burn to dvd to watch on tv.

i used to use tv-out from my pc but now use my xbox 360 as my pc isn't near my
tv anymore. however, in january my current pc will be used as a media pc
directly connected to the tv for good. streaming through the 360 though has
worked perfect. i do watch them on my pc now and then.

i either watch on my tv through the tv out from my media center pc or in a
window in a corner of my screen while i do other things. i also do a lot of
transferring the files to my zen vision w handheld media player to watch on
the cta train on the way to work. i just love the amazed looks i get from
some people as i watch heroes or gossip girl while i ride to work.

for the past 3 years ...
on the old tv via networked xbox1 with xbmc straight off the file server raid.
so so so easy and usable, and does everything i want. (except for the
occasional 720p which was watched on a pc)

since 3 weeks ago ...
nice big hdmi flat screen connected to one of the dvi ports on a pc running
vista home premium (shudder) [every time i sit down and use that pc i hate vista
a little more]. i'm loving the screen but hating the usability. media center
is fine for live tv and dvds but woeful for navigating all the stuff on the file
server. no list view, so most of the time all i see is a swathe of black
squares. so many remote clicks to navigate anywhere, and when i switch back and
forth between folders it doesn't remember where i was. went back to windows
explorer and a wireless mouse for browsing and playing things with vlc. vlc
navigation sucks, so now resorted to windows media player. at least the remote
works for most things.

seems like it's time to have another look at mythtv. can anyone suggest any
other htpc front ends they have been happy with?

dt.