Sort of confused

T

talley

Limp Gawd
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Dec 8, 2003
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I'm very new to htpc systems and I have some questions(obviously). I'm planning to use an old 1.6 p4 with 1gb of rdram for a htpc. The video card it has is a Asus V8460 Ultra Deluxe which is based on the Geforce 4. I would like to know if I can use the dvi on the card to connect it to this television at a HD resolution it supports. Suggestions for other tvs that are $500 roughly are welcome. Audio is already taken care of and a tv tuner isn't needed in this case. I'm a little concerned about the computer being underpowered for HD video. I do not really know what software I need for this, so any information is welcome.

Thank you for any information.
 
You should be able to. I am using a DVI-I to component input from my Radeon 9250 to a new Philips 27" Flat Screen and it's working fine. With that particular TV you'll need a DVI-I to HDMI cable or DVI-I to component adapter (monoprice.com sells them for $18 shipped) to be able to connect it since it doesn't look like that TV has DVI input.
 
mETRo thanks for the reply.

Would this cable work? Also, the soundcard I am planning to use is an old audigy platinum. I'm planning to hook it up to a Onkyo HT-770 home theater system(connection info here and manual here) The Audigy cards have always acted a little weird for me, what would be the best way for me to connect the computer up to the stereo for the audio? The computer will be used for dvd's, videos, and gaming. Also, there will be a PS2, Xbox, Gamecube hooked up to the tv, any idea how those work with HD? I am also looking for a good remote that is not very expensive, just needs basic functionality.
 
Creative has a digital output. Don't expect discreet 5.1 digital audio for gaming though as the signal will be PCM stereo. I don't think thats a big deal as you can always use PrologicII, or any other matrix surround for gaming, but others do. You can get a sound card that encodes 2channel audio to DolbyDigital, but I honestly see no point in this.
 
talley said:
mETRo thanks for the reply.

Would this cable work? Also, the soundcard I am planning to use is an old audigy platinum. I'm planning to hook it up to a Onkyo HT-770 home theater system(connection info here and manual here) The Audigy cards have always acted a little weird for me, what would be the best way for me to connect the computer up to the stereo for the audio? The computer will be used for dvd's, videos, and gaming. Also, there will be a PS2, Xbox, Gamecube hooked up to the tv, any idea how those work with HD? I am also looking for a good remote that is not very expensive, just needs basic functionality.
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Yes that cable will work for sure. I wasn't able to look at the Onkyo unit yet but as the previous post says you can use Creative's digital output which is as good as it's going to get. Hope this helps.
 
mETRo and ncantador thank you for the information, it has been very helpful.

Okay, so it sound like the it'll sound fine. That leaves a remote, preferably one that would later work with a tuner card, but just let me use things like volume, play/pause, switch between applications, etc.
 
If you can make it work, the Logitech Harmony remotes are fantastic for these situations. I just bought one and am going to be searching for a way to make it work with my HTPC so I can control the Media Center functions and such with it as well as control my TV and audio equipment.

Good luck with the build and finding a remote, let us know what you go with.
 
Don't bother with the Audigy, they're not the best cards for an HTPC (possibly one of the worst actually). You'll want to do digital out so that the reciever does all the audio decoding (another reason why the Audigy doesn't make sense, the reciever is doing all the work) so the onboard would be fine or better yet a Chaintech AV-710 for under $30 would be great.

Anyways the GF4 Ti and some of the FX series cards have a problem when used with DVI to HDMI, it has something to do with them not creating the right HDCP signal or something like that. So I'm saying you might have trouble or you might not (I've seen people run these cards fine and some that can't). If you're using MCE then the GF4 isn't going to cut it, what software are you going to be using?

Nintendo no longer makes the component cable for the GC (and it would only work with certain models) so you'll have to use the svideo cable for it, connect the Xbox using component and your games (if it's supported) will play in 480p, the PS2 can be run on either component or svideo.
 
mETRo
I'll look into that remote, it seems a bit pricey though.

CrimandEvil
It sounds like I might be better off just building another computer almost. The motherboard the computer currently has lacks any sort of onboard sound, etc. The video card is a really early Geforce 4 ti, so it will probably have issues, and the process is not really up to spec for HD, which needs 2ghz+ right? I was planning on using windows 2000 on the computer. Any suggestions for a cheap HTPC system minus a tv tuner if that helps with cost?
 
So you want to build something like a media box, something that can play all your media files?
 
CrimandEvil
Yes, something to play media on the tv/stereo instead on a dvd player and cable.

I took a quick look at newegg and found a case I like, here. I a harddrive to use with it already. I would need a matx board to use with that, with onboard networking at least, maybe sound if possible. A video card as well. I don't really know what would be a good choice for my situation, that case might be a horrible idea for all i know, more so with cheap beign an objective.
 
Well for DVDs I would suggest something like this:
Silverstone LC11 - $124.95 (For a PCIe video card you'll need this)
MSI RS480M2-IL - $88
A64 3000+ Venice - $146
Gigabyte 6600 - $111.50
Kingston 512mb PC3200 Memory - $53.76
Zalman CNPS7000B ALCU - $ 31.95 (No the stock cooler isn't quiet enough for something like this)
The mobo has coax SPDIF out so if you need optical you might want to get a Chaintech AV-710 as well.

You'll notice I left a few things out (other then the HDD) like keyboard/remote, dvd drive and OS. Well the remote is pretty much up to you, with the right hardware you can use whatever remote you want from a tivo remote to a universal remote or you can even use the MCE remote (several HTPC apps support it outside of MCE).

Now for software this is what I'd use:
Xlobby, MediaPortal or Meedio for the frontend (I'd probably go with Xlobby and modify it for just DVD and music).
A good music player (whatever you want to use).
TheaterTek or Zoomplayer using VMR9 for DVD and video playback.
NV's MPEG codec for DVD playback (this is included with TheaterTek).
And FFDShow to upconvert your DVDs and videos (the gods know I can't live without it ;) ).
You can still use that copy of Win2kPro.

Some reasoning behind the hardware choices:
I would think that for something like this you'd want a case that would help look the part eg a DVD player.

For the CPU all that power might sound excessive but you'll want to monkey around with FFDShow and see what it can do for you (it upconverts video using your CPU).

512mbs is pretty standard fare for an HTPC, HD material typically sends it into the 500mb+ range as well as gaming so a gig of memory is suggested.

The vanilla 6600 would be more then fine for your TV and it supports a variety of connection types (svideo, DVI/HDMI, VGA, component) and NV has better support for DVI to HDTVs right now (they offer more tweaking options, ATI is pretty lacking in this right now). Not to mention that it's under $110. ;)
 
that setup comes to about $750(without software) which isnt bad at all considering whats in it. Personally I don't like the fuax wood on the case, but other then at it looks like it fits in by a tv. I would probably spend more and get the gb of memory I haven't built a computer without it yet and I don't plan on starting. Does any of the frontend software you listed support mounting .iso or .mds files for playback? Looking at the theatertek packages, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between them at a glance; how much of a difference is there? Are there any advantages to using the optical out versus the coax SPDIF? Does the MCE remote support winamp and media player classic? Thank you very much for the help CrimandEvil you've done this before haven't you?

Edit - I'll probably try using the computer I have spare currently for a htpc, most likely changeing the soundcard, and depending on how it deals with the rest, may or may not replace the whole thing.
 
One package (the more expensive one) adds "Advanced Audio adds Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 internal decoding with Dolby ProLogic II and Dolby Headphone support" which doesn't mean jack if you're passing the audio along to a reciever. The cheaper one just has the player and the NV codec.

Yeah I can't understand whats up with the faux wood crap, the silver version doesn't have it. The frontend software wouldn't be playing the files, either Zoomplayer or TheaterTek would. I believe either app works with ISOs or you would have to use Daemon tools to do it, not sure about mds but you can easily add any app that you currently use to the frontend software. Theres really no difference between optical and coax SPDIF.
 
To get to another one of his questions---I don't think the MCE remote supports Winamp/MPC. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. If you aren't using MCE2005, there really is no point to a MCE remote.
 
CrimandEvil

So, since i'm running the audio through the Onkyo, I should just get the cheapest one? Maybe theres a demo for TheaterTek so I could check. Do you know of any tutorials for configuring the frontend software?

jebo_4jc

I'm leaning towards picking up that ir receiver that CrimandEvil mentioned earlier, I could just use a regular remote then.
 
jebo_4jc said:
To get to another one of his questions---I don't think the MCE remote supports Winamp/MPC. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. If you aren't using MCE2005, there really is no point to a MCE remote.
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I believe Winamp supports and MCE can be configed to use it too. The point of using an MCE remote outiside of MCE is that it's one of the best remotes layout wise and it's cheap.

Yeah I would just get the cheaper TTK, if you find that you need the extra audio options then DL AC3Filter.
 
I think I found something regarding the geforce 4 issues with hdmi. link

If the source is HDCP coded, the receiver (in my case the projector) must support HDCP. If the source is DVI/HDMI without HDCP, it doesn't matter. You can connect it to any receiver that can handle DVI/HDMI. (xmasgrin)
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CrimandEvil

Does the sound card you listed earlier for optical out work with old pci slots? It just says pci in the description on that site.
 
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