Help connecting future PC to entertainment center

[SandTiger]

If this is in the wrong forum please say so, ive tried a few searches but did not see anything that answered my question. Point me in the right direction if im wrong.

I am going to be building a new case come december/january. I am waiting until then because thats when I will be moving into my new place with my new huge desk.

Here is the design of my PC so far, it may change in a few months, but not much.

CPU: AMD 64 3500+ or higher
MOBO: Unknown yet
Ram: 1 gig high performance (will be overclocking slightly i think)
Storage: 1 sata and 1 large capacity pata. DVD-DL burner.
Monitor: 2 crt's
Video card something in the $200-300 range (6600 me thinks?)
Audio: Audigy 2?

Here is what I want to accomplish and where I need everybodys help:
Close to my computer desk I will have my entertainment center hooked up. I have a decent Sony reciever with optical sound and componet, and a 27" sony wega(Not HDTV), along with other non important junk like vcr,etc.

I want to hook up my new PC to the Entertainment center. My entertainment center has some really nice speakers and such. I want to be able to play video files from my computer and have them show up on my TV along with my entertainment centers speakers.

Now, I am pretty sure I can just hook it up in some way from the VideoCard to the TV. But I have done that before in the past and I have gotten less than deseriable video. It's like 640x480 and it looks just horrible. A couple years ago I saw somebody have something like a converter box that was between the vid card and TV. It looked Great! I don't know what he was using. I am sure that now there are even better things out now to get a even better signal and clarity.

A couple reasons for wanting to do this, I will have people over to watch some stuff and it is much easier to see on the TV and much more comfortable to sit on the couch then to huddle around my monitor

Also will this work for a dual montior setup? Will I be able to stream to TV and still be able to use 1 of the monitors to use the computer with? Or will I have to enable one monitor for the TV out to work? No big deal.

Building a computer is fairly easy, comes second nature. But as for Audio/Video, it's not as clear cut for me. I would greatly appreciate some helpful advice.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Now, I am pretty sure I can just hook it up in some way from the VideoCard to the TV. But I have done that before in the past and I have gotten less than deseriable video. It's like 640x480 and it looks just horrible.

Alittle more detail please. What inputs does your TV have?

A couple years ago I saw somebody have something like a converter box that was between the vid card and TV. It looked Great! I don't know what he was using.

You mean this?: http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=transcoder
If so they have a new version out that is a PCI card
http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=crescendo_2200_1

A couple reasons for wanting to do this, I will have people over to watch some stuff and it is much easier to see on the TV and much more comfortable to sit on the couch then to huddle around my monitor.

Yeah that is nice isn't it.

Also will this work for a dual montior setup? Will I be able to stream to TV and still be able to use 1 of the monitors to use the computer with?

It'll work.

Are you going to do alot of gaming on it? If not then 1gig of memory is way overkill, at the most you'll need 512 for non gaming. Also you might want to look at getting a Chaintech AV-710 instead of the Audigy to save some cash while not sacrificing alot of quality.

 

[SandTiger]

Ah sorry. The TV is a 27" Sony Wega. It looks like it only has 1 S-Video and then the regular A/V connectors. Currently the S-video is hooked up to my DVD players. But my entertainment center will be on wheels and easy to switch the cords.


It very well could be that transcoder.. How much of an improvement is that over just regular S-Video?


Thanks for the info about that sound card, looks like It will do niecly for the optical out. Since I won't be building till december though, ill wait to see if its still around.

Oh and my rig will be used for some intensive gaming sessions

 

[SJetski71]

Are you going to do alot of gaming on it? If not then 1gig of memory is way overkill, at the most you'll need 512 for non gaming. Also you might want to look at getting a Chaintech AV-710 instead of the Audigy to save some cash while not sacrificing alot of quality.

The av710 'might' not be sacrificing any quality, from my limited understanding the audigy's resample music and thus make it sound a tad worse.

Now, I am pretty sure I can just hook it up in some way from the VideoCard to the TV. But I have done that before in the past and I have gotten less than deseriable video. It's like 640x480 and it looks just horrible. A couple years ago I saw somebody have something like a converter box that was between the vid card and TV. It looked Great! I don't know what he was using. I am sure that now there are even better things out now to get a even better signal and clarity.

you might also be talking about an up-convertor such as these: http://www.avtoolbox.com/upconpage.shtml & here are other related convertors: http://www.avtoolbox.com/index.shtml. There is one particular brand thats the perfect compromise of quality & price but i forget the MFR. I plan on picking up one myself btw. I'll edit this post with linkage when i remember which one it was, it's fairly small, has blue plastic housing, and is a well known brand name.... trying to find it right now.