Hello....I want to build a new rig that can do double duty; primarily used for web surfing, light gaming, music, etc... AND, most importantly, be hooked up to my living room HDTV. This rig will sit in my family room where it is used as the main family PC in the house, but since my TV is 30 feet away in the other room (living room) I thought I could be hooked up to the PC to watch movies (and maybe to watch netflix "watch instantly" stuff). NOW... the most important question (as I'm an idiot when it comes to the newer tech... my current rig is 7 years old): would I be able to watch movies from this rig, while someone is on the same PC, doing something completely different? In other words, can two video signals come out of the board? Here's what I'm thinking of getting (it needs to be quiet): Moboard: ASUS M3A78-EM CPU: AMD 4850e (45 watt) Ram: 2 gigs of "whatever" ***** and other stuff (mainly good, cheap, quiet case) So, any ideas or comments? Would be appreciated! Thanks _________________
You can use the computer for both purposes. At the same time would be really tricky. Sure you can put a movie on the tv and do whatever on the other screen, but if there is sound it will interfere with the tv. If you put high demand on your system you'll have at the very least choppy playback. When you move the mouse a lot of media players will respond to that and display menus that you won't want to be seeing while watching a movie or something on the tv. Other things you could consider A dedicated computer for your tv and setup file sharing between the two computers so any media content from either can be reached. (might be able to do it with your old computer) D-link and other companies make devices that you tie into your home network that will stream media from a computer. The X-box 360, (not sure but think the PS3 does too) will network with your computer and play most video files. One of the most reliable ways to play a variety of media types is to get a dvd player with divx support (and other desired types), preferably with a usb drive.
Find an old XBOX on ebay and install XBMC. You can ,connect it to your PC, play and watch on your TV about any video format out there without interfering with anyone using the PC.
It is possible; I am doing something similar with my current system. While I have a media server, all it does is record TV and put it on my network. I use my main system for CAD & gaming, and have two screens connected to it. With this setup, I can play a game on one screen while watching recorded TV/DVD/internet TV on the other screen. There are a few big problems with this setup, and I will list them: 1.) If a show comes to it's end while I am playing a game, I have to pause the game and press ALT+TAB to minimise the game so that I can select the next program to watch. This is not an issue with single player games, but is a big problem with online games...some online games crash when I do this...the rest just leave me standing there to get killed. For this reason, I have the second screen setup to switch over to the second machine when I am playing online games. 2.) Audio is mixed. This is usualy not a big issue, as I want to hear both anyway...but sometimes I need to hear the game a little better for a few seconds and would like a way to pause the TV without minimising the game. Also, so games have cut screens with soft talking and very loud effects...if I am watching TV, I cannot make out the words, and I cannot hear the TV durring the effects. 3.) The TV does take some performance away from the game, but not much. The game sometimes makes the TV skip, but it is rare, and only durring load screens and multi-vehicle explosions. 4.) Internet TV/Netflix WILL NOT stay full screen when you are doing ANYTHING on the other screen. This is the fault of flash, and adobe refuses to fix it...even after years of complaints.
Well since your going to build a new rig that now means you have two computers,all that you need if you don't already is a graphic card that can output to tv for the older comp & decide what comp goes where
