Hi folks, I am thinking of upgrading my home entertainment system, i want a new HD Panasonic 42" 1080 TV, I have been looking at the idea of matching this up with a HTPC, This is where i need the advice, Blueray is obviously a must, my budget is aprox £500, I have been looking at the systems available on ebay at around the £400 mark, This would leave me cash for a good set of speakers for music, Do i ignore the ones on ebay and shop elsewhere ? Is my budget big enough ? What do you guys recommend ? (Sky Plus HD will also be running so the pc wont be needed to record tv). It will only be for watching blueray, playing music and occasionally surfing the net. Thanks for reading my thread.
I hate to discourage you from building a PC, but you might be better off with a PS3 if you just want it for playing blu-rays, music, and occasional internet. The only weak point here is the crummy browser built into the PS3, but this can be gotten around by installing linux. I would stay away from Ebay computers...they generaly cut every corner, resulting in limited reliability. You can build a HTPC for cheaper than a PS3...but not by much, and the PS3 will also let you play games (an econo-HTPC will not be good for games).
Thanks for your reply KillerBug, I see what you are saying, Using the Ps3 alone wont get me my 5.1 sound tho, and i have heard that the sound from the plasma tvs are not up to much, i currently have an old Sony DAVS 550 home cinema system (sometimes a bit dodgy on playback nowadays) so i could wire that up to supply the sound. I was thinking of going with the pc purely cos i have 3 already networked and would (I think) be able to play movie and music files from all pcs.
You sound like you know your stuff if you have so many PCs networked in your home already. If you want an HTPC, don't buy it -- build it. You probably already have 90% of the components for it. A Pentium 4 CPU will be fine as long as you have an HDCP video card like the ATI Radeon 2600 XT. That will run you about $80, or about £50. A Blu Ray drive will cost you about $100, or about £60. If you already have a spare computer lying around, or parts to build one, that is really all you need, not including storage space for your video files. If you have a beefy CPU lying around, you don't even need the video card as long as you get AnyDVD, which removes HDCP (copy protection) requirements. You can route the sound through your current receiver via SPDIF, I would think. You could definitely stream files from any of the PCs on your network, but if the network is wireless, it might not have fast enough transfer speeds for very high quality files. Honestly, I'd be much more concerned with making sure you get a TV that supports BluRay the way it needs to be supported for full quality picture. You MUST get a TV that does 24 Hz/ 120 Hz/ etc, or some multiple of 24, if you want decent playback from BluRay movies, which run at 24 fps and look like crap in some places if you run it at 60 Hz.
Thanks for your info qwert99, heres what i will be getting http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_...ackInfo=true&gclid=CNC9zJX_iJwCFc8UzAodSm39mg The pc wasnt going to be bought from ebay but i just want to be sure that i get the best from my tv. i was looking at something like this http://www.pcmeisters.co.uk/Computers/Configurator/configurator.php?comid=61 (the link doesnt show the upgraded spec that i chose which took it to £490) Now its just the speakers that i would need to source, Am i wasting my cash on the pc or am i better getting the ps3 ?
If you spend as much on a PC as you will spend for a PS3, I'd say you are wasting money. You could stream just about any file to your PS3 anyway. The only major advantages of the PC are that it is cheaper than a PS3, you can store your files directly on the PC rather than stream, and you can play any file type, whereas PS3 might have a file restriction or two. With that being said, if you are willing to put the PC together yourself, you would save a lot of money, most likely. As far as your TV goes, the one you have picked out is very nice. The stats are all very good on it. Except for one thing. It is a 60 Hz TV, and 24 fps blurays will show stutter/judder and "tearing" on it. The 600 Hz thing is a gimmick, I am sorry to say. I would definitely recommend getting a 120 Hz TV, or some other multiple of 24, instead. The image stuttering is very noticeable when a 60 Hz TV shows a 24 fps BluRay.
I understand what your saying but the tv is listed as a 100hz here in the uk, had a read up on it and i realised about the 600hz gimmick, 600Hz Sub-Field Drive Intelligent Frame Creation Pro technology. Quote from a review......... Having just about digested the implications of NeoPDP, Panasonic hit us with another first -Things are always not quite what they seem however, and the 600Hz as we shall see does not translate into 600 frames per second (which on the TX-P42G10 is 100 frames per second, or 100Hz). I usually buy Sony products but i am very impressed with the reviews on these Panasonics, I think i have been swung towards the ps3 tho, thanks again for your input, very helpful.
No problem, sorry about the 60 Hz thing. I am used to NTSC TVs. Not sure how the whole 24p thing works in PAL territory.
