Hi I'm new to this forum. I am thinking about getting a computer that I can use for my home theatre. Currently the only major piece in my home theatre system is a big screen HDTV. I would like to use the computer for several things. 1) A built in video scaler/line doubler for regular TV/cable. 2) A DVD player (progressive scan) 3) A TIVO style box (pause live TV, etc) 4) Connection to the TV has to be component (may settle for S-Video) I would like to get some feedback on how people have done this. I have looked into just getting an ATI AiW 9700 Pro video card which says it does all I want. What would you people suggest. Thanks
I can say one thing you don't want to do is buy one of those all in one PC's. The kind I'm talking about has everything on the motherboard and no slots for expansion. They are fine for a quick easy PC but are quickly outdated with very little recourse for upgrading.
Just a few thoughts. A high quality receiver that decodes dolby digital 5.1 (6.1...) and speakers around the viewing area. Fast PC with one or more large (120gB+) drives. DVD drive or maybe a burner.. but with the PC audio out going into your receiver you could directly play mpg files (bypassing the conversion to dvd media). Video capture card.. you might look for digital (spdif) output and make sure your receiver will accept it. I haven't seen component outputs from video capture cards, but most support s-video. See if the capture card supplies Guideplus which makes tv recording/scheduling a breeze. High quality sound card. Add a remote keyboard/mouse for couch access. I also have no info on progressive scan as pertains to pc dvd drives.
