Okay then, break it down!!

[Clive]

With all the problems and solutions you all have met, the new and improved software/s, the least expensive but totally efficent hardware.......................what would you suggest to me from the ground up, a PC, with all the necessary components as a starter to use in my HT gear with HD rear projection and also outline the benifits of using HTPC in a small system. Gentlemen, I was under the impression that PCs were only used in dedicated theaters like those featured in magazines with total home integrated management system and Front projection as an inexpensive scaler.

So break it down for me then with hardware suggestions and computer speed minimums if you may.


Thanks much!




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?

[JonMarsh]

There are some great FAQ's on the AVS forum that go into tons of detail.

To put it in perspective, you don't really need a ton of processor power to get the job done, though if you went with XP, you might need a few more MHz, just in case.

Just figure 600 MHz Athlon or 733 MHz PIII or up, and you're fine.

128 MB of RAM. More doesn't hurt, but also won't help much in a dedicated HTPC for DVD only. If you get the freeware scaler Dscaler, then 256 MB and a GHZ or better CPU is advised.

Video card- best bang for the buck is a 7200 or 7500 Radeon. MX series nVideo don't have 10bit DAC's, which the Radeon's do, and the nVidia's don't have quite as good shadow detail, but they're still pretty sweet, and pretty inexpensive, also. If you want a very good picture with no overlay tweaking out of the box, a Matrox 400 is another choice to consider. A teaked up Radeon will outshine it on the right projector, though.

With any of these boards, you'll need PowerStrip 3 from Entech in Taiwan to setup custom resolutions; the demo version will do most of what you need, but at $30 registration is cheap, and gives you more functionality. The Matrox board has it's own utility for custom resolutions and timings; one reason I chose it when building an HTPC for the Sony 400Q three years ago.

Sound card recommendations vary; I've had the best luck with Philips Acoustic Edge (re general purpose, compatiblity), or an MAudio 24/96, better overall audible performance.

The ATI DVD player which comes with their cards is based on the Ravisent Cineplayer; it is one of the leaders in visual quality, but getting Dolby digital and DTS output with some soundcards under XP has been a problem. Power DVD 4 produces very good visual quality when used with hardware acceleration; it requires a Microsoft DXVA compliant video driver, but most recent ones are. There's a new version of WINDVD from Intervideo, which I'm evaluating; it has a lot of interesting features, but video quality and stability are Job 1 with me. WINDVD 3 was more of a CPU hog than the Ravisent based players, such as their own Cineplayer or their XP DVD pack. Getting the latter helped my Sony laptop playback quite a bit, both in quality and stability.

My best experience with DVD-ROMs had been Pioneer slot loads; had some issues with Sony and Toshiba.

Most straightforward OS, especially for setting up sound, is 98SE or ME; XP is more stable, but driver availability is still not perfect.

If I was putting together a new HTPC and cost was no issue, I would wait and take a very close look at the Matrox Parahelia, which is out in late June or early July; it promises to have very good DVD quality, and excellent performance for gaming also. It won't be cheap, though. But even on my "old" Athlon 600 MHz system it would give excellent DVD playback, I suspect, particularly when scaling up to 1280X720. Note, for std. "HD" RPTV resolution for DVD (usually 960X540P), a Radoen 7200 or 7500 may look just as good, at 1/3 the price.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Bing Fung]

Good Job Jon, I'll file this for future referance




Bing

[Clive]

Me too!!!!!!!!!

Thanks my friend ;x(




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?

[Wireless]

Just one additional recommendation.

TheaterTek DVD player. Has the stability of PowerDVD but uses the Cinemaster video filters for improved video quality. I've used PowerDVD, WinDVD, ATI DVD, and Zoomplayer using the video from the ATI/Cinemaster filters and PowerDVD audio (there were some filter conflicts using Zoomplayer.) TheaterTek gave me everything I was looking for, quality and stability. Costs about $69.

One other thing about processor speed. I'm using the Radeon 7000 with hardware acceleration and a PII 400 MHZ and have no stutter, smooth playback.




John
My HT Picts