sound
Got the soundcard working. The only issue left with sound is that I can't seem to listen in anything in simple 2.1. Even when playing back a simple mp3 file, I'm getting it split up through all my speakers. I need to actually change my audio card settings to 2 speakers to get 2 channel sound. That's not normal is it? Using the analog output, movies sound GREAT!
DVD Still not happy with standard dvd playback. The gamma seems a little out of whack. Blacks seem overly crushed. Colors get blotchy quit often. De-interlacing...what's the secret to this? If I select "enable hardware acceleration" in the cyberlink powerDVD settings, things look much, much worse. If I take my 8800 card out of the mix, then use the powerlink dvd to handle the de-interlacing, it looks better, but still not as good my old dvd player did. When I do a search in the Nvidia help file for de-interlacing I get nothing. ??? As I've said before, one of the major reasons, if not the biggest reason for building this HTPC was to get the very best standard def dvd picture possible. From all fronts, this is the one thing everybody in the htpc world seemed to agree on. Standard def DVD playback on a htpc is supposed to be better than just about any dvd player you can buy. Nvidia's "PureVideo" technology...is that all built into the card, or is there something else I'm supposed to be downloading/installing? Because thus far, the Nvidia card just plain sucks.
Blu-Ray I just watched "Casino Royale" on blu-ray last night, and just about pee'd myself. Now THAT is what I've been expecting. Sound and picture were just about as perfect as I could possibly hope for. I did have 2 or 3 moments of dropped frames/skipping during the movie. Frustrating. If I'm not mistaken though, the PowerDVD settings for last night's viewing still had "enable hardware acceleration" disabled. That means I was playing back blu-ray without the help of my video cards power. I'll have to do some comparisons with Blu-Ray with acceleration both on and off. But so far it seems all my movie playback issues stem from that stupid friggin' card. (or my complete lack of understanding how it's supposed to be setup)
misc
Did I mention that my cordless mouse has a range of about 3'? I need to sit on the floor in front of my tv to get everything set up. Bleck. A guy here a work has a differnt mouse that's getting about a 20' range. I guess it's time for a new mouse.
Overscan is still an pain in the butt. Nvidia says they may have a workaround with their next driver. We'll see.
