I agree, it's serious overkill for a HTPC. Except........See the end.
Cheaper Route if you have a 5.1 sound card already. Many PCs now have them on board.
Look for an older card that has a DVI port. My old Nvidia 7900 is probably less than $100 today, and it did 1080i. Add a DVI to HDMI adapter or cable and your set.
The 7900 is still a bad choice though as it was a power hungry SOB. Required two power cables from your power supply, on separate rails! However, if you were not doing MAD 3d gaming, it would run fine on just one power plug, for just video processing.
By the time the copy-write stuff is added into the mix to make the DVI part an issue, there will, hopefully, be a better card that is more suitable for the Hi Def, HTPC market. One that doesn't charge the premium for it's 3D prowess, if you don't need it.
However, after thinking harder for a second.....If you had to invest in:
a new sound card anyways to upgrade to multi-channel,
a new video cards as well for HD video,
plus add a DVI to HDMI adapter or cable.....
Suddenly the price tag of the simple solution 9800 actually becomes more interesting.
