Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions True Media Center

I have a question for the propeller heads out there. I would like a true media center attached to my home theater. Meaning i want a networked computer dedicated to my HT. I need HD out and dolby digital out. I have a spare case with motherboard, processor and power supply but am wondering what types of video cards and or sound cards you have used in your own set up. This will be stored inside the entertainment center out of sight and i will be accessing using a input on my receiver and wireless mouse and keyboard. The idea is to have Itunes, full browser capabilities on my 58". Since i feel i can have this up and going with minimal costs (under 500) i am not interested in sharing my main PC and streaming the info over. Any help or guidance is appreciated.


ps. anyone have recommendations on a Flac player.

Your Denon will play FLAC files just need a DLNA server or WMP has a plug in to allow it to use FLAC files. I know the newer video cards from ATI are very good with HD(video and audio over HDMI) out, never used any of them just seen a few in use.

All current HDMI video cards will do a fine job. Just make sure it says multi-channel audio, and you'll be set. No need for a sound card at all.

Chris,

thats great news on the sound card, I was wondering why i hadnt seen too many lately.

Jason,
Do you know where I can get the WMP plug in? I searched and wasnt able to locate a download site. I am starting to accumulate FLAC files and migrating away from MP3's as storage is so cheap now days.

Just to be a tiny bit more clear. You don't see many soundcards, because the analog outputs are built into most motherboards these days. If someone is hooking speakers straight to the computer they still need those analog outs. But since you'll be going into a receiver via HDMI, the audio will be carried along with the picture on that one cable.

My problem on this topic has been that digital audio inputs are not typically available to secondary zones on your receiver. YMMV.

Man, I really want that to be an option on my next receiver. It would make cabling that much easier.

Seriously. God help me, I'm actually considering an external DAC to solve the problem.

You want the AMD 6450 video card. It's the ultimate HTPC video card right now. $50 bucks or so.

Make sure your old PC has a PCI-e slot for the graphics card. If it uses the older AGP slot, then you will need a newer computer.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4263/amds-radeon-hd-6450-uvd3-meets-htpc

You will also want to ask detailed HTPC questions on HT sites such as MissingRemote.

http://www.missingremote.com/

Try this site for Flac wmp info

Here is the grocery list i have so far. With the case I have selected I would still have one bay open to expand to one additional hard drive. My music collection will only take up about 200 GB once it is uncompressed. The goal of this is to be able to play lossless through my HT and be able to control itunes on my 58". I dont care too much about ripping blue rays or any of that jazz but to be able to display pictures and home movies is going to be cool too.


Case + fans + 500w power supply = $70
Asus motherboard = $100
Intel i3 processor = $150
Radeon 6450 video card = $50
4GB crucial ram = $65
(2) 500 GB western digital 7200 RPM HDD's = $115
Plaxtor Blue Ray player = $120
Wireless mouse and keyboard = $25

Total comes in at about 700 dollars give or take.

Does anyone see something I am missing or may regret not including in the future. Thanks for taking a look.

Plextor used to make good drives, now they just rebadge other makes. Get this Pioneer instead: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Professional/Computer-Drives/BDR-206DBK

Chris,


Thanks for the input. I have now changed that item in my spreadsheet. This is going to be a work in progress as I am building a house ATM. Unfortunately we don't have the budget for a true media room I will be glad to get my HT on the main living area vs a bonus room. The house should be done by sept 16th and that is when I would like to have this built by as well.

One note on PCs and Surround Sound, and this is only really important if you are a PC Gamer...

Case1) while most current Motherboards will do 5.1 or 7.1 Audio, some will only present it in Analog and you will need a 3.5mm jack for each audio port. You've all seen the array of 6 multicolored "headphone" jacks on the back of PCs...

Case2) If your motherboard is recent it may have Dolby Studio on it you will likely have an SPIDF port on the back, whether optical or coax. These boards will talk Dolby Digital to your Receiver if the source is in Dolby Digital.

In Case1, you can passthrough your Audio to an HDMI port if your VideoCard has one. In this case, if you don't have a Dolby encoder on board you *will* get audio through your HDMI but it will only be Stereo.

In Case1, you can passthrough your Audio to an HDMI port if your VideoCard has one. In this case, if you *do* have a Dolby encoder on board you *will* get audio through your HDMI and it will be presented in Dolby Surround, if your Source is (IE movies)

In Case2 you certainly have a Dolby Encoder on board and your only choices are do you want to use the SPIDF connector or pass through to your HDMI.

In *all* cases above if the source is not Dolby Digital encoded you will get an analog presentation and it will be downmixed to Stereo. For example most Video Games.

Only way arround this is if you have a sound card or an onboard chip that supports DDL or "Dolby Digital Live". DDL will encode multi-channel analog audio into Dolby Digital in Real Time.

My Motherboard is an MSI P67-GD65 with Dolby TruStudio Pro but in order to game in Surround Sound I bought and ASUS Xonar D1 soundcard with DDL and an Optical Out. It should be noted that some games do DolbyDigital encoding now anyway (Battlefield Bad Company 2) and will not require the additional soundcard if you have the Dolby motherboard.

You have no idea HOW long it took me to figure all this out!

snazzed

FYI if you buy a new mobo/cpu with the i3 there really isn't much need to even buy a separate video card. The video/audio processing on the i3 is pretty good.

Yeah, right up until your wife spills a glass of water on it, anyway.