Hi everyone,

I am considering using my pc as an audio/video source. Here is what I am thinking . All inexpensive suggestions are welcome.
1)Audio: Digital sound card? I don’t necessarily want a sound board with a digital to analog processor. I just need to pass the raw digital signl from the pc to my av receiver and have the receiver do the processing. I know some sound boards come with a digital out. But as I said before all I need is the digital out piece. Is this making any sense?

2)Video playback: I would like to archive my dvd’s on the hard drive and playback from the pc. What would be involved here, in terms of hardware(video card with s video /dvi out?) and of course to be able to pass the dolby digital stream to my av receiver.

Quality should not be compromised in either 1) or 2)

I bought a 25 dollar Chaintech AV-710 sound card. I ran a 36 foot optical cable to my reciever and now use my PC to play Music Match Jukebox though my surround speakers. It is CD quality sound.

Welcome to the world of HTPC. Hope you are a patient person. If so, you will enjoy the final outcome. First piece of advice is to take a look over at the AVS HTPC Forum. There is more information over there about HTPCs than you could possibly want.

Now, to your questions:

1. Take a look at the Chaintech AV-710. It has digital out, can process 7.1, and it's you cannot beat the price. It's well thought of over at the AVS forum. If you want to invest a little more, the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is also well thought of. Many go the SB Audigy route, but I found them to be pricey and not have the exact interfaces I was looking for.

2. As far as archiving movies go, that's a large question. First of all, you need to have the processing power to run the movies....not as much an issue until you get into the HD realm. You need a ton of HD space, as movies take up a big chunk of space. You need a video card that can output in the format you require (ie S-Video, although component via comp-VGA adapter or DVI is going to generate better picture quality). You need to have a monitor (TV, Projector, etc) that has better than standard TV resolution. Normal TVs do not have enough pixels, so the PQ looks very poor when feeding it a PC signal. Plus, it's not necessarily good to feed a normal TV a PC signal. You need to get into the different movie ripping processes (see the above forum). You need a multimedia app to display the movies, such as ZoomPlayer, WinDVD, PowerDVD, or TheaterTek. Windows Media Player has come a long way, so don't rule it out anymore. Plus, you'll need it when you start looking into HD DVD discs, which require it.....and you will.

I know that's a ton that I threw on you, but it's a pretty large topic. Feel free to continue w/ more questions. There are a few of us here that are into HTPCs.

Good Luck

Thanks guys. That chaintech board seems to be a good place to start.