home theater type pc (1 Viewer)

diat150

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Im looking to get my pc setup to play some files that are not supported by the 360 or ps3. I am looking at getting a hdmi out video card and a optical output card of some sort. I want whatever is going to be easy to use as I have a hdmi switch and a optical switch not far away from the pc and I will just plug them in when needed. Im not interested in recording content, or playing anything but a couple of different files like mkv without having to transcode which takes forever with a hd file. so far i found this video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122038

and these cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829118105

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829118107

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829270004



Im not looking to spend alot of money, basically just want something to watch high def videos and such from my pc to my tv, and something that I can just plug and play. appreciate the help. Im normally good at this stuff and research it myself but I dont want to waste any money.
 
The C-Media based Riviera paired with drivers from here is probably a safe choice. I don't have any experience with it (Chaintech AV-710 handles my spdif duties), but it's a popular chipset.

I haven't researched video cards recently, so the usual avsforum rec is the best I can do. I use a 7600GT with a DVI to HDMI cable.
 
Apple TV has a HDMI hook-in. You may need to put your videos into itunes on your PC or Mac to stream them. Can be connected physically or wirelessly if you have a network. Also streams your photos, and music.
 
Im not interested in apple. mostly just want to play the mkv container files without having to spend 2 days transcoding. I wish they would just put the codec in the 360 or the ps3.
 
I was able to secure a dvi to hdmi cable today. got it working and it works great. I was surprised how good the netflix watch instantly movies looked. I didnt even change video cards, the dvi was open on mine and I got some ati software that allows me to save profiles so it is just a 1 click thing to switch back and forth. now Im waiting on a additional 2 gigs of memory and a sound card.
 
I was able to secure a dvi to hdmi cable today. got it working and it works great. I was surprised how good the netflix watch instantly movies looked. I didnt even change video cards, the dvi was open on mine and I got some ati software that allows me to save profiles so it is just a 1 click thing to switch back and forth. now Im waiting on a additional 2 gigs of memory and a sound card.

how many gigs do you have now?

Keep in mind that the more RAM you get, the more unstable your rig could become. Both people I know who have moved from 2GB to 4GB RAM had to scale back, one to 3 and the other to 2 before the system became stable again.

They had problems with RAM that was not certified for the modules on their motherboard. At 2 GB, that's usually not a problem because there's not a full load on the chipset.

I also just read that the RAM might not be recognized properly by the motherboards which means you might have to go into the BIOS and configure the timings.

Not saying it won't go smoothly - just a heads up in case you pop in the extra 2GB and find that you're not getting the performance boost you'd expect or the system locks up or shuts down or something wonky.
 
Im going from 1g to 3g. thanks for the heads up, I will keep that in mind. it is supposed to be compatible though.
 
32 bit Vista maxes out at 4GB, and you have to subtract your video memory from that, because it uses the same address space.
 
Im going from 1g to 3g. thanks for the heads up, I will keep that in mind. it is supposed to be compatible though.

some memory and motherboards only work well in pairs also, Ive had success with 2x1gb and 2x512mb sticks, 3x1gb might be a problem and might force your motherboard to run the memory at single data rate
 
I'm about to build one myself, along with an unRaid server. I'm going to use a powercolor hd 3850 512mb card for video. I've used a version of an HTPC for about 2 years but I've decided this time around to build a dedicated one in an HTPC case with a remote. For now I'm going to try and use vista ultimate's media center for my front end with some plug-in software for the media library.
 
ati has a radeon with hdmi out that includes the audio with it.
 
Im happy with what I have so far. my tv also has a composite audio on the same input on the hdmi so I can go that route with the audio, and I also have a usb optical audio deivce that is on its way, not sure how that will work but I am cool with just the composite audio on the tv if it doesnt. basically just a matter of hooking up 2 wires and clicking twice and everything is on.
 

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