HTPC .. well kinda!!

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Greetings all,

I would like to know what you all think of this idea and if it is feasible.

In the next few months, Im going to be redoing our basement (putting in a new floor, tearing out that lame wood panelling and putting up drywall, etc, etc). Going to run all the wires behind the wall so it looks neat. Going to build out the far wall (where the tv and stereo components will be) and have the tv mounted flush (but on an angle facing down .. I believe 26 degrees it is?) and then under the tv, build an in wall cabinet for the stereo and install frosted glass doors. Should look pretty nice.

With regards to the HTPC, the mrs and I recently took all of our cd collection and ripped them all to one of our computers. What I would like to do is install a PC in the cabinet solely for the use of playing music through the stereo.

I know very little about M-ATX equipment and am basically looking for some suggestions on what to purchase. I would imagine a "top of the line" pc is not needed since it is only for music. The only thing that I would see being important is the audio card. I have a standard 5.1 home theatre system.

Any ideas?

Thanks a ton folks. I really appreciate it.
LG

[jagabo]

Any bottom of the line pc will work just to play music. Bottom of the line integrated audio will probably have poor a signal to noise ratio and distortion so an upgrade to the audio will be necessary (unless you go digital SPDIF to the amp).

But why stop there? Why not do video to? A slightly better PC will get you full HD video.

[edDV]

And be sure to add Ethernet, optical fiber, telco and several coax before you close that wall. Better yet install a PVC conduit to upstairs so you can draw more cables later. Also consider adding an extra circuit breaker for electrical feed.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Mostly because with the money going into the basement reno's and a new LCD (probably a 46"), the extra $500 - 600 on a full HTPC might not be in the cards.

I have a spare PC at the moment that Im not using. I thought of getting a higher end audio card, a wireless kb and mouse and Im all set to use it from the sofa.

I was maybe thinking of doing internet on it as well but hadnt really decided. I guess a good video card to go out to TV would be needed (not to mention an enet run).

[jagabo]

"Good' graphics cards for video start around $60. High end graphics cards are for gamers. Something like a NVIDIA 8500 GT is sufficient for video.

[themaster1]

cds ripped in mp3 and played through a 5.1 system hmm i don't like that so much
Well i hope u have ripped in 320k at least

[yoda313]

If you are doing this "JUST" for music why not invest in an mp3 player? Get a dock for it with a remote and use some headphone y splitters to send it to the aux in on the stereo. Then you won't need the pc at all.

Now if you want a full fledged video and music pc than yes you need the whole ball of wax. Trust me Windows Media Center is slick. I have Vista Premium with Media Center and it is nice. I FINALLY got it networked with my xbox 360 and it is excellent.

Now back to the music. I have a 30gb ZUNE that I just love. It was 200.00 I believe at Target. An Ipod for the same storage should set you back about the same amount. A 80gb Zune is about 250.00 if I remember right.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Jagabo: Hmm ok. So would an existing AMD 1800+ with 1gb of ram with a new 8500 GT and a new audio card suffice for a HTPC? Im going to assume not so much.

Yoda: An mp3 wouldnt be a bad idea except when you have about 4000 songs, its hard to scroll through them a la windows explorer or what not. Admittedly, I havent seen a Zune so it may be able to do such a thing.

[jagabo]

Jagabo: Hmm ok. So would an existing AMD 1800+ with 1gb of ram with a new 8500 GT and a new audio card suffice for a HTPC? Im going to assume not so much.

That would work fine for standard definition video. I'm pretty sure it would work for high definition video as long as you use a player that supports hardware (by the graphics card) video decoding (h.264, MPEG, WMV).

[RickA]

Greets,

Look to ATI for their video cards as well. I was able to greatly improve the video out to TV quality of my mini HTPC some time ago. Simply by swapping my nVidia 7600GT out with an ATI HD 2600 Pro. A nice card and I am happy with the results. Yes, I realize neither one is top of the line gear by today's standards. Since the OP is on a budget, I believe the ATI HD 2600 Pro is going for about $50 US currently. You may even be able to find a nice deal on the next level tier or two up.

Try different software video players out as well. Some may do better on your system with interlaced, film or progressive content than others. If you play a lot a different formats like DVD's, MKV, etc. For example, on my system VLC does not do well with 24fps film. While Zoom Player handles nicely whatever I throw at it. When I had the nVidia in there it really liked KLM player.

Cheers,
Rick

[yoda313]

Yoda: An mp3 wouldnt be a bad idea except when you have about 4000 songs, its hard to scroll through them a la windows explorer or what not. Admittedly, I havent seen a Zune so it may be able to do such a thing

It has video out. You can get a rca video out cable designed for the zune and it will display on a tv. Than you can scroll by artist or song. It looks just like the player only bigger on a tv. I'm sure that the ipod video models have something similar.