HTPC and picture quality

croni486

croni486

croni486

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Joined
18 Apr 2004
Posts
231
I'm currently looking into building myself a HTPC and am unsure on if this would be a worthwhile upgrade/expence due to picture quality. I currently have all my dvd's ripped and stored on my file server in the garage and access them through a dlink media streamer connected to my Panasonic TH50PZ70 via HDMI.

I've connected my daughters TV via the `s` video out on her x1950pro graphics card but the quality of picture is pretty poor and this is whats putting me off spending the money. If i did go down the HTPC route and had £500 to spend which would include everthing bar the keyboard/mouse what should i be looking at.
 
im running my HTPC via dvi-HDMI and get a 1080i HDCP compliant signal. Blu-ray/HD-DVd picture is exceptional.

DVD picture is upscaled to 1080i again get a very good picture.

I would ditch S video and use your HDMI port.

This is my hardware for my HTPC:

e6300 @ 1.86 ghz
Gigabyte GA-VM900M (Crappy motherboard but fine for HTPC, would get a G31-33 for new biuld)
8600GT HDCP Gigabyte passive cooling
LG Blu-ray/HD reader
Sugo 02B case
160 GB HDD
Vista x86 home premium
PowerDVD ultra (bundled free with LG drive)
 
I mean u bog standard *cough* home movie avi will still be the same as ** streamer i guess.

a HTPc comes into its own when upscaling DVD's, defoo on blu ray & HD-DVD.

Get dual freeview tuners so i can record multiple channels, pause tv etc etc.

DVI-HDMI or DVI-DVI is the way to go
 
SD AVI's will look better from your HTPC, due to ffdshow scaling. A HTPC to a LCD will look superb, if using DVI-HDMI and native resolution 1:1. Exactly like your PC monitor, just bigger.
 
S-video sucks for PC/TV connection, it's good enough for video but text, ect is too blurry. Go for a DVI/HDMI (digital) setup.

You'll need to see what uses you wanna get out of it first.

Do you wanna record TV?
Do you wanna playback HiDef video?
Games? Surfing the interwebs?

and what about noise, you might wanna look for a near fanless solution. I'd make sure they are hooked up with wireless ethernet also.
 
What i'd like is something that will replace my fileserver, holding my dvd's and music. I'll not be playing any games but will need it to be able to browse web pages for torrents.

It will replace my media streamer which will then go upstairs in my daughters room( I also have one in my room). These will all be connected via netgears ethernet over power.

At the moment my server can accomodate 2 media streamers and both my kids computers watching dvd's stored on it. As long as the HTPC will be able to compete and quality isnt degraded the boss will be happy.
 
I've got my HTPC as the music storage, with two Squeezebox's for music playback. Video playback is direct from the HTPC, although I guess you could use video media streamers as well, that access the shared data on your server.
 
If your hosting movies on your HTPC, how many are we looking at you might wanna go for either a big PC case and hide it or a big HTPC kind of case, Thermaltake have a bigish HTPC case.
 
croni486 said:
What would be the best GPU for an HTPC?, this is the only component that i'm unsure about.
Click to expand...

8600GT
2600 pro

isnt there new 3650's out? or on pre-order anywhere? I guess they replace the 2600 so might wanna research them.

There are also 3450 if i remember correctly that might be ok for 1080p. You would need to look into it.
 
As my LCD TV is being fixed I am using my Dell 3007 with my HTPC as the main TV. The 8600GTS is doing an absolutely great job of running at 2560*1600. It upscales Freeview SD with virtually no problems and at a viewing distance of 1.5m doesn't give any appearance of being blocky.

As for parts OXY's suggestion is fine but I would go with a 2.5" drive for quietness.
 
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