Graphics card for HTPC?

[Roll]

I'm thinking about putting together my first home theatre PC using a few spare bits I've got.

As I've not built one before I was wondering what minimum specification graphics card I should be looking at to play video smoothly etc. Is it better to go for ATI or nvidia and what features I should look for (eg. TV out etc.). The motherboard I've got for the project is AGP by the way, and I would be connecting the output from the graphics card to a scart socket on a 32" CRT widescreen TV.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Durzel]

If you're going with Linux, I think Nvidia is the better bet - the drivers are just better.

I have an FX5200 in my HTPC and it does the job well. Not sure if it would cope with HD resolutions though.

 

[fornowagain]

I'd recommend the 6600GT. They even do silent ones. IMO NV cards with the NV codecs using VMR9 renderless mode is the best bet.

Try this forum.

 

[Roll]

Thanks, I''l check it out and do some research before I make my mind up

 

[squiffy]

I've heard the ATI mpeg decoder acceleration is very good, and can allow per pixel mapping (Nvidia probably has this now?)

Will you be playing hi-def material?

 

[Roll]

Will you be playing hi-def material?

Very unlikely, at least to start with as I'm only using a CRT Television (32") at the moment.

I really only need a HTPC to begin with which is good enough for this.

 

[BassPunk]

nvidia 6200

just bought a passive asus model which has 128mb

mpeg2 decoding done on the gpu it makes it ideal for htpc

 

[mqketucker]

Very unlikely, at least to start with as I'm only using a CRT Television (32") at the moment.

I really only need a HTPC to begin with which is good enough for this.

i have a media centre pc with two nova-t pci card (freeview cards) and its connected using vga to my HDTV

i use an ati 9200 fanless card and it has no issues, my cpu is a duron 2200+, 512mb ram