HTPC - getting the best sound and picture

sare^baw's · 5 Sep 2013 at 18:03

I use my pc as a htpc, its connected to a 50" plasma using a quality vga cable and to my Av reciever using a digital coax cable. I have just bought some new quality floor standers (MS aviano 8)and centre speaker (aviano 5) and a second hand high end reciever (sony da5400es).

On my pc i use the motherboard (gigabyte GA-P31) coax digital output for the sound and a Nvidia 8800gt video card using the vga port.

is there a sound card and a video card i can buy that will improve the quality of my sound and video. I watch 720p and 1080p mkv files. I intend to watch blurays soon too so will be using the likes of the tru-hd/ hd dts sound formats.

ReCoN1989 · 6 Sep 2013 at 00:58

You can bitstream hd audio to the reciever via hdmi from the gpu, any modern gpu should do this, the question is do you intent to do any gaming? Something like the passively cooled AMD 7850 could be ideal for a gaming htpc.

andy_mk3 · 6 Sep 2013 at 01:11

Get a cheap (£30) AMD HD 6450, plug into your AMP via HDMI. You'll be able to bitstream the audio to the amp to get the best audio with 5/7.1 DTS, Dolby etc.

The 8800GT will run hot and be power hungry, far from ideal for a HTPC.

sare^baw's · 7 Sep 2013 at 17:11

sorry for the late reply guys

i dont use the pc for gaming. Thanks for mentioning the bitstreaming, i never knew this was possible, i found a guide using powerdvd and it looks easy enough. IS there any other software that does this too, i use win7 media centre with mediabrowser, do i need a seperate program ?

How about the picture quality, would a more expensive gfx card give me a better picture on my plasma?

bitstreaming using the hdmi - is this only possible when watching a movie or can it be done with music or is the digital coax from the motherboard as good as i can get for audio?

andy_mk3 · 7 Sep 2013 at 20:37

I use XBMC and it works great. I'd imagine any program like that will support it.

Graphics card wont make a difference to picture quality at all, it's all or nothing

It works with everything. All the audio is sent digitally over HDMI, Movies depend on the audio they come with, Dolby, DTS etc. Music will be standard 2-channel, the rest is down to what the amp can do with it.

sare^baw's · 9 Sep 2013 at 13:38

andy_mk3 said:
I use XBMC and it works great. I'd imagine any program like that will support it.

Graphics card wont make a difference to picture quality at all, it's all or nothing

It works with everything. All the audio is sent digitally over HDMI, Movies depend on the audio they come with, Dolby, DTS etc. Music will be standard 2-channel, the rest is down to what the amp can do with it.

I have never tried xbmc but as its free there is no harm trying it out.

Ok ill go and buy a cheap AMD HD 6450 about £30 and an hdmi lead. Many thanks for your advice it hads been most helpful.

edit - ordered the saphire amd hd6450 for £30 so should be here soon.

famasfilms · 12 Sep 2013 at 14:52

Did you get this working ok? Is your amp now receiving and decoding DD HD/DTS HD?

How is audio when you're not watching movies handled?

sare^baw's · 13 Sep 2013 at 11:45

famasfilms said:
Did you get this working ok? Is your amp now receiving and decoding DD HD/DTS HD?

How is audio when you're not watching movies handled?

Hi, yes the gfx card was easy to install, im using power dvd for bluray movies, i had to set the audio out to external decoding for hd audio and now my amp recieves the hd audio, i have to say it sounds amazing compared to standard dts and DD.

dan958 · 13 Sep 2013 at 11:49

I can confirm xbmc is great. I use the raspberry pi version - although it's different from the PC version (to fit in with the pi's specs) but it is still a great program.

sare^baw's · 13 Sep 2013 at 12:55

dan958 said:
I can confirm xbmc is great. I use the raspberry pi version - although it's different from the PC version (to fit in with the pi's specs) but it is still a great program.

ill need to give it a try, can it be launched using the media centre remote ie the green button the way it launches media centre or can xbmc be launched from media centre?

dan958 · 13 Sep 2013 at 13:15

sare^baw's said:
ill need to give it a try, can it be launched using the media centre remote ie the green button the way it launches media centre or can xbmc be launched from media centre?

I run it off a linux build, so it will be different.

shadow_boxer · 13 Sep 2013 at 13:24

You can just get XBMC to boot straight up from Windows on startup automatically. That's what most people tend to do. As for assigning a key to boot up a specific application, it depends on the remote you're using. I'm using a Logitech Harmony One so can change buttons and keypresses but if you're using a generic RC6 or MS remote it may not be possible without using another application such as eventghost.

dan958 said:
I can confirm xbmc is great. I use the raspberry pi version - although it's different from the PC version (to fit in with the pi's specs) but it is still a great program.

Just installed the latest Raspbmc on my PI. Absolutely fantastic. Can even use my Logitech remote without needing any sort of adapter or receiver just by selecting TV remote. Very impressed with what they've done.

sare^baw's · 13 Sep 2013 at 13:57

shadow_boxer said:
You can just get XBMC to boot straight up from Windows on startup automatically. That's what most people tend to do. As for assigning a key to boot up a specific application, it depends on the remote you're using. I'm using a Logitech Harmony One so can change buttons and keypresses but if you're using a generic RC6 or MS remote it may not be possible without using another application such as eventghost.
.

Its a standard MS remote i have, its very old and so features are not great. Maybe i need to buy a logitech harmony, i would like to be able to launch foobar and xbmc or mediacentre. I use my pc for downloading too so i dont want anything starting up everytime with windows.

I have updated a lot of my equipment so i think my dated remote is next

joeyjojo · 13 Sep 2013 at 14:23

sare^baw's said:
i have to say it sounds amazing compared to standard dts and DD.

I would bet very few people can hear a difference actually, you and I included. DTS in the main is already "transparent". "HD" audio is unnecessarily high bit-rate for the human ear. IMO they should scrap it and use the extra BD space to reduce the video compression ratio.

I don't doubt you believe it sounds better, that's extremely common in listening tests.

shadow_boxer · 13 Sep 2013 at 14:41

The standard MS remote is actuallt really good and as far as RC6 remotes go its imo the best there is. Logitech remotes though do offer more customisability. I don't know wether you'd be able to program the MS one.

sare^baw's · 14 Sep 2013 at 12:27

joeyjojo said:
I would bet very few people can hear a difference actually, you and I included. DTS in the main is already "transparent". "HD" audio is unnecessarily high bit-rate for the human ear. IMO they should scrap it and use the extra BD space to reduce the video compression ratio.

I don't doubt you believe it sounds better, that's extremely common in listening tests.

You sound a bit over confident, the difference heard is very subjective so you cant say for sure, i will trust my own ears.

sare^baw's · 14 Sep 2013 at 12:34

shadow_boxer said:
The standard MS remote is actuallt really good and as far as RC6 remotes go its imo the best there is. Logitech remotes though do offer more customisability. I don't know wether you'd be able to program the MS one.

I think the customisability would be good, something that can open and close foobar and navigate foobar would be good.