Using A TV As A Monitor???

[Coln]

Hey all,

Happy with my current setup at the moment, but going to upgrade the computer in a few weeks and hopefully get my surround sound back up and running.

To cut a long story short, used to have my own room in my old house for surround sound, amp, tv, ps2, 360, etc. Now running just the computer and 360 through the monitor. Didn't have enough time or space to set everything up when i moved house so everything sitting in boxes for a year

So at the moment i have

E6600 core 2 duo
Gigabyte DS4
2Gb G-Skill 6400HZ
ATI X1900
NEC 20WGX2 20.1" widescreen monitor

looking to upgrade to

E6600Q quad core
unknown mobo as yet
4Gb memory
ATI 4870

Sitting in boxes in the spare room i have

5 x Velodyne Deco sat speakers
Velodyne CHT12R sub
Denon 1840(? i think) amp
Pioneer 565 DVD player

So basically what i want to do is buy a new 36"-40" TV that will take the place of the monitor. I do play a few games, etc on the computer (Live For Speed, City Life, etc) so it would need to be able to cope with this.

Was also thinking about building myself a silent HTPC for playing mp3's and maybe the odd Blu Ray film or such. How would that fit into the equation, as i could use the old parts from the old computer to help with that (have an even old AMD PC lying here too for bits)

Hope someone can help with this little dilemma

Many thanks,

 

[3dcandy]

expensive to build a pc to play blu-ray, cheaper to get a ps3 I reckon.
expect the £'s to mount up once you put htpc, quiet, and blu-ray into a build - even a half decent case will set you back £100+
I have a htpc/game pc under the tv, and it is pretty good....and the dvds look better upscaled by the htpc - but it has cost a great deal for not that much real performance. m-atx motherboard only in the case, very fiddly to change components, gets fairly hot as not much room. don't let this put you off, just telling you how it is. also, if you get a htpc, I do still recommend getting MCE2005 and/or vista home ultimate as it can make using things like tv guides much easier. also i need a wired connection as only got one free pci slot which is taken up by tv tuner unless i get a usb wireless card...

my favourite case is the antec black fusion jobby, with a vfd display and volume knob. works great with xp mce 2005, and I use frontview to drive the display. sound output to my surround system makes gaming good, and my samsung has a pc input which gives good picture...sorted

 

[TheDean]

I bought a HTPC purely to play HD .mkv files...I'll be loving it when the new Soundcards come out with HDMI audio then I can get a surround sound system!

 

[Coln]

PS3 i'm gonna get, but can honestly say the only game i will buy one for is Gran Turismo 5 which will be next year at least. I don't have any Blu Ray films at the moment so not a biggie for now. I do however have millions of mp3's, so i could just build a cheap, quiet one for now and use it as a music player thingy.

Anyone any opinions on the TV as monitor?? Not had any experience with this side of things. As said before, will be used to play the odd game, 360, DVD's and Sky+

Ta,