Using PC upstairs as HTPC

miracleboy

miracleboy

miracleboy

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What would be involved in using my PC in the office upstairs as the HTPC for my lounge downstairs?

I guess I have 2 questions that I need help with;

1) Is my office PC up to playing everything? i.e. the best I can throw at it, like large BD's for example. I know it needs a BD/HDDVD drive installing - but apart from that is there anything else that needs upgrading? A TB drive will be on the list for the near future.

2) What do I need to do to set it up? As for software I have all this done as I was playing around with Media Portal and have my library all setup. But as far as cables - how can I connect the PC to my Pioneer 436XDE downstairs, and how will I control the PC via remote control? I already have a network cable run from the office down to the lounge so it won'r be a problem to run another couple of cables.

My PC spec;

AMD 64 X2 4800+
Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe
Geil 2GB PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon x1900XT-X 512MB TV Out/Dual DVI
WD SE16 320GB SataII 16MB
NEC 16x16 DVDRW
Enermax 500W PSU
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music

Probably going to swap the 1900 for a 3450 HDMI and also add an LG H20L BD/HD drive.
 
Oxy said:
you'll need powerdvd for blu-ray/HD-DVD playback
Click to expand...

I have Media Portal setup on the PC running KM Player and CoreAVC which should be able to run BD/HD discs.

AbsenceJam said:
You can't do that. You can use your office PC as a media server but you'll need a PC or other device attached to your display to do the actual work.
Click to expand...

Yes I was planning to connect the office PC direct to the TV using a 10m HDMI cable run from the office to the lounge.
 
Ah, right then.

You will need PowerDVD unless you want to play each individual m2ts file. If you do that you'll need AnyDVD HD and you will miss out on everything but the basic video and some audio streams of each title on the disc. If you go that route then use MPC-HC or the MPC-HC external filters with kmplayer, they support DXVA so your CPU use will be minuscule if you get a 3450. Even CoreAVC would use silly amount of CPU with that processor.

What are you doing as far as audio is concerned?

If you're able to run an HDMI cable then run a USB cable with a hub on the end as well. You can then plug in KB/Mouse/Remote control or wireless kb/mouse receiver.
 
Oh okay, actually I think PowerDVD came with my DVD drive so I can install that.

I am thinking of running these;

10m HDMI-HDMI cable for video
10m Digitial Coaxial cable for audio
10m USB cable

Seeing as the 3450 doesn't seem to have an HDMI slot and I need to use a DVI-HDMI convertor could I just use my 1900xt or doesn't that have the correct processor to handle BD/HD discs?

Also how will I use the MCE remote control? Do I need to run another cable to take the IR signal back to the PC?
 
I tried a X1950 with a 2GHz C2D decoding hd-dvd and it wasnt smooth at all (with Power DVD 7)

Also be aware that PowerDVD comes in many varieties and the bundled version doesnt alwasy do full decoding of audio
 
Hmm sounds like my 1900 would struggle then. Maybe for the price of the 3450 I should just upgrade being that this PC will be used 90% of the time for media and not at all for games.

Would this card be okay in my system and do the job?

Also checked the manual for my mobo and looks like I might be lucky and it comes with 7.1 HD sound on the board with both optical and digital coax outputs.
 
You'll need PowerDVD 8 Ultra, the one with your drive will be a cutdown version of 5 or 6.

Your current GPU does a very slight bit of decode acceleration but it won't be enough and with the 3450 your CPU use will be next to nothing.

I don't know about your remote.
 
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