new computer help HTPC

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whats peoples views on this to use as a HTPC? connected to my 42HDtv

link

its abit over my budget but i dont mind really. i want one with a large hard drive for storing video, music etc...

i also want to watch blue rays on it and do away with my player. it has HDMI and 7.1 audio. will the quality be good? i want to be able to watch HD videos on line with ease.

im not too bothered about pc gaming put like to have the option.

whats peoples views on this any weak points? the size is also important so it fits next to my AV reciever.

also any ideas how quiet they are?

[Mikesx13]

I've just been through this process and whittled it down to three.

ASRock Vision 3D
Dell Zino HD
Ebay special

The ebay special was about the same spec as the one you listed but for £200 less. The company seemed very knowledgable and answered all my questions very quickly.

I ended up going for the Dell, for £550 though I'd probably go for the ASRock

Edit: The ASRock and Dell are near silent and the ebay one had an option to make it near silent, not sure on the HP you linked to plus it's ugly and big!

[sideways14a]

Week points for all of those listed above are the video systems, fine for basic htpc stuff like video playback and that but if your thinking about any gaming then they will all suck hugely.

[Mikesx13]

Week points for all of those listed above are the video systems, fine for basic htpc stuff like video playback and that but if your thinking about any gaming then they will all suck hugely.

I think they'll be fine on some of the older games, there's always going to be a compromise though whether it be on price, size or spec.

You need to decide whether the size of the chassis or gaming aspect is more important, if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360 is gaming on your HTPC really that important?

Oh, forgot to add noise into the list of potential compromises, usually the higher the higher the cooling demands.

[ads.r]

thanks for the reply

not sure on the HP you linked to plus it's ugly and big!

it looks really nice in pc world

what else could i consider for 500 - 600 wingwangs?

[ads.r]

I think they'll be fine on some of the older games, there's always going to be a compromise though whether it be on price, size or spec.

You need to decide whether the size of the chassis or gaming aspect is more important, if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360 is gaming on your HTPC really that important?

Oh, forgot to add noise into the list of potential compromises, usually the higher the higher the cooling demands.

i use my xbox all the time so gamings not crucial. just like the idea of been able to use it for gaming

[sideways14a]

Yes on games 5 years old it may be ok, but forget high detail and decent resolutions with those cards trying to fill a 1080p 42" display.
They are low end, if you want half decent graphics your going to have to get something with more kick.

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Yes on games 5 years old it may be ok, but forget high detail and decent resolutions with those cards trying to fill a 1080p 42" display.
They are low end, if you want half decent graphics your going to have to get something with more kick.

does that go for video playback aswell?

would i be able to upgrade the graphics card?

[sideways14a]

Video playback is generally untaxing on hardware, they will be fine for dvd's and stuff like that, more modern cards do tend to accelerate flash playback and help with post processing ect ... but the main use of a more performance orientated card is for playing games in 3d.

You can generally upgrade a card (you dont need to go mental, a 70-100 quid card is generally enough for a lot of folk) but you will have to ensure you computer can take it - a lot only accept low profile pci express cards like your HP you linked.

Depends what you want to do, if your wanting to do some modest gaming then try and get something with a bit of grunt.
If not then dont bother.

[DLowe]

Don't bother with blu ray on a Windows PC - mines been nothing but a pain in the arse, I have done everything as should and payed for software etc and I still end up lpaying 50% of them in the PS3, I wish I had just invested in a good blu ray player instead

[ads.r]

Don't bother with blu ray on a Windows PC - mines been nothing but a pain in the arse, I have done everything as should and payed for software etc and I still end up lpaying 50% of them in the PS3, I wish I had just invested in a good blu ray player instead

oh dear is this common?

[DLowe]

Microsoft don't seem to have any plans to support it (I wonder why? Xbox HD dvd balls up probably) and all the times I have round them discussing it online they are skipping it and concentrating on downloaded and streamed media instead.

If I hadn't plowed so much cash into mine I'd have got a mini pc with no optic drive and a seperate Blu ray player and saved all the aggro and annoyance when it takes 10 mins of buzzing from the drive to find it refuses to play

[Mikesx13]

In terms of gaming the latest games are so demanding on the hardware that if you want to play them then get a gaming PC.

If this PC is primarily for your front room to watch streamed/downloaded content and listen to music then ignore the gaming part because it's just not compatible with the other things you want it to do/be.

They will all cope fine with 1080p playback though.

What AV amp are you running? Will the HP support digital audio pass through for connection to your amp?

[Dave_S]

If it's purely for an HTPC with no gaming then Acer Revo FTW!

Dave

[ads.r]

In terms of gaming the latest games are so demanding on the hardware that if you want to play them then get a gaming PC.

If this PC is primarily for your front room to watch streamed/downloaded content and listen to music then ignore the gaming part because it's just not compatible with the other things you want it to do/be.

They will all cope fine with 1080p playback though.

What AV amp are you running? Will the HP support digital audio pass through for connection to your amp?

thought you could connect anything to an amp? its an onkyo tx-sr608

If it's purely for an HTPC with no gaming then Acer Revo FTW!

Dave

yea looked at these do they play blue ray?

[Mikesx13]

thought you could connect anything to an amp? its an onkyo tx-sr608




yea looked at these do they play blue ray?

I'm a little confused about it myself but have found this article which goes some way to explaining it:

If you have followed the home theater PC space for the past few years, you would have noticed it is getting more attention from several big name players such as Intel, NVIDIA, ATI, ASUS, Auzentech, CyberLink and several others. They are all working pretty closely together to improve not only the video experience, but also the audio experience for your movie watching enjoyment.

ASUS was the first to introduce a PC audio card to the market that was able to send a lossless bitstream audio stream from your Blu-ray movie to your standalone amplifier. Why is this important? Hollywood movie studios and the industry in general are very protective of their content and made it rather difficult to get the best audio experience on a computer. Without bitstreaming, HD audio is usually down-sampled to a much lower bit-rate (normally around DVD level quality) and that's like a kick in the balls to the savvy and tech aware consumer who buys the movies on Blu-ray and don't get the full HD experience which they pay for.

This type of audio pass-through represents the best possible audio quality one can attain from their home theater setup by sending a direct and lossless audio stream to your ears, well, speakers (via your amp) over a digital connection - that being a HDMI 1.3 cable and above. So, with products out on the market to work around these limitations, folks with home theater PCs (HTPCs) were able to experience full HD audio quality with TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) codecs just like high-end standalone Blu-ray players do nowadays.

That, however, meant that the consumers would have to reach into their consumer pockets once again and find their wallets and pay for a separate audio card (such as the HDAV 1.3 from ASUS) when really their motherboard's onboard audio was technically capable of the task without the 'infrastructure' to do it. The good news is that last year AMD announced that its Radeon HD 5000 series of video cards would all get bitstream audio support. AMD has been working with CyberLink who make the popular movie playback software called PowerDVD to get this up and running. So, not only does the video card provide your HTPC with 3D gaming capabilities, but also a premium audio experience.

[Dave_S]

yea looked at these do they play blue ray?

I have a blu-ray drive hooked up to it and Arcsoft Total Media Theatre 5 installed which integrates nicely with Media Centre

Dave

[Draven]

Microsoft don't seem to have any plans to support it (I wonder why? Xbox HD dvd balls up probably) and all the times I have round them discussing it online they are skipping it and concentrating on downloaded and streamed media instead.

If I hadn't plowed so much cash into mine I'd have got a mini pc with no optic drive and a seperate Blu ray player and saved all the aggro and annoyance when it takes 10 mins of buzzing from the drive to find it refuses to play

its not a case of microsoft not wanting to support it, its officially a case of they are not allowed to natively support blu-ray playback
i believe that there was a version of windows 7 beta that natively supported blu-ray playback that resulted in legal issues, not to mention the wonderful stance that UK/Europe/anyone wanting to make life difficult would take the stance of native support for blu-ray would mean nobody would pay for third party playback software effectively putting them out of business and would be an anti-competitive move on microsoft's part.

you are also running cyberlink software for your blu-ray playback, i started off trying to use that, unfurtunately they seem to have forgotten how to write software and all current cyberlink products are unstable, unreliable, system crippling shite of the highest order, on a par with norton and mcaffee !

use the right software with appropriate hardware and its beautiful to use, all of our TV and film watching, TV recording and entertainment needs are provided by a windows 7 media center PC with the only additional software in use from standard being a codec pack for downloaded telly and arcsoft total media theater for blu-ray playback integrated into media center.

my biggest annoyance was audio but last year i bought the Asus xonar HDAV 1.3a and it now feeds proper HD audio to my sony surround unit with a single HDMI cable, if i was re-building i would probably just go for one of the ATI cards that combines it on card rather than the pass-through system of the xonar

[Mikesx13]

So, can anyone confirm if the HP PC that the OP linked to has the necessary audio?

If it says '7.1 surround sound' in the spec for instance does that mean all is hunky dory? What is it you should be looking out for in the specs to get the right audio?

[Draven]

it has HDMI output and according to t'interwebs the nvidia g405 has an audio driver for output over hdmi, the card has a realtek al888 or al889 audio chipset that seems to support HD audio options so it looks like it does