My plans towards HTPC

[Gristy]

ok i think im going to have the money to hook up my HTPC soon for my new room when we move house. These are the planned specs.

MSI Mega PC 180 Deluxe (has Wifi)(AMD Version because has TV-OUT)
200GB HDD
pioneer 108 DVD Burner
512mb DDR400
DVICO HDTV Tuner

So basically it will be hooked up to the TV with TVOUT which the P4 version doesnt have. Anything i wanted to PVR will go through the card. i.e if i get foxtel. And i will be able to get a HDTV Set top box with HDD recorder/DVD Recorder. Which is also a HIFI and a PC. all for around 1200bux which i think is a pretty good idea.

Any thoughts?

[RyoSaeba]

Sounds good. How's your sound going to be setup?

[Gristy]

i have a SHARP thing 5 satelite speakers with the sub/amp in the same unit.

[RyoSaeba]

You might not get 5.1 channel sound without a decent sound card then. Believe me i've been there

[Gristy]

i see, i thought the card in it had 5.1 sound. and the only option would be a external sound card if this is the case

[RyoSaeba]

It does have 5.1 but the realtek 5.1 is really REALLY weak. And doesn't really work all that well. Get an external Audigy or similar. They should work pretty well but i haven't had any experience with those so can't really tell you.

[shousto2]

A word on quality of video, although you may know this. Don't expect s-video output to be special (it's bugged me for ages). I've finally lashed out a card with component video output, which gives a fantastic picture.

Give it some thought -- on HDTV, component video resolution is nearly good enough to use the TV as a monitor, whereas s-video is blur-o-vision. Put another way, it'd be a bummer to plug in your HDTV tuner, and get a fuzzy picture on your TV.

Good luck, however it turns out. At a minimum, having an on demand jukebox rules.

Cheers.

[Gristy]

i noticed this with my pc and projector. tv out sucked but RGB was great. is there a RGB>component adapter by any chance? or do i have to get a card. if so which card would you recommend

[shousto2]

I'm not 110% sure, but I can tell you what I know. First off, you need to make sure that your TV has a component video in, otherwise it's going to be all the same.

In order of best to worst in terms of signal quality:
1. Component
2. S-video
3. Composite

Don't know if there is an adaptor for the MSI box. I think there might be also a question of display drivers (think about the "secondary display" in your display properties) -- many of them are restricted to TV, which while it might be 1024 x 768, doesn't output nicely as an HDTV signal (in my experience at least).

Whereas if you are wanting true HDTV output (esp. if you have widescreen), then component video is all good. I'm running an X800 Pro, and it comes with an adaptor that plugs into the video out on the card. Compared to the 9600 XT I used previously, I can fire up the "component video" option in the display drivers. This supports a desktop of 1920x1080 on widescreen HDTV, and is pretty good.

So, my recommendation: look for a video card with component output, that supports widescreen / HDTV, if running anything other than a 4:3 screen is a consideration. Not sure on the horsepower of the card you'll need; I have seen mid range cards with component out, etc, which would probably do OK also, and are reasonably priced.

D-scaler is a half way option -- cleans up s-video quite a lot, but is still tweaky.

Long post, but hoping you can avoid the 18 months of f*#king about that I have dealt with while I learn all this stuff.

Happy to take an more questions you might have, if I can help.

[Gristy]

at the mo i just have a TV with scart and composite in.. i dont expect it to be amazing with the HDTV as i will upgrade the TV later on to be HDTV compatible. but i definately dont want the fuzz. i know x800 woudlnt fit in the MSI.

[JEL]

Originally Posted by Gristy

i noticed this with my pc and projector. tv out sucked but RGB was great. is there a RGB>component adapter by any chance? or do i have to get a card. if so which card would you recommend

ATI make an adaptor to suit all their Radeon range. The adaptor plug shousto2 mentioned works with any Radeon card. Check here.
Personally , I wouldn't bother. (see below)

What sort of TV are you running now? If it doesn't support HD, and you plan to upgrade later, get one that takes a RGB input, or even better, A DVI/HDMI input.

I run a ATI 9000pro on S-video into a 68cm Sony (10yr old, non HD). PQ is excellent when watching SD TV ( Visionplus DTV ). If your TV isn't a modern HD display, you're not going to see a clear desktop, regardless of which super-duper video card you put in.

Decide if you plan on doing any gaming in this machine. If yes, get a highend ATI card. If not, a lowend ATI card is fine. In BOTH cases, make sure you have a DVI output, and buy your new TV/(or projector) with this as an input.

Some other HTPC places with good info :
http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php
http://forums.dvbowners.com/
http://www.dba.org.au/ ( check out the forums )

[Gristy]

wicked ill prob get it setup with the svideo tv out. and then when i have everything working if the picture is bad ill improive it the best way then.

[harpie]

Hi. I'm tossing abouth between the msi 180 and setting up my own with the antec aria case.
I like the size of the msi but how quiet is it??
Really hate noise from an htpc during quiet scenes.

Have you got yours yet?

[Gristy]

decided not to go with it as gonna save my cash.. if u need a cpu let me know