hoping to build a media pc but sound cards and tv connection cloudy for me

[The_Holy_Gav]

hi there

first post so be gentle

i have a 42" hitatchi pd6600 plasma tv and i am hoping to connect a media pc (not built yet), i have many questions so here goes.

is it best to connect using a vga to the pc port on the tele of a dvi from the graphices card to the hdmi via adaptor on the tv (does this cause viewing problems?) the tv will output 1080i through the hdmi and component so i would like to maximise this

now this is the main area i struggle with (pc sound and stand alone amp usage!

i like the look of the creative x-fi sound card but i am confused on why you connect them to an external amp rather than use their own capabilities, i have an old technics 5.1 digital amp sa dx940 although not thx certified would it still play such sound if the graphics does and outputs then through it?

are pc speakers not up to scratch and is that the reason existing stand alone amps and their in place speaker set ups are still used?

loads of help required please, i still in the shall i shall i not stage of building a media pc and these two areas are a bit cloudy for me.

hope you all can help

[PeteD64]

The VGA v DVI/HDMI answer is down to what will work best on your TV.

In theory the all digital DVI/HDMI option sounds best but the HDMI inputs on most TVs are quite limited on the signals they can take from a TV. e.g. it's probably limited to 720p or 1080i & the TV might apply some overscan to the image so the borders get lost. This isn't too bad for viewing video but not for any text type work or viewing the windows desktop.

The VGA input is designed as a PC input so you usually get more choice over resolutions & hopefully you can send a signal that matches the native resolution of the panel.

As for sound I don't think the Creative sound cards do any amplification, although they can probably do the surround sound processing. There was a thread on here recently where someone has one connected up diectly to a 5 channel power amp.

If you already have a 5.1 amp then you can get away with on-board sound or a basic sound card. You just need an optical output from the PC.

PC speakers always look a bit cheap & nasty to me. I'm sure they are fine for an office/bedroom setup but if you want a decent setup for the living room then proper AV amps & speakers should sound a lot better. I guess it depends how much you want to spend.

[rajiveaggarwal]

Originally Posted by The_Holy_Gav

are pc speakers not up to scratch and is that the reason existing stand alone amps and their in place speaker set ups are still used?

PC cards and card software and / or media player do the equivalent of a surround processor - i.e. they decode Dolby digital, DTS, route according to the speaker set-up, bass management etc.

PC speakers are (generally) a combined power amplifier and speaker i.e. the signal from the card is at line-level, and is amplified by the amp in the speaker. This is a workable, but inferior solution if sound quality matters to you.

The discussion on HTPC connected direct to power amps vs. HTPC to surround processor or receiver has been going on for at least 6 years. The jury is still out!

My experience: I went from S/PDIF out from a Creative soundcard to a surround receiver, then dumped the receiver and connected a M-Audio soundcard direct to a power amps using 6 analog connections (big improvement), then gave up because of the inflexibility of this solution and went to S/PDIF out to a dedicated surround processor (big improvement, again). Each step also involved large cost increases.