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Dom H
Guest
At the moment I have a separates system for both film and music and a PC for work/net/email etc. (oh and an Xbox for gaming) I'm seriously thinking of selling the dvd player and turing the PC into a do-it-all HCPC. Im not sure if its worth the hassle or if it would be comparable performance wise to my current separates. Please can you answer my questions about HCPC'ing at the bottom of the thread. Here is some info..
Current AV Equipment
Sony 900 SACD/DVD Player (using dig to amp)
Denon 3802 Reciever
Pace Digital TV Box
Panasonic Tau 32"
B&W Speakers front/rear
No VCR
Current PC
XP2000+
Radeon (VGA + Svid outputs)
256MB PC2100 (soon to be 768MB)
40GB ATA133
Onboard sound with dig out
Pioneer 106 Slot DVD
Lite-On CD-RW
15" TFT Screen
Broadband Router
What I Want in the System
Play DVD/CD/Mpeg/MP3 etc.etc.
Video output to TV (for now, svid will do) and to a projector (prog scan) when I can afford one. Desktop must be legible on proj.
All audio (pcm, DD, DTS etc.) sent as dig stream to reciever
Digital TV and DAB with recording to HD
Convert standard PAL Xbox's output to prog scan for display on tv/projector?
Not decided if I want it to play games yet, surely quiet cooling is difficult with a gaming pc
Stylish case & infared keyboard
What I Plan to Do
Swap the current Radeon 32MB card for one with VGA/DVI/TV out connections, run the TFT monitor from the vga, projector from the dvi and the tv with s-vid.
Change the case for something more suitable, replace cpu cooler for something quiter and make sure the case cooling is quiet enough.
Keep the onboard sound and use the digital out for everything. Look at upgrading in the future.
Fit a digital tv card and add a second large HD for recording, keeping the original for windows/apps etc.
Install a good software DVD player
Not sure how Id go about inputting the Xbox and converting to prog scan
Questions
1. Firstly is it worth it, what will the quality be like compared to my excellent Sony 900?
2. Any suggestions/modifications to my plan above, Im a little unsure what connections to use, particularly re. connecting to a projector.
3. Is it worth upgrading the sound card as I will always use the amps decoders?
4. Recommendations for a Digital TV card?
5. Same for DVD software? Can I use a decoder with Windows Media Player?
6. What about cooling, I take it standard PC cooling is too noisy, what does everyone else use?
7. How do I convert external sources (Xbox) to output prog scan?
8. Any other advice/info for a HCPC newbie would be greatly received.
Many thanks
Dom
Current AV Equipment
Sony 900 SACD/DVD Player (using dig to amp)
Denon 3802 Reciever
Pace Digital TV Box
Panasonic Tau 32"
B&W Speakers front/rear
No VCR
Current PC
XP2000+
Radeon (VGA + Svid outputs)
256MB PC2100 (soon to be 768MB)
40GB ATA133
Onboard sound with dig out
Pioneer 106 Slot DVD
Lite-On CD-RW
15" TFT Screen
Broadband Router
What I Want in the System
Play DVD/CD/Mpeg/MP3 etc.etc.
Video output to TV (for now, svid will do) and to a projector (prog scan) when I can afford one. Desktop must be legible on proj.
All audio (pcm, DD, DTS etc.) sent as dig stream to reciever
Digital TV and DAB with recording to HD
Convert standard PAL Xbox's output to prog scan for display on tv/projector?
Not decided if I want it to play games yet, surely quiet cooling is difficult with a gaming pc
Stylish case & infared keyboard
What I Plan to Do
Swap the current Radeon 32MB card for one with VGA/DVI/TV out connections, run the TFT monitor from the vga, projector from the dvi and the tv with s-vid.
Change the case for something more suitable, replace cpu cooler for something quiter and make sure the case cooling is quiet enough.
Keep the onboard sound and use the digital out for everything. Look at upgrading in the future.
Fit a digital tv card and add a second large HD for recording, keeping the original for windows/apps etc.
Install a good software DVD player
Not sure how Id go about inputting the Xbox and converting to prog scan
Questions
1. Firstly is it worth it, what will the quality be like compared to my excellent Sony 900?
2. Any suggestions/modifications to my plan above, Im a little unsure what connections to use, particularly re. connecting to a projector.
3. Is it worth upgrading the sound card as I will always use the amps decoders?
4. Recommendations for a Digital TV card?
5. Same for DVD software? Can I use a decoder with Windows Media Player?
6. What about cooling, I take it standard PC cooling is too noisy, what does everyone else use?
7. How do I convert external sources (Xbox) to output prog scan?
8. Any other advice/info for a HCPC newbie would be greatly received.
Many thanks
Dom