HCPC..Graphic card what features are needed?

I am thinking of building a hcpc for dvd and high def material [eg t2 ] I was thinking along the lines of a athelon 64 3200ghz with a gig of ram. motherboard graphics card sound card Anyone have a system that can run atleast at 1280x720 resolution smoothly with dts es and dolby digital...help!!!
I will use theatretech software , i also need a recommended DVD play and writer drive. Sound card would need a digital and possibly optical digital output.
Graphics card for about £140
Sound card £45
Oh.. this will be used with a projector!

Thanks guys

 

From what I can gather you want an ATI graphics card for the video (much more flexible than an NVidia card) and something like an M-Audio card for sound (although the SoundStorm audio on an AMD NForce board is good if you buy the right one)

 

I have a radion 9800 pro at the moment is this ok... I fancy something newer now and don't want to leave old pc without a card..thanks !

 

What's the big fuss about ATI cards then? Surely the All-in-Wonder solutions are frowned upon, no?? Best bet is to keep capture & display separate isn't it?

Also, have you read this about nVidia's PureVideo?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2305

Personally I'm tempted to get one of the Gigabyte Fanless 6800's - QuietPc & Scan both stock them, not cheap though...

 

What 'fuss' are you referring to?

IMX PureVideo is more hype than substance, the improvement over non-PV using the 6800GT I had was invisible to me on my H77 .. and while still captures show the 6800GT was better then my 9600 the differences were minimal, nothing to my mind which said nVidia was the 'no brainer' way to go given the cost compared to a fanless 9600.
As for comparing the nVidia codecs with DScaler 5, DS5 is still work in progress and certainly on my H77 didn't prove as good .. but the nVidia codecs work perfectly well on ATIs.

 

I wouldn't get a fanless 9600 as it has too little grunt for gaming imho, which i'd want. Is there a fanless X800 available??

I thought the 6800GT did have PV, but just would use more CPU power:

I was just curious from a more general viewpoint, 'cos I've read a fair few "go with ATI" posts here and there and am just hoping for a list of pros/cons of using ATI or nVidia to drive a hires plasma...

Also what would happen if you capture via a Sweetspot RGB card -> DScaler4 -> nVidia 6800. Would there be any benefit to including DScaler in the loop?

 

PureVideo is only partially functional on NV40 and NV45 (GeForce 6800 Ultra and 6800GT, AGP and PCIe), all of the de-interlacing and image quality functionality is there, however those GPUs do not have any WMV9 decode acceleration.

So actually the 6600GT would be a better card to buy.

 

To be honest I don't think many people or any are going to be able to answer your question. I asked a similar question - which is better ATI or nVidia - which graphics card should I get?

I got a few answers a lot of people said nVidia, due to purevideo and not so many said ATI. In the end I choose nVidia simply because all my previous graphic cards have been that make.

I have it running now and the advantage I can see is that the purevideo drivers (nVidia DVD decoders) are good. The forceware drivers allow you to setup custom ratios (ATI you have to use powerstrip).

However the quality of picture in overlay is what concerns me the most, but I cannot comment as I have not got an ATI card to test it. Though from what I have read it may seem like the ATI has the slight edge in overlay over the nVidia, but I decline to comment further on this until I have actually tried it myself.

Anyone near me want to come round and do some comparisions with their ATI card?