Need a video card (and I guess a sound card) recommendation

I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection. What
features am I looking for? I see the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is highly
rated (for everything including price) but I'm unfamiliar with DVI. Can
I convert to component? I figured on shooting it right into my Sony
HTIB.

Anybody been here yet? Website?


As for sound card, I was thinking anything with optical out...


trent
--
"This user has a pattern of behaviour in the usenet group chi.forsale
that borders on abusive."

trent wrote in :

I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection.

Get an ATI card - they are the best when it comes to video output.
Nvidia cards have horrible TV-out.

What
features am I looking for? I see the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is highly
rated (for everything including price) but I'm unfamiliar with DVI.
Can I convert to component? I figured on shooting it right into my
Sony

Yes, ATI sells a component converter for the Radeon Series of video
cards. Check ATI.com to make sure the particular card is supported.

Anybody been here yet? Website?


As for sound card, I was thinking anything with optical out...

Ya, anything will be fine. A standard sound blaster with optical out
will do very nicely : ) You may want a sound card that support 5.1 or
6.1 audio if you want surround sound. Also check if the video card is
able to pass a Dolby or DTS stream via the optical out ... most can, but
I think some older cards can't. Some sound blasters even come with a
software DD decoder so you don't need a receiver to decode DD or DTS
streams.


--
Lucas Tam )
Please delete "REMOVE" from the e-mail address when replying.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/coolspot18/

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 00:24:11 GMT, Lucas Tam
wrote:

trent wrote in :

I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection.

Get an ATI card - they are the best when it comes to video output.
Nvidia cards have horrible TV-out.

This is not true anymore. The new Nvidia 6600 and 6800 series are
superior to ATI in video output to a TV. Check out the HTPC section at
AVS forums for more details, or the Lifestyles computing section at
www.pcperspective.com.
John

"trent" wrote in message
...
I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection. What
features am I looking for? I see the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is highly
rated (for everything including price) but I'm unfamiliar with DVI. Can
I convert to component? I figured on shooting it right into my Sony
HTIB.

I use the ATI All in Wonder cards, and they work great ever since ATI
started updating their software, and since I started ignoring their
"minimum" system requirements, which are a joke. I suggest either the 9800
Pro or the 9600XT AIW. They're both good for gaming, and the 9600XT has a
MUCH better remote.

ATI sells adapters for all of their AIW cards from the 8500dv up. These
provide a component output for HDTV. The 8500dv has a DVI output, but I
won't be able to test it for a couple days. (yup, I'm finally putting one
together myself) This is a good card if you can find one cheap, and don't
plan on playing Half Life 2 or any game that's fairly recent. The 9600XT,
which powers my main computer, works great.

So far, I haven't had the chance to hook any of my AIW's to my recently
purchased HDTV. Stay tuned.

Anybody been here yet? Website?

www.ati.com

They seem to be out of some of their HDTV adapters, however, you can find
them on Ebay, and probably save a little money to boot.

As for sound card, I was thinking anything with optical out...

I'm going to skip the Soundblaster brand of audio cards for this project.
The ones with optical out are expensive, seem to have these outputs on the
front only, making things a bit uglier, and I don't want to install their
bloated software package. A HTPC can do without all the EAX and whatnot,
since the reciever is doing all the processing anyway, and all that extra
junk can only slow things down, as well as interfere with smooth operation.

For now I'm using the on-board audio on the motherboard (KD7-RAID), which
has the optical out. In the future, if everything works out, I may get the
Turtle Beach Catalina www.turtlebeach.com , which costs $50, supports 7.1
audio, and has optical inputs and outputs, both on the back and out of
sight. In the past, Turtle Beach audio cards have recieved good reviews.

If you want to splurge, you might want to consider getting a case from
Silverstone www.silverstonetek.com. They look like regular audio
components, and they're built very, very well.

Pagan

Pagan wrote:

"trent" wrote in message
...
I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection. What
features am I looking for? I see the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is highly
rated (for everything including price) but I'm unfamiliar with DVI. Can
I convert to component? I figured on shooting it right into my Sony
HTIB.

I use the ATI All in Wonder cards, and they work great ever since ATI
started updating their software, and since I started ignoring their
"minimum" system requirements, which are a joke. I suggest either the 9800
Pro or the 9600XT AIW. They're both good for gaming, and the 9600XT has a
MUCH better remote.

Thanks for the sugeestions and the website references. I'm going with
the ATI 9800XT. Not enough side-by-side info, but ATI has the history
and the connector-bits readily abailable OTC.

Thanks all.


trent
--
"This user has a pattern of behaviour in the usenet group chi.forsale
that borders on abusive."

"trent" wrote in message
...
Pagan wrote:

"trent" wrote in message
...
I'm finally getting around to building the PC portion of the home
theater and I'm kind of at a loss for the video card selection. What
features am I looking for? I see the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is highly
rated (for everything including price) but I'm unfamiliar with DVI.
Can
I convert to component? I figured on shooting it right into my Sony
HTIB.

I use the ATI All in Wonder cards, and they work great ever since ATI
started updating their software, and since I started ignoring their
"minimum" system requirements, which are a joke. I suggest either the
9800
Pro or the 9600XT AIW. They're both good for gaming, and the 9600XT has
a
MUCH better remote.

Thanks for the sugeestions and the website references. I'm going with
the ATI 9800XT. Not enough side-by-side info, but ATI has the history
and the connector-bits readily abailable OTC.

Thanks all.

Hey, the very long awaited X800 AIW just came out, available on
www.newegg.com. It's pricey, but it's AGP, has the Remote Wonder II, a new
tuner, and both DVI and VGA connectors, as well as included component HDTV
connectors.

Also, I forgot to mention that ATI's DVI cards come with a VGA adapter.

Pagan