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Hello all, I am an audio novice building a new home and have questions. My living room, dinning, kitchen will be one room (octagon shaped) with a large screen TV on one wall viewable from entire area. Under it a computer / server that I want to run all things from. Audio, video, Internet and computer functions. The Internet and computer part are no big deal but the audio and video I'm not sure. The idea is to have all my music and movies stored in the server and played from there. Wireless keyboard and mouse from anywhere in the room. What kind of sound / video card do I need and what type of amp should be coupled with this. Switching? Want typical surround sound / powered sub-woofer for the room. Is this a good approach? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Greg Louisville, KY
Follow Ups:
LinksSys has a product, WMB54G, which is a wireless music bridge. Essentially, the PC streams audio to the MusicBridge which is then connected to the main system using either a digital out (coax cable) or RCA out from the MusicBridge. I recommend udsing the coax connection, the DACs in your hi-fi are probably better than the ones in the MusicBridge.*Anything* that you can play on the PC can be piped out to your main system - CDs, DVDs, WAV files, FLAC files, SHN files, streaming audio from the Internet, etc. The MusicBridge is a very cost-effective and good-sounding way to get music from your PC to your main system. The cost is only $80 or so, Google it and check the prices...
Good luck,
-RW-
Thanks for the responses! I'm trying to follow along with these posts but don't understand any of the acronyms. It sounds like I need to move this to a different sub-forum, but help me to frame the question correctly. These are the things I want to do with my system and the simple minded way I thought they would function;1. Surf the Internet (a video out to the TV acting as my monitor)
2. Watch TV, cable or satellite. (Cable box to both TV for video and Amp. for audio)
3. Record a TV program directly to my PC Hard drive (have no idea how to do this, and I rarely need to do this, so it could be left out)
4. Play music stored on my hard drive (an audio out to the Amp.) Want to this listen to music while surfing should be no problem?
5. Watch a rented DVD (Drop it into the PC's DVD/DVR and hit play)
6. Listen to a CD (Drop it into the PC's DVD/DVR and hit play)
7. Copy a rented DVD to my hard drive (? can this be done)
8. Play video stored on my hard drive (open software that organizes my music, pick song, hit play)
9. Is it possible to do picture in picture, surf the Internet and watch TV at the same time?What type of Amp. should I get?
I have my media center pc set up mainly for audio and the occasional downloaded video file. It outputs a PCM digital audio signal (DD/DTS) to my Proceed AVP pre/pro which handles all the audio switching. I reprogrammed one of the input buttons on the AVP to read "Computer" and now anything audio my comp puts out is just another among many of the inputs feeding my AVP.For video, I tried to do away with a DVD player and just use the software DVD decoders/computer video output of a nVidia GT6500 v-card, but I found that the software based DVD solutions cannot compare quality-wise to a stand alone DVD player such as a Panny S77 ($200) anything by Oppo digital (my Oppo was < $200 shipped).
Likewise, forget hooking your hi-def satellite feed into it and trying to use your comp as a video switcher/recording device, we just aren't there yet. You will be much better off, IMO, doing all your own video switching using the inputs in the back of whatever display you choose to purchase and getting a good universal learning remote that can make it less of a chore.
I have mine set up under my HT components to output to two video devices (the V-Card has two video outs), a 50" panny flatscreen and a Dell 17" LCD display. The Dell display and the wireless keyboard/mouse are at a workstation roughly 20 feet form the plasma/ht/media pc set up. I set this up so that you can work surf the interweb and watch American Idol in hi def at the same time (is that Heaven, or what?) But I had to run a DVI cable that 20 feet to feed video to the Dell LCD display. I can recommend without reservation the wireless keyboard and mouse, btw, which is a Logitech Bluetooth model (I think they only sell one). As long as your distance will not be any more than 20 feet from the bluetooth antenna, which is absolutely the end of the range, you shouldn't have any complaints.
Some tips: goto avsforum.com for serious learning on the subject of a media pc (most of them are videophiles, I find that to them audio is a lesser concern, generally); and goto head-fi.com for general discussion on audio pc (sound card types, dacs etc.) -- they aren't your $10,000 dac crowd, but they seem to know quite a bit about how to get decent sound out of a pc music server).
One more thing, get the biggest fastest harddrive you can afford because media files will fill one of these things up faster than you can possibly imagine. And if you are going to rip all your music files to your computer, you may even want two large hardrives so you can back up your entire collection on a separate drive (ripping sucks). I thought I was going to be good for the rest of my with a 250gb hardrive a year and a half ago and it lasted about 6 months before I started having to manage harddrive space.
First of all, this question is better posted in "Digital - PC Audio".There is a lot more to this that picking the "right" video and soundcard.
When you repost in "Digital - PC Audio", list what sources (formats) you hope to run through the PC.
PowerDVD or WinDVD will handle your HD-DVD requirements with the right hardware, but getting in HDTV video feeds (and syncing up the audio) is a whole other matter.
Running everything through the PC has gotten MORE complicated instead of easier with the advent of the new formats. As these formats evolve, digital rights management (DRM) makes things even more difficult to do in the digital domain.
"I want to run everything through my PC A/V server" may not be the best way to go at this time.
I use a PC for audio only (except for SACD which PC drives cannot play) but no longer for video. PC's are great for DVD playback, but for video feeds from satellite and cable, they can be quite complicated. This is because there is no hardware out there that handles high-def video and corresponding audio streams simultaneously. Sure, there are video cards with HDMI I/O, but to get digital AUDIO into these cards your only option is a simultaneous S/PDIF input onto the card. This is not good if you are trying to use HDMI for video AND audio, or if DRM prevents digital audio from being available over S/PDIF.
Also, you need to be careful when purchasing HDMI PC products. The technology is so new (and in a state of evolution) that getting a card that is 12 - 24 months old could get you the wrong "version" of the HDMI spec.
That is where I would start. Search the net for the HDMI specs and always inquire what spec is being used for a given piece of hardware. Also, check into PowerDVD and WinDVD to see if those players meet your DVD playback needs.
My advice? Use the PC for an Audio and DVD-Video player, and leave the HDTV out of the PC for now. I don't see any advantage (besides bragging rights) to streaming HDTV satellite or cable through a PC server. Sure, using KB/mouse for controlling everything is somewhat "cool", but you're going to need a remote for your satellite/cable box and your multichannel receiver anyhow. You're not going to change HDTV channels using your PC anyways... are you?
Cheers,
Presto
You are SOL if you want high definition audio/video switching using a computer.But for 2 channel audio, it is the only way to go. IMO, ITunes is the greatest thing to happen to music since the invention of the phonograph.
And I'll sure as hell never buy another CD player as long as I live.
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