HTPC Advice

[aashton]

I am toying with the idea of buying another Mac to use as a Home Theatre PC after having discovered a way of transferring movies (really wanted to say films there :) ) onto hard disc.

My question is what video and audio cards would be best suited to this ? My prerequisites are that the video out includes DVI and preferably RGB ( to feed DVI equipped plasma and Sim2 300plus projector) and that I can feed the digital out from the sound card to my Tag McLaren AV32R processor ( which I may upgrade to the AV192R when I see what if any improvements that brings about ).

Anyone with any experience in this area - advice gratefully appreciated :)

All the best - Andrew

[proufo]

Check the HTPC forum at avsforum.com

[John Moschella]

Andrew,
The HTPC forum is very good but its also a quagmire. With a large display video quality is important and you need to go with a Radeon video card. The one I have does not have DVI out, but others do. They use 10-bit processing and look very good. I think the model with DVI out is the 7500.

For an audio card there is no choice, you should go with a M-audio. They have a number of cards. If you just need digital out to feed your processor then the Audiophile 24/96 will do the job. Its the one I have.

Don't neglect the DVD software player they can make a big difference. The Theater Tek player from Immersive was the best about six months ago and is continually being updated. Compared to WinDVD and PowerDVD is simply the best, easiest to use, and has the best interface.

Lastly, must you use a Mac? If you must then check the avsforum for Mac users. Most people use a PC.