Build HD HTPC on the cheap

[Zayd]

Hello friends,

I have an ASUS A7N8X mothorboard with an Athlon xp 2400.The video card has a DVI out.what you think getting one or two of the tuner cards I have seen that can get analog cable + OTA HDTV and onboard encoders and ditch DirecTV fully.I do have a network connection in the set. Is this enough of a system to pull it off? Could I maybe up the processing power and RAM and get away with it? Would I need XP Media edition, or will my existing XP Pro installation be enough?

[Sebastian.j]

The tuning hardware produces the bitstream, that can be managed by any modern hard drives. The CPU does hardly any work. Playback is the issue, especially to deinterlace 1080i. That's where the particular video card and its drivers come into play.Recording HDTV is not a problem.With a "full" HTPC, there's DVD playback, which is mostly solved if you have the right video card and a decent DVD player program. And support for a remote control.

[SecRecy]

The issue is the video card is with 1080i HDTV. nVidia its video processing as PureVideo, looking at the support matrix the features you want for High-Definition Content are Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing, MPEG-2 Decode Acceleration,and ofcourse Inverse Telecine. So that's a minimum 7600 GT or 6800 Ultra.I think I found a video card: 7600GT. However, I am totally lost on tuner cards.I don't recall any support for downloading shows, but if you place the video files in the right directory, you can watch them through the interface.

[Russell]

Hi, there as far as for me in HTPC you'll see no difference between the 2400XT and 2600XT, so that should be a little cheaper for you. Plus the 2400XT should do audio over HDMI.If you look at that support matrix, it's mostly PCIe, with AGP to the right. They don't even list the 7600GT AGP, and for whatever reason, sometimes the support is different for the PCIe and AGP versions. You might want to contact nVidia to make sure. Also, they will charge you an extra $30 for PureVideo