I'm upgrading a former desktop computer to an HTPC by basically putting a new video card and sound card in it. I just got a new HDTV and my current HTPC is old and slow, and can't play any high-rez content smoothly.
The PC that will take it's place is a 3ghz Pentium 4 w/ 1gb of ram (should be enough horsepower), however it lacks PCI-Express. Eventually I'll probably have an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive in this system for playback of those formats, but for now it'll just be regular DVD and some high rez video files. All the newest cards are PCI-E, but I think I can get by very well without investing in a new system.
nVidia's Pure Video doesn't support all features in AGP, a 7600GS or 7600GT in AGP supports all Pure Video stuff except "Inverse Telecine" and "Bad Edit Correction". Not sure how important these features are.
I'm pretty much totally uneducated about ATi's current video solutions, how those stack up against Pure Video and how their AGP offerings differ from nVidia's.
So basically I'm looking for advice on what card (if any) is a clear leader in the quickly-dying AGP format.
Advice on sound cards would be appreciated too.. I have an old M-Audio Revolution 7.1 I'm using right now, and while I'm happy with the audio quality it outputs, I'm unhappy with it's performance. This card has caused my old HTPC system alot of problems with video and audio stuttering. I'm looking for something that will output a bit-perfect coax digital out.
The PC that will take it's place is a 3ghz Pentium 4 w/ 1gb of ram (should be enough horsepower), however it lacks PCI-Express. Eventually I'll probably have an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive in this system for playback of those formats, but for now it'll just be regular DVD and some high rez video files. All the newest cards are PCI-E, but I think I can get by very well without investing in a new system.
nVidia's Pure Video doesn't support all features in AGP, a 7600GS or 7600GT in AGP supports all Pure Video stuff except "Inverse Telecine" and "Bad Edit Correction". Not sure how important these features are.
I'm pretty much totally uneducated about ATi's current video solutions, how those stack up against Pure Video and how their AGP offerings differ from nVidia's.
So basically I'm looking for advice on what card (if any) is a clear leader in the quickly-dying AGP format.
Advice on sound cards would be appreciated too.. I have an old M-Audio Revolution 7.1 I'm using right now, and while I'm happy with the audio quality it outputs, I'm unhappy with it's performance. This card has caused my old HTPC system alot of problems with video and audio stuttering. I'm looking for something that will output a bit-perfect coax digital out.
