I thought I had my mind made up on components for my next PC. But, now that I see that the 8500 All In Wonder (128MB) has only coax output for AC3 audio I have a problem. My older Sony DD receiver only one optical input for digital audio. One of the motherboard I am looking at (the MSI KT3 ULTRA-ARU) has optical SPDIF output. Would this let me pass the signal to my receiver and run the video out of the AIW? The other board on the short list (the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP) only has PCI sound with minimal outputs. If I went with this option I would have to buy a sound card with optical output, no?
I plan to us this setup to capture video from my Tivo to save on VCD or DVD-R (when the time comes), DVD playback on my RCA MM36100 digital monitor and moderate gaming. My home theater setup is far from ideal so small differences in performance are not critical. Getting these multiple jobs done as cleanly as possible is important. I thought the AIW card was going to let me have it all but maybe not.
Any ideas or changes I should make?
TIA
Tom
BTW what is this gamma issue I keep reading about? (I said I was a newbie).
I plan to us this setup to capture video from my Tivo to save on VCD or DVD-R (when the time comes), DVD playback on my RCA MM36100 digital monitor and moderate gaming. My home theater setup is far from ideal so small differences in performance are not critical. Getting these multiple jobs done as cleanly as possible is important. I thought the AIW card was going to let me have it all but maybe not.
Any ideas or changes I should make?
TIA
Tom
BTW what is this gamma issue I keep reading about? (I said I was a newbie).