I'm looking to build a HTPC, to use with a somewhat older home theater setup. My receiver and plasma do not have HDMI inputs or switching. My plasma has a DVI+HDCP input, but that's taken up with DirectTV DVR.
So I need to go component or RGB to plasma + 5.1 analog or SPDIF/Optical to the receiver. The plasma supports 720p and 1080i and its native 1366x768.
I want Blue Ray play and off-air DVR capability and will use windows 7 as the OS and PowerDVD as the player. Not sure about PVR software, but whatever works would be fine.
So here's where I'm stuck:
Video card that supports component video output.
Getting multi-channel audio from Blue Ray on some kind of digital stream without HDMI support.
I was thinking of a Radeon "All-In-Wonder HD Premium". That definitely gets me component, but I think only 720p and it appears to lack ongoing support beyond Vista. It does get me a TV tuner. It also doesn't offer much performance for games, but that's a secondary consideration for me.
Audio seems to be the stumbling block. I have a very nice multi-channel audio receiver, but it lacks HDMI inputs, so I'm pretty much screwed for HDCP protected pass through. So I have to live with analog or dumbed-down digital, if that's possible.
Any advice or thoughts, in particular on the Blue Ray audio issue?
So I need to go component or RGB to plasma + 5.1 analog or SPDIF/Optical to the receiver. The plasma supports 720p and 1080i and its native 1366x768.
I want Blue Ray play and off-air DVR capability and will use windows 7 as the OS and PowerDVD as the player. Not sure about PVR software, but whatever works would be fine.
So here's where I'm stuck:
Video card that supports component video output.
Getting multi-channel audio from Blue Ray on some kind of digital stream without HDMI support.
I was thinking of a Radeon "All-In-Wonder HD Premium". That definitely gets me component, but I think only 720p and it appears to lack ongoing support beyond Vista. It does get me a TV tuner. It also doesn't offer much performance for games, but that's a secondary consideration for me.
Audio seems to be the stumbling block. I have a very nice multi-channel audio receiver, but it lacks HDMI inputs, so I'm pretty much screwed for HDCP protected pass through. So I have to live with analog or dumbed-down digital, if that's possible.
Any advice or thoughts, in particular on the Blue Ray audio issue?
