As a newbie on HTPC stuff I turn to you.. I have been reading the forum for a few days and I'm a lot more confused than I was..
Some backgroud first.. I have a LT150 projector and Skyworth DVD. LT150 can only do progressive NTSC and I'm on the PAL area so, even thou 99% of my DVDs are NTSC, I'll have to build a HTPC for viewing PAL DVDs (mayby get rid of the Skyworth in the process).
An additional requirement is that I need to get Digital Satellite programs to my projector as well. Currently I have a digital sateliite receiver capable of sending s-video so I have two possibilities.
In addition to build it as DVD-Player
a) build it as SCALER for my sat receiver
I've heard Zoltrix Genie TV Combo card would be sufficient for s-video capturing (I haven't been able to find any here, any other good capturing cards?). What software do I need, DScaler is enough?
b) add Satellite receiver card to it
I know satellite stuff does not belong to the HTPC forum, but there has to be someone using his HTPC as satellite receiver as well otherwise the HTPC is just a waste of CPU cycles!
I've had my eye on Hauppauge DVB-S Satellite Receiver Card + Common Interface for WinTV DVB-s for a while now. Is it any good for receiving europen satellites? Will I get the picture to the LT150 without additional software, other than what comes with the card?
Back to the problem of what to buy for my HTPC to use it as a DVD-player..
VIDEO:
I was thinking of getting ATI Radeon 32MB SDRAM VE (183MHz) display adapter but I was said that it has been replaced by Radeon 7000 card. A lot of people are using ATI adapters in their HTPCs, it has hardware support for MPEG-2? I have a 32MB NVidia Riva TNT2 adapter currently, why should I replace it with ATI Radeon? While I'm at it should I pay some more to get the 64MB version or is the extra 32MB just a big waste of money?
I tried yesterday WinDVD 2000 2.1 with my NVidia card and with an old Creative 2x DVD-drive to see preview of HTPC and LT150. The DVD movie I used was skipping some frames, is this due my slow DVD-drive or my display adapter? How fast drive I should buy? I'm running 933MHz PIII with 256MB so that should not be the problem?!?
AUDIO:
Currenly I have a SB Live! model CT4620 and CT4660 Digital I/O Card with RCA SPDIF-out. The digital audio stream will go through my sound card to the receiver/amplifier so I don't need to change the audio card? Works on DD and DTS? The negative side being it has no optical out.
Some people are using Nightangle Pro 6 w/digital out (DD/DTS bitstream output) is it THE replacement for my SB Live!
BR,
Palvito
Some backgroud first.. I have a LT150 projector and Skyworth DVD. LT150 can only do progressive NTSC and I'm on the PAL area so, even thou 99% of my DVDs are NTSC, I'll have to build a HTPC for viewing PAL DVDs (mayby get rid of the Skyworth in the process).
An additional requirement is that I need to get Digital Satellite programs to my projector as well. Currently I have a digital sateliite receiver capable of sending s-video so I have two possibilities.
In addition to build it as DVD-Player
a) build it as SCALER for my sat receiver
I've heard Zoltrix Genie TV Combo card would be sufficient for s-video capturing (I haven't been able to find any here, any other good capturing cards?). What software do I need, DScaler is enough?
b) add Satellite receiver card to it
I know satellite stuff does not belong to the HTPC forum, but there has to be someone using his HTPC as satellite receiver as well otherwise the HTPC is just a waste of CPU cycles!
I've had my eye on Hauppauge DVB-S Satellite Receiver Card + Common Interface for WinTV DVB-s for a while now. Is it any good for receiving europen satellites? Will I get the picture to the LT150 without additional software, other than what comes with the card?
Back to the problem of what to buy for my HTPC to use it as a DVD-player..
VIDEO:
I was thinking of getting ATI Radeon 32MB SDRAM VE (183MHz) display adapter but I was said that it has been replaced by Radeon 7000 card. A lot of people are using ATI adapters in their HTPCs, it has hardware support for MPEG-2? I have a 32MB NVidia Riva TNT2 adapter currently, why should I replace it with ATI Radeon? While I'm at it should I pay some more to get the 64MB version or is the extra 32MB just a big waste of money?
I tried yesterday WinDVD 2000 2.1 with my NVidia card and with an old Creative 2x DVD-drive to see preview of HTPC and LT150. The DVD movie I used was skipping some frames, is this due my slow DVD-drive or my display adapter? How fast drive I should buy? I'm running 933MHz PIII with 256MB so that should not be the problem?!?
AUDIO:
Currenly I have a SB Live! model CT4620 and CT4660 Digital I/O Card with RCA SPDIF-out. The digital audio stream will go through my sound card to the receiver/amplifier so I don't need to change the audio card? Works on DD and DTS? The negative side being it has no optical out.
Some people are using Nightangle Pro 6 w/digital out (DD/DTS bitstream output) is it THE replacement for my SB Live!
BR,
Palvito
