I am about to start building a HTPC and am trying to decide on a video card that will give me the highest quality output. I currently am using a Pinnacle Showcenter 1000G, but would like to switch to something more configurable and will allow me to work from home on my TV (Sony 60XS955). Previously I used my Matrox G400 for TV-Out and at the time it was by far it had the superior output quality. This was 2 years ago and I assume that Nvidia and ATI have closed the gap or even surpassed Matrox in output quality (I could be wrong). I am looking for recommendations on a card that will work with MCE2005 and doesnt need to be powerful enough for gaming, I have a dual Xeon with a X850 that I used for that. On another note, I would like to setup a PVR if at all possible that can record HD from Time Warner Digital Cable. I currently have a 8300HD for that, but would love to incorporate that feature into the HTPC as well. I know that I have to wait for CableCard support in Vista, but was reading about QAM decoders and wonder if that is something I can use to decode the digital cable feed.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
FYI: The TV is currently using both its HDMI inputs and I would probably need to use the Component input unless HDMI will offer that much of a quality increase.
Thanks,
Brendon
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
FYI: The TV is currently using both its HDMI inputs and I would probably need to use the Component input unless HDMI will offer that much of a quality increase.
Thanks,
Brendon