nub question about plasmas and HTPCs

[yhlee]

Hey guys... I've been going to a few places to try to read up on HTPCs (like the htpc wiki) but I guess i'm just too old now to process this info .. I was hoping maybe someone could give me a little advice..

first, i'm looking at that 42" panasonic plasma that's on sale at circuit city (in the hot deals forum here).. the resolution on that is 1024x768. Can that do a "true" 720p? I thought 720p was 1366x720? I can understand that if you have "too many pixels", it just letterboxes or whatever, but what happens in this case where you have too few pixels??

second, if I build a HTPC - lets just say for arguments sake I take my regular PC. I already have a sound card, video card and a decent 5.1 sound system... All I would need to "finish" my setup is a screen that can accept VGA or HDMI and a TV card that lets me watch TV on my PC and just connect my PC to the screen? I wouldn't need a receiver or amp or any of that other good stuff, right?

thanks

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: yhlee
Hey guys... I've been going to a few places to try to read up on HTPCs (like the htpc wiki) but I guess i'm just too old now to process this info .. I was hoping maybe someone could give me a little advice..

first, i'm looking at that 42" panasonic plasma that's on sale at circuit city (in the hot deals forum here).. the resolution on that is 1024x768. Can that do a "true" 720p? I thought 720p was 1366x720? I can understand that if you have "too many pixels", it just letterboxes or whatever, but what happens in this case where you have too few pixels??

second, if I build a HTPC - lets just say for arguments sake I take my regular PC. I already have a sound card, video card and a decent 5.1 sound system... All I would need to "finish" my setup is a screen that can accept VGA or HDMI and a TV card that lets me watch TV on my PC and just connect my PC to the screen? I wouldn't need a receiver or amp or any of that other good stuff, right?

thanks

The pixels are that display on not square, they are rectangles. If you hook that up to a computer, the desktop will have an incorrect aspect ratio, thus the image will look fat and wide. This will actually not be that great for an HTPC. There are ways around this of course, you could set the resolution to 1024 X 616 (I believe that is right) for the correct aspect ratio, but that would require a custom resolution through the use of the 3rd party program (PowerStrip).

These types (non-square pixel) of displays look great as a TV's but not as a computer monitor of any sort. When you hook up a DVD player to ths TV, the internal scaler knows where to put each pixel so it looks correct, thus, it can make a great picture out of non standard pixel set.

Without going into to much more detail, let me just put it this way...

This TV will be awesome for Movies, XBox (component), TV. But for computer hoookup, you will be sorely dissapointed.

 

[GrJohnso]

As stated in original reply, it'll be great for movies, tv, etc... I have an HP 42" Plasma that is native 1024-768 as well, but widescreen. It has VGA input, so I've plugged my laptop and regular desk computer into it to play around. For best results, you send it a widescreen signal, such as 1368x768 or what'ev that one is, or similar format. Looks great, and is accurate and not distorted/stretched. You can send it a straight 1024-768 signal but as stated above, it will be stretched a bit since the 1024 pixels are rectangle compared to the normal square pixels.

Anyway, played a bit of Need For Speed Carbon and it was enjoyable, but not "all that". If you are going to be doing more than the occasion game, I'd go with an LCD with higher true resolution. If you are primarily watching video, the color and contrast of the Plasma wins out. That's pretty much what the choice comes down to.

BTW, jumping up to a 50" Plasma get's you the higher res panels most of the time. A few bucks more, but may be worth it to you.

Oh, and to answer the rest of your question....

Yes, to complete your setup you can get one of those nifty ATI All-In-One cards, preferable a newer one that supports HDMi & HDCP (copy protection for video). For the HDMI, you can use the normal DVI out of your card, and a DVI to HDMI cable to hook up to the TV. The HDCP compatability will come in later when they have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disks for your PC at an affordable price. You will eventually need this feature to play those at full resolution to an external monitor/tv, etc..

You can get just a TV Tuner card if you want for now, and this will get you the basic TV play & record functions. Cheaper route, and can be obtained with ATSC (HD Tuners) so you get the most out of your TV.

For the sound, you can get away with what you have, but have some options for the setup. If your sound card handles Dolby Digital Decoding &/or DTS, you can just use the normal audio out jacks to hook it up to your home receiver. Onboard and most consumer level sound cards will only have 'ok' sound output this way. A better choice, if you have it, is to use a digital out from your motherboard/sound card (spdif - optical or coax) and run that to your home receiver, and let your receiver do the decoding for Dolby or DTS. Better quality, less chance for noise, etc...

Have fun! I'm playing around with this a bit now on my own, scraping together extra parts and seeing what I can build....

 

[yhlee]

Hey, thanks for your replies, it was really helpful. I was actually thinking about building a dedicated HTPC from scratch so this wouldn't be my main PC. The only function would be to play DVDs, BluRay (whenever they get cheap), and some divx encoded movies. So based on what you guys are telling me, if this is the case, the HTPC + 42" Plasma would be good, right (sending it an image at 1368x768)? I would probably buy a nicer sound card with a digital out. I'm not looking to spend too much, maybe 2000-2500 for the TV + HTPC.. I spent 2200, 2 years ago on a projector that is now broken (only got a 1 year warranty so i don't want to spend too much. I want an HTPC because I think it would be cheaper to buy a PC blu ray drive than a full fledged BluRay player... also i don't want to have to deal with multiple devices/amp/receiver.. also, if i hook up a decent sound system to this, I could also use it as my mp3 player/stereo

i just hope i can get up at 5am to get that 42" panasonic on black friday