Questions about a Media PC

[winterlude]

Teclis,
It?s my understanding that DVI is being phased out because of HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) which is supported by HD-DVD and Blue Ray. So basically, if you buy that $1600 TV, you may not be able to view HD-DVD?s or Blue Ray DVD?s on it at full resolution. Supposedly, the quality of the disks outputted through DVI will be downgraded to DVD quality (720x480) instead of High Definition (up to 1440x1080) to protect the content from being copied at high def.
However, you will be able to watch broadcast HD content at full resolution, and there is also a slight chance that your DVI connection does support HDCP (since I?ve read that some do), so you should find that out for the TV you want to buy.
As I mentioned, HDMI is replacing DVI (hence, most TV?s that don?t have HDMI are ?on sale? at most electronics stores) since HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI and also, HDMI supports HDCP.
There was a standard finalized for HDMI 1.3 a couple weeks ago, which really raises the bar for audio and video bandwidth on the connector for future generation electronics, but there probably won?t be a lot of computer and electronics components readily available for purchase featuring HDMI 1.3 until late in the year. Besides, its really for bandwidth in the future. I doubt that any high def content coming out (besides demos) will be able to take full advantage of it.
In short, double check if the tv you want to buy has HDMI too, and if not, check if the DVI supports HDCP (that is, if you think you will be eventually watching HD-DVD or Blueray movies on that TV.)

 

[dev0lution]

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't catch anywhere where you mentioned whether aesthetics and sound were main considerations?

If this is going in your living room, then sound, heat and looks will matter. The rig in my signature is an all-around-use system that's not in my living room, so I don't mind fan noise and the tower case since I game on it and do much more than just watch DVD's or TV.

From the products I've used, I'd make the following recommendations:

1. If you can afford it, go dual core for multi-tasking and multi-media performance.
2. Unless you don't plan on upgrading your video over the life of the MPC, get a separate tuner card and video card. It's a shame to throw an AIW card out and have to buy two new parts instead of upgrading either the tuner or videocard as technology advances.
3. There are 3rd party multimedia suites that others swear by, but if you're running on windows the simplicity of MCE makes it worth it. I had some issues getting BeyondTV to work properly all the time (driver related) and the free MCE program guide updates and remote made it a much easier solution to get up and running for the price. I do wish they gave users more advanced setup options though.
4. If you're using a case that takes more than one HDD, think about getting a small drive for the OS/Apps and a larger storage drive purely for your media or PVR. If using a single drive case, get the largest capacity you can afford. Generally, SATA will be close in price and worth it for the thinner cables for clean case wiring. Multiples of 80GB will generally be cheaper, since they make the most use of each platter in the drive.

Again, it's really all about what you care about and how the system will be used. I'm still on a single core system with 1GB of RAM and it suites my purposes just fine for gaming/media center/general pc use.

 

[Teclis2323]

Hey Winter and Dev0lution!

first of all, Winter - very interesting stuff. I will absolutely make sure that my new TV is compatible with HDMI and/or HDCP. That sounds very interesting, and I will do my best to research it even more. Blue Ray is the replacement for DVD, am I correct?

Devolution - yes, aesthetics matter a bit, and that's why I'm going with an almost entirely passive-cooled system, save the processor's HSF, which will be as quiet as possible. I am definitely going to get MCE, since it seems like it's simply the best thing to do. You say that MCE has a free program guide - this is for television? I will probably get a 250GB for recording, and I suppose I can get a small one for the OS and apps.

Thanks for the continued advice!

 

[Teclis2323]

Hey Winter,

I definitely looked into the HDMI thing. I found a new Plasma TV 42" which definitely supports HDMI, so I should be good on that end. I'm wondering, how does one go about seeing if a graphics card supports HDCP out. I would be looking probably at an ATI Radeon x1300 or so, but I could upgrade if necessary.

 

[winterlude]

It's my understanding that most current video cards don't yet have HDMI out, but they use a DVI-to-HDMI connector. Lots of current video cards are "HDCP ready" which means that their DVI connections will support HDCP, so you should be okay with high definition content from Blu Ray or HD-DVD in the future with one of these cards. ATI claims that the X1300 is HDCP ready, or, at least, some of it's partners have cards that are HDCP ready. Check the specs on the card you want to buy by looking to see if it says anything about HDCP.
Blu Ray isn't necessarily the replacement for DVD. Last I heard, Hollywood was mostly split between companies that signed on with HD-DVD, and others that signed up with Blu Ray. There is currently a "format war" brewing, like Beta and VHS of yesteryear. Samsung, LG, and other companies hope to make a player that can support both like they did with the DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD-RAM format discrepancies of the past which served to slow the adoption of DVD burners--however, despite their formats, all those players could play DVD-ROM content and retail DVDs (e.g. movies). In other words, most people don't want to spend $1000 on a Blu Ray player, then have to spend another grand on a HD-DVD player because their new favorite movie just came out on a different format. Certainly, some people will purchase both, e.g. people who buy the Playstation 3 (which supports Blu Ray...whenever that finally comes out); such people might see the Blu Ray as a bonus, and HD-DVD player as a justifiable purchase as opposed to people who buy both types of players outright.