Integrated Receiver (1 Viewer)

[PeterFup]

Hi,

I'm considering making my own HTPC.
But I would like to get rid of all my systems in the living room. So no cd, dvd, receiver etc. Just the Media Center and TV. I have 5 ordinary surround speakers that I would like to attach to my new MediaCenter, but would like to attach them directly to the HTPC rather than through a receiver.
Is this possible and if so, can I get a direction as to where I should search for the components.

Thanks,

Peter

 

[Callifo]

Definately not, the soundcard does not provide even close to enough power to drive speakers on its own.

 

[Marcusb]

Depends on how you mean really. Nowadays you can easily get surround speakers where the amp is buil into the sub box.

If that's the case, then what you are suggesting is the perfect htpc and pretty much the same as mine.
All you need is a 6150 chipset based motherboard and an AMD CPU (you can now get 3800 versions for under AU$200) and a dvd burner, a big hard drive (at least 250Gb) and at least one TV tuner card.

There's heaps of suggestions on these boards for best choices.

 

[Tech Geek]

All you need is a 6150 chipset based motherboard

I don't think "need" is the appropriate word here.

If you want the smallest/least expensive solution, then a motherboard with integrated graphics is best.

Both ATi and NVidia have chipsets that will work for this but make sure you are buying a board that supports DirectX 9 Video. ATi's latest should be the best out there but there aren't a lot of boards with it yet since it's only been shipping a month or two.

Also, if you go with integrated graphics, you'll be better off with 1GB of RAM since the video uses part of the system memory. It will be needed if you use some of the fancier skins or lots of plugins.

 

[PeterFup]

As I can read on the net, you mention the 6150 chipset because of the graphics accelerator on it. Not anything with the sound.
I have no problem with finding the right graphics card - integrated or not (I am developing software for playing video as a living ). But when it comes to the sound I'm more lost.
I understand that a sound card doesn't provide the power for the speakers. Then my question is: Can I get a component (pci, usb etc) that "converts" the normal sound out ports to normal speaker ports?
Or is it possible to get a pc sub and attach my normal speakers to this?

This is what I'm currently considering:

Case?
Asus - A8R-MVP
Athlon64 3800+, 2.4 GHz, 512kb Cache, Venice, Socket 939
DVD burner
Western Digital WD3000JS 300GB SATA2
2x512MB Dual Channel PC3200 DDR400 RAM
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR500MCE

/Peter

 

[onkl]

Consider something like this.
Then again, if it's as big as a reciever and has a volume and inputselector buttons, what's the added value of replacing your reciever with it? :wink:
To generate (decently sounding) power, you need some rather bulky elements. It's not very relevant whether you use HTPC->USB->power soundcard (the bulky elements)->speakers or HTPC->analog/digital cable->reciever (the bulky element)->speakers. Once your HTPC is up and running, you can move your reciever to the sereotypical chellar, attic, balcony etc., which everyone (but me) around here seems to have .:wink:

 

[Marcusb]

You won't find a PC sound card that can drive speakers with any resonable volume. If you haven't yet got the speakers then I would suggest Speakers with built in amps.
Any 5.1 PC speaker kit will have this and some domestic home theatre speakers do too. I was thinkin gof something like one of these:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/productlist/US/EN,crid=2172,categoryid=422 The fourth one down is good for small to medium sized rooms.

If you already have speakers with some sort of low level input, then you can simply plug them into your HTPC, but you may need an adaptor for the plugs to match.

 

[aholdt]

Hi Peter!

Know this does not concern your original post, but since you put your other specs in:

Have you considered a digital tuner (DVB-T) ?

Works nicely here in DK now and the quality is far better (at least here by me) than analog TV.

Subtitles is not yet working with MediaPortal but as I understand there is some work in progress here.

Regards
Allan

 

[PeterFup]

To give an idea of what I have and am trying.

I have:
2 floorspeakers like this. An older model but almost the same.
1 Center Speaker - also System Audio
2 Rear speakers - also System Audio

My receiver is broken.

I would like to use these speakers with the Media Center, but control volume etc from the pc and not the receiver (that I don't have).
I can't just buy a Logitech Sub and speakers as suggested and attach my speakers instead of the Logitech ones to the sub?

Allan: If you are using a digital receiver, then you can only get two channels right? (DR and TV2)
If I want to use channels from cable I would need the analog tuner, right?

/Peter

 

[aholdt]

Allan: If you are using a digital receiver, then you can only get two channels right? (DR and TV2)
If I want to use channels from cable I would need the analog tuner, right?

/Peter

You get DR1, DR2 and TV2 that is correct. I do not know much about cable. I know there are different digital (DVB) standards - DVB-T is for Terrestrial (antenna) DVB-C is for Cable and DVB-S is for Sattelite. You can get tuner cards for all three but if they will work with danish cable I do not know. There is a good (danish) forum at http://www.recordere.dk/forum/ - you should consider a peek

Allan