I like the freedom of being able to access my media content from my computer's hard drive.

Also, if I use a PC, I understand that I do not need to get an AVR, just a sound card then can plug in some 5.1 speaker setup.. Am I correct?

avr is a must coz can get best audio decoding via bitstream from your pc or media player decent graphic card would do,no need sound card

maybe
using gc ati/nvidia interface to setup monitor....
and use cap ayam realtek to control sound..

It depends, most people used low cost, decent performance HTPC, small casing and only 1 HDD.
A media player also capable to do this with less cost. But it required AVR or Digital AMP to get 5.1 ch (some media player also have analog out but expensive).

With HTPC, you can have more configurable sound option, not just by soundcard driver, but audio codec as well like ffdshow.

Consider about power consumption, low power HTPC is good, but using AVR will defeat the purpose. Just get 5.1 logitech or creative is enough.

Unless you have high end HTPC, with 10x2TB hdd and around 500 HD movie with HD sound, then AVR is a must.

Why only high end HTPC should use AVR?

Also what AVR you would recommend?


Thanks!

Now... what should I do if I want my astro decoder to be hooked up to the same speakers? It should be quite tricky, or impossible because the speakers are hooked up to my PC and my Astro is not.

it could be done. but albeit with some tricky configuration. you need 2 sound device and config the media player to use the secondary sound device. or set the game to use the other sound device. but you need to mess with each game config. or if you use ffdshow need to config it inside ffdshow.

and you need to lock the display of the media player to a secondary monitor. need to use multi-display manager like ATI HydraVision or the one from nvidia. and maybe lock the game display to the first monitor.

if you're not using an avr, you lose the time alignment functions of the avr, phase correction, level adjustment correction, crossover control and eq function. which all are important for proper audio experience.

avr doesn't suck too much power. my tv uses more electricity than the entire audio setup.
avr is a must if you want the best possible audio quality at home (that is, when watching movie).

and p/s: 20TB of storage will get you more than 500HD movie with HD sound

the one that sounds the best to your ears.

astro -> soundcard line in -> speakers

it is and i agree. What if some one intend to use headphone, do we really need all above option.

TV or display is a must.
but im comparing between Media Player + AVR vs. HTPC + 5.1 Speaker.

best audio quality, then it a must, (i also use avr when playing Games)

How you know i only have 8x2tb hdd and got 800 hd movie with hd sound.

PS: I bought GT430, but still failed to bitstream EAC3 via ffdshow.

This post has been edited by ariff_tech: May 6 2011, 12:10 PM

scratch my previous comment.
buy denon. denon makes the best avr. nothing can even come close to denon.

if it's only headphone then i guess ffdshow preprocessing for headphone 5.1 simulation paired with a good DAC/soundcard is the best.


my vote is to separate the tv + media player and access the media library through the network. the htpc config might prove too hard to do for some.
media player not costs under RM200.


avr have better audio quality because you need to tune the speaker system to the room.


hd sound as in lossless hd audio as in dts-hdma/truhd?
hard to achieve with only 16tb of storage as 1080p mkv with lossless audio easily >17GB each. bdmv easily >25GB each.

Sounds like the HTPC setup would be a little bit tricky. So maybe i should go for the hdpro v8 1283+? It supports 5.1 analogy out. What do you think of its quality?

The link is here: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/986399

remux it using ts muxer, only save the main video and chose prefered audio laungauge, use srt subtitle. you can get around 13 to 17GB.

I agree that HTPC is more meant to be for those geeky individual. If your gf/wife or parents are going to use the device, its better to get a media player.

With HTPC... the benefits definitely outweighs media player

With the media players your stuck with the stock interface...some players might look really nice, compact, sleek.. but when it comes to interface kinda dull and boring.

If u are talking geeky..there are many interfaces that are family friendly like XBMC..
with XBMC you can tweak, download new skins and customize ur layouts easily..

Bored with XBMC.. download another software..

Freedom is the key...

I agree that htpc is very versatile. Thats why I am having one at home too. But after playing around with XBMC, I noticed the major problem is to scrape the movie info etc.... its hard to get it right, and some are not available... (not to mention initial version 10 of XMBC which crashed my htpc, but improve a lot after the updates, but still do).

That why peter32 wrote media player good for wife/parents. Simple and easy to operate.
Wife/parents doesnt care if they can change the theme/skin. They dont care dts or ac3 as long as they can here sound. but they do hate when they click play and windows popup software crash, or suddenly played movie freeze and produce loud noise. And they dont know how to fix this.

Yea..auto movie scraping works 80% of the time.. i usually do a manual scrape in XBMC or use Ember to manually scrape (much more tedious).

http://code.google.com/p/embermediamanager/

Hi, intend to get a HTPC as above. May I know where to buy? Can I get all those in one shop @ Lowyat? My budget would be RM 1000. Is it enough? Any recommended shop? Thanks in advance.

Go CZONE lowayt. Not the cheapest but u can get everything there.

Around 1k can.. instead of 8gb ram/2tb hdd ..4gb/1tb shud be enough

Now c-zone selling the ASUS E35M1-I FUSION non-pro version, cheaper than PRO version RM90 something, so RM1K shd b enuff if u buy E35M1-I/4GB RAM/1TB HDD/DVDRW/ML-03 case/cap ayam PSU

Anyone using XBMC with DSPlayer? I'm having the problem when switching to external subtitle, the movie will go freeze, this is only apply to those movie with DTS-MA or TrueHD audio.