From my understanding, that 2 wire should be included with yr nvidia graphic card...

Look for the SPDIF (no. 2) pin on the mobo and plug it into the nvidia card. You will need to plug the HDMI adapter to the DVI port and connect it to the HDMI into the LCD/PLASMA.

You would also need to tell the application where you want to re-direct yr sound as now you would have 2 soundcards ( Realtek chip on-board sound ) and the ones that comes with the ATI HD 4200 on-board graphic card..

The 785 should have both HDMI & SPDIF at the back panel too... but since you have an discreet graphic card, the Radeon HD 4200 would be automatically disabled ( can be configured from the BIOS )...

Hope this helps..

For the wire/pins, just look at the accessories for the newer nvidia card, they should come with it so you get an idea how it looks like..

I could be wrong, I think they look like those wires/connectors that you plug yr chassis to the mobo for power/led/reset type... ( I am just guessing here.. )

Realtek ones hv the SPDIF connector on the mobo cos the ATI HD Audio are integrated into the HD 4200 chip itself to output sound on the HDMI.

Yes, it is very confusing at first... I always get an unknown driver for HD Audio device on the high speed bus for newly installed Win XP... then later I installed an ATI HD Audio driver and that unknown device goes away..

On the Sound at Control Panel, you will find TWO sound device, HD Audio Rear Output (Realtek) and ATI HD Audio Rear Output...

Choose first one to use SPDIF to AV Receiver or analog sound and choose 2nd one for HDMI sound output.

For nvidia gc case, there is ONLY 1 sound device as they direct the 2nd SPDIF to the nvidia for HDMI sound output...

Off topic a bit...

Saw this nice s/w called boxee that ppl runs on mac mini into HD Media Center but it also support win / linux / mac...

Dlink make it into a product called boxee box :-

http://www.dlink.com/boxeebox

The box looks so cool...

Dunno when it will be in Malaysia...

Streaming media over the Internet here is probably very S L O W..

Nice pics

I wonder why some chassis the moved the PSU to the front of the chassis.. like mine, the fan is pulling cool air from the side of the chassis and blow it down towards the mobo..

Yr case, the fan is blowing air toward the chassis cover..

This post has been edited by stan001: Jan 26 2010, 10:58 PM

For HD Audio vs the regular 5.1 Dolby Digital / DTS, what is the key differences ??

Can you "hear" the differences or compare between HD audio and non-HD audio ?

HD movies is easy to "see" cos of higher resolution.. but HD Audio.. can you "hear" the differences...

Yes, I do play mkv files (720p or 1080p) using mpc-hc with DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) on HD 4200 IGP. Only with DTS 5.1 to my AVR (non-HD Audio)...

Runs smoothly... never tried it with Power DVD9 b4. no Blueray drive yet..

I got the 785G with HD 4200, after playing Crysis, I got hooked, with the HD 4200 ( actually a 36XX model renamed ) the performance was really bad, so I also purchased the Sapphire HD 5770 for gaming but I later moved it to another PC for gaming only.

Like some of the replies, HD Audio is well, kinda marketing.. higher bits/freq ( we probably cant tell the diff) if yr sound system is so so only..
HD Display & movies, we can see the bigger resolution... but HD Audio... can you hear it ??

I'm quite happy with DTS/DD 5.1 for HD movies.. no plans to move to HD Audio or 7.1 ( no place to put the other 2 speakers..hehe)

Sorry... I totally confused you, hehe, the HD 4200 is not too good for playing high requirement 3D games but works GREAT for doing GPU acceleration of .mkv even in 1080p with 5.1 DTS sound.. so it does not use the CPU for the .mkv video codec coding....

This post has been edited by stan001: Jan 29 2010, 03:20 AM

Good that you did your homework from reading the past posts..

Yes, you need an AVR that can decode HD Audio via either SPDIF or HDMI... or else use PC speakers with 5.1 ( not sure if there are PC speakers with 7.1 )

Budget for HTPC, hard to advise... everything is around RM200-300, if add them all up also quite high...
can reach RM2000-3000 or more..

Here are some breakdown of the main HTPC components to have (no particular brands) :-

CPU - RM200-400
Mobo - RM300-380 (shd comes with built-in graphic & sound )
HTPC chassis - RM200-500 ( this can cost a lot if you want nice finish to match yr living room )
TV input / recording card - RM300+ ( some come with MediaCenter remote controller )
Wireless Input devices - Wireless (not Cordless) keyboard/mouse or HTPC combo keyboard/trackball - RM200-300
Remote Controller - RM100+
Blueray Disc player / DVD Writer - RM200+ ( I do not have this... )

Other stuff :-

NAS/storage to store yr digital collections of movies / music / photos
BIG HDD/memory/PSU/CPU cooler/etc - depends on size and brands

For light 3D gaming and HD Movie decoding, the 785G IGP, Radeon HD 4200 should be able to do the task. I can play Crysis at low resolution and at medium setting, if you want a bit faster FPS, just overclock the default IGP clock from 500Mhz to 700Mhz..

I installed a HD 5770 on the HTPC rig and later move it to my gaming rig as the HD4200 is able to handle most task except for high resolution 3D gaming in full settings.


From my previous research, the 785G CANNOT do @ 7.1 channel LPCM over HDMI, only a discreet Radeon HD 4000 or 5000 series card are able to do that.
From AnandTech :- http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3615

"This story is developing in real time but AMD is telling us that 8-channel LPCM over HDMI is not supported in the final chipset. More info here."

If you do not need 7.1 LPCM and play 3D games at high resolution, then you do not need a discreet 3D card...

My advise is to buy / built one system at a time... I find most of the fun part is in doing the researching for the products within your budget, hunt for it, built it up and fix any issues along the way ( more buying ) and continue to upgrade your system till your satisfaction (or when you reached yr budget/broke )...

I agree with others, if PC functions are NOT important, get those dedicated media players... they are purpose built with special software written and you do not need to care about software, audio out via HDMI or SPDIF, O/S and drivers issues.

Spend more $$$ on the sound system and large display...

Not many ppl know or like to mess with Windows or media software stuff (media center/powerDVD/mpc-hc/etc..etc) but just wanna enjoy the movie in HD... you decide which "type" you are..

The HQBOX 800 looks much nicer than the cooler master chassis besides your other equipments, but I find the quality is a bit out.. the silver line looks kinda cheap on mine... dunno about yours...

But for the price.. I guess it is okay la.

Really like the CPU/chassis temp & fan speed LCD display, give me a quick look to make sure the chassis is not overheating / CPU fan spinning too fast..

OF coz PQ (picture quality) much better la comparing analog (yellow video RCA cable) vs HDMI all digital..

If you use component cable ( split the video signal to 3 RCA ) I think the PQ would be comparable to HDMI..

I saw those shops selling HDMI cables very expensive with gold connector (Monster brand), I was thinking like... this is digital signal, no matter what connector or cables you use at both ends, the digital signal would still be the SAME.. unlike analog signal used on interconnects and speaker cables..

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Added on February 10, 2010, 9:39 pmSet yr screen resolution to 1920 x 1080.

Try to play a 1080p at full screen... the movie should not be enlarge/zoom and take up all the screen at 100% video size..





This post has been edited by stan001: Feb 10 2010, 09:39 PM

It "could" run without any problems .... depending on yr other items that take power from yr power supply like CPU, mobo, hard disk, fans, CDROM.. and also USB devices that draws power like USB harddisk and others..

Different systems hv different power requirements.. so not the same..

When problems happens, it could be stuff like system unstable, suddenly reboot or even hard disk corruption... or strange things not related to software bugs..

So you can try it first, if system always unstable and strange things happens, then perhaps you should upgrade to a higher rating power supply as all their sizes are the same...

I ALWAYS buy a much higher rating & quality power supply that I can afford b'cos Power Supply Unit will ALWAYS outlast your PC specs... PC specs ( CPU/GPU/MOBO/MEM) after 3-4 years or so.. becomes very "old technology" and runs very slow...

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Added on February 11, 2010, 10:22 amWhen you plug in HDMI to yr laptop, you should extend yr desktop to yr LCD TV... ( dual screen mode, not mirror cos resolution not same )

Goto 2nd screen with LCD display properties and slide the screen resolution to 1920x1080 ...

What the graphic card on yr laptop ??





This post has been edited by stan001: Feb 11 2010, 10:22 AM

My AVR also does not hv HDMI, I use SPDIF (optical) to AVR and HDMI to my Plasma TV... Plasma/LCD..same same la.. just depends on the connections and the specs..

Just buy an TOSLINK (optical cable) for the digital sound connection to the AVR..

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Added on February 17, 2010, 12:53 pmWhat I understand is that nVidia do not do sound and relies on the on-board soundcard where you plug the on-board SPDIF cable into the nvidia graphic card and it will multiplex ( audio & video ) it out via HDMI..

I almost want to get the GTX260 until I heard it faces lots of issues like stock shortages, much more power hungry and heat issues...

End up with a HD 5770 card for future technology protection...

This post has been edited by stan001: Feb 17 2010, 12:53 PM

Opps... did not knew about that... the SPDIF bandwidth is not high enuf for HD Audio...

This is off topic from HTPC, but I am using the D-link DNS-323 NAS.. one of the most supported and hackable NAS via 3rd party linux s/w..

http://wiki.dns323.info/

I installed Transmission P2P BT client to download BT stuff without hv a PC/HTPC on all the time..

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Added on March 13, 2010, 5:44 pmPls goto HTPC V2 at http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1354755

Moderator, pls close this thread.

Thanks



This post has been edited by stan001: Mar 13 2010, 05:44 PM