Home theater PC guys, step in

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1

I’m looking to build a desktop computer with HDMI that can be hooked into my home theater system, to use to play movies/music. I have a receiver with plenty of HDMI inputs in it, so essentially I just need a decent desktop with HDMI. However, I don’t know how the other specs (processor speed, ram, graphics card etc) are going to affect the performance of it. I found this one on Tigerdirect:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7742428&pagenumber=2&RSort=1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=REVIEWS#CustomerReviewsBlock

That I was looking into. It’s missing a power supply, hard drive and graphics card. I have an extra 500GB hard drive at my house I can use and need to pick up a power supply. I’m curious if anyone familiar with this can tell me if using the HDMI built into the motherboard will have decent quality, or if ideally I need a graphics card with HDMI to have it look even remotely good on a 47" LED TV.

2

You could essential go DVI to HDMI, or use the onboard. The machine doesn’t really need to be a powerhouse to play a movie off of. Not really liking the shitty AMD dual core but it should get the job done.

3

www.nyspeed.com/showthread.php?225487-New-HTPC-build

Not typing all that out again.

But yeah, if a motherboard is modern enough to have hdmi there’s a real good chance the PC can play a 1080p mkv movie flawlessly.

4

yeah somewhat similar combo (specwise) on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1189016

JayS combo gives you sort of a benchmark on what you can look for. You don’t need much to stream stuff.

5

I run a very basic newer motherboard with an i3 intel and no special video card. If you spend over $200 for the motherboard + CPU you’re wasting money. I watch 1080 movies while downloading stuff and other random activities with no issues.

I got a nice large case with good fans and a bunch of hard drives and stuck it in the basement and ran an HDMI up to my receiver. This way I don’t have to see or hear the PC.

6

My nettop with an atom processor and ion2 graphics could play a 1080p movie no problem. The graphics card does all the work decoding an HD movie rip (h.264 etc). I still prefer my core i3 system because it can run anything you throw at it.

7

If you’re just going to stream movies and music, I would urge you to re-consider your plans and simply get a jailbroken Apple TV 2 with XBMC or aTV. It’s much simpler and cheaper.

8

Not sure if you have a smart TV (you can ignore if you don’t) but I found it easier to just stream everything through my wireless router. I just put all my movies in the public folder on the computer and my TV can pick it up from there. You also don’t need the TV and the computer near each other then

9

Wouldn’t you have to go downstairs every time you want to turn it on then?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you need an apple computer to use apple tv right?

10

I never turn it off. the hard drives are set to shut down after 20 mins of inactivity.

11

Negative, ghostrider. A jailbroken Apple TV can access windows shares on your network and stream from them.

12

That could be a good alternative, my desktop PC already has 1TB of storage and all my music/movies on it. How do you jailbreak the unit/control it? Just with a mouse/keyboard?

13

You jailbreak it by plugging it into your pc via USB cable and following the instructions on the internet. I use a mac, but I know there are jailbreak tools for Windows.

Then you hook it up to your TV via HDMI and use the apple remote to control the device.

Note that the newest Apple TV CANNOT BE JAILBROKEN. You must source a used Apple TV 2.

14

Wonder if that’s part of the reason that the new one is 100 bucks, and the 2nd gen one is 200-300 on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-TV-MC572LL-2nd-Generation/dp/B001FA1NK0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361384541&sr=8-2&keywords=apple+tv+2