budget htpc, carry sound over hdmi

[radhi2good]

pc specs
OS: Win 7 Home Premium
CPU: AMD athlon 64 3500+
RAM: 4 GB DDR2 @368Mhz
MB: Acer EM61SM (Sock M2)
Graphic card: Geforce 9400 GT (MSI), 512MB

my setup:
pc hdmi out goes to a/v receiver,
Wester digital media plaer out goes to av recr,
Sony HTIS 100 av recr out goes to hd monitor

Primary (intention) use: little to medium gaming, play all HD video and audio (DD, DTS) formats with video on HD monitor and sound to AV receiver (Sony HTIS 100) over HDMI

Problem:
Current card has HDMI out and performs ok playing ripped blu rays. but bigger files of full hd movies do not play smoothly. Also, pc hdmi out does not seem to carry sound to av receiver. so i copy over those movies to ext drive and attach to media player which plays it without issues. f/w for media player is outdated, so want to remove dependency on the player.


Any solution for the issue of carrying sound over PC HDMI and alternate suggestion like bit of overhaul (cpu, mb and graphic card) keeping tight budget in mind would be appreciated

[Jimzz]

A 6670 will do what you want. Here is one for $59 AR+Sh

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127586

Good light gaming card but also has UVD3 so its great for HTPC/Light gaming.

As far as upgrading the cheapest is a new video card and a used Dual Core athlon chip. Check to see what CPUs your board supports and then check ForSale sections here and eBay.

[VulgarDisplay]

I think that processor is a bigger issue than your GPU.

[Zap]

Originally Posted by VulgarDisplay

I think that processor is a bigger issue than your GPU.

Yup. For smooth playback without the vagaries of GPU acceleration, the OP needs to upgrade the CPU. May as well look into a completely new platform. Something like an AMD Trinity would be great for playback, plus have better gaming abilities than the 9400 GT. Not that it would be that great for gaming depending on the games played. Depending on what games the OP expects to play, consider a dual core Intel (Pentium G2120 would be great) with a discrete graphics card such as the Radeon 7750 or higher.

[radhi2good]

Thanks Jimzz. One part i missed to tell, I am in India. So prices of graphic card here are almost double of what newegg/amazon sells for in US. In USD, the card you mentioned would cost around $130 to 140. Would SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6450 do the job? Go to know from one of the threads that it has UVD3 feature.

Originally Posted by Jimzz

A 6670 will do what you want. Here is one for $59 AR+Sh

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127586

Good light gaming card but also has UVD3 so its great for HTPC/Light gaming.

As far as upgrading the cheapest is a new video card and a used Dual Core athlon chip. Check to see what CPUs your board supports and then check ForSale sections here and eBay.

[radhi2good]

Thx for suggestion. Not to disrespect, but it doesn't tell if it would solve my main issue: playing all HD audio and video fed to HD monitor and a/v receiver. I love music and sound effects in movies but don't want overkill with huge spending too. Current set up is working so far but requires to copy movies to media player on external drive.

Originally Posted by Zap

Yup. For smooth playback without the vagaries of GPU acceleration, the OP needs to upgrade the CPU. May as well look into a completely new platform. Something like an AMD Trinity would be great for playback, plus have better gaming abilities than the 9400 GT. Not that it would be that great for gaming depending on the games played. Depending on what games the OP expects to play, consider a dual core Intel (Pentium G2120 would be great) with a discrete graphics card such as the Radeon 7750 or higher.

[bigystyle84]

a 6450 will do just fine..

[Fox5]

Radhi2good, your computer might not have a pci express slot, so be wary. It's old enough that it might only have AGP or PCI, which are older cards.

I think all Radeon cards >= the HD 4000 series and all nvidia cards >= Geforce GTX 260 (but not including most 4 digit nvidia cards, ie no 8800) will do audio over HDMI.

Edit: Looks like your motherboard supports some dual core cpus, that might be a worthwhile upgrade as well if you can find any that will work. And double check what kind of video card slot is in your computer.