Any way to turn a PC into a multi connection video upconvertor?

[coolred]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I hope you don't mind wires running all over the place

me, no not at all.

the wife on the other hand, lol. The way I have my wires run now they run around the walls at the floor, so they are mostly hidden, with carpets covering them in any walkways or areas where they are exposed. Thats why I am glad I can get such cheap video cables, too bad they don't make audio cables that long.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: coolred

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I hope you don't mind wires running all over the place

me, no not at all.

the wife on the other hand, lol. The way I have my wires run now they run around the walls at the floor, so they are mostly hidden, with carpets covering them in any walkways or areas where they are exposed. Thats why I am glad I can get such cheap video cables, too bad they don't make audio cables that long.

Sounds a lot like out livingroom

What kind of audio cables do you mean? I don't think it should be a problem finding audio cables as long as the video cables you want to use.

 

[coolred]

like optical cables, I thought they only went to like 12 feet. And I am sure they make them, but for some reason the store i can get the cables cheap at don't carry composite cables ove rlike 15 feet.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: coolred
like optical cables, I thought they only went to like 12 feet. And I am sure they make them, but for some reason the store i can get the cables cheap at don't carry composite cables ove rlike 15 feet.

Digital coaxial can be found for much longer. I forgot you're limited to optical only for a few of your sources.

Are your consoles are going to be close to your receiver though? No need to run audio to your display devices if you're just going to be using the audio at the receiver.

 

[coolred]

As of right now they are close to the receiver, but I wasn't sure if they would stay close to it, or if I would move them or the receiver. I just know if I move the receiver, I have to rearrange all my speaker wire as well, since I currently have short wires in the back and longer wires to the fronts. If I move the receiver, then I need to move the short cables to the fronts and the long cables to the rears, and thats not something I am looking forward to.

I could just leave the receiver and consoles where they are and move the cable box and tivo over there with the other stuff. But if I do it that way, then i run into the problem with the HTPC. If I keep it close to the receiver, and if I need to use the VGA. Then i will need to find a long VGA cable. Basically any way I do this I have to run, or rerun a bunch of wires, so really either way is about the same amount of work, oh well.

About the HTPC audio out to the receiver, you mentioned something about just using 5.1 direct, how exactly does that work, i have never done that before.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If your receiver has a 5.1 analog input, you can use that to get 5.1 from your computer rather than using a digital cable.

That involves running 6 RCA cables from your computer to your receiver though if you have the input available.

The benefit to this would be that you'd get surround sound from material like games that should give you multichannel output even though it's not encoded into DD / DTS.

Basically it doesn't matter if you aren't doing gaming on your computer.

I talked a little about it in here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=30&threadid=1940133&enterthread=y

 

[coolred]

Yeah i kinda knew that, what i don't understand is how I get the outputs from the pc's sound card. Like my current motherboard has High Definition ADI Soundmax AD1986A
6-channel, auto jack sensing, SPDIF out. But the board only has the 3 audio connections.

 

[coolred]

Well I bought the ground loop isolator, but it didn't correct the problem. I also got a 50' component cable, so I was able to hook up my xbox to the TV. When I did, I still had the hum as well as 3 blueish bars scrolling up the screen. As I said the GLI didn't solve the problem, so I unplugged the composite inputs to the TV, no help. Then I unplugged the svideo connection. Problem is gone. So its an svideo issue, not composite. Is it still ground loop? Any way to fix it

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I went over how to do 5.1 channel analog here
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1968612&enterthread=y

Having bars scroll up the screen was another symptom I had when I was experiencing my own ground loop problem.

When I had my own issue, it was a second sub I had hooked up that had a 3-prong power connection. On the AV123 forum, I saw that people had experienced the same issue and had gotten around it by using one of those cheater 3-to-2 prong converters.

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17122

That was the extent of what I had to do in my own situation to resolve my issue. I actually didn't end up trying that as I was just trying to test out the sub so I moved my secondary system to another room to test it out.

So you're saying the issue only shows up when the s-video connection is made between what sources?
If the s-video is unplugged, does component work correctly?

 

[coolred]

The problem(hum on tivo, xbox, and cable box/bars through screen on xbxo, the bars may be there on the other sources too, but I don't think so)is evident when the s-video is plugged into the s-video on the back of the TV. I have both my tivo and cable box sharing that connection via a switch. I will try each seperately and see if one is causing it. If the s-video is unplugged there is no hum or bars, the thing works perfectly

Tried it out, the hum is evident when either source is plugged in and in use. For instance say I am watching the tivo, if I unplug the cable box s-video connection, the hum is there. If I am using the cable box and I unplug the s-video connection for the tivo, the hum is there. So basically whichever of those 2 sources are in use, that is the one causing the problem.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Is the TV across the room and plugged into a different outlet or is it plugged into the same outlet / power strip like everything else now?

 

[coolred]

It is plugged into the same outlet as the cable box and tivo, but is across the room from the xbox and receiver. I actually have a ups I plan to plug it into soon.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I wish I had more experience in this and could point you in the right direction for what to try next. I'm just not sure what might help you out

 

[coolred]

No problem, if I can't fix it, it still shouldn't end up being a huge problem. Once I get time warner HD, the cable box will use either component or HDMI to connect and the tivo I can either switch to composite or I may just get rid of it in favor of the HTOC/PVR