Best BIG and CHEAP TV for HTPC Use

[dfloyd]

Looking for as big and cheap as possible. As low as possible please, if it was $500 that would be amazing, but I am realistic . It has to be wide screen and I would prefer HDTV out of the box.

I have never had a HTPC or even worked with one. I will be using the HTPC for everything from Gaming, to browsing, to TIVO (I hear this works really well and with the right software is free), to chatting or whatever.

I have seen a wide screen 52" HDTV Projection RCA from Wal-Mart for like $954. The screen had S-Video in, Composite In, and even DVI In (BIG PLUS imo). But still not sure this is a good idea or what I should seek or want.

I hear Plasma is awesome and considering the price it seems to have a big advantage over LCD, but it does seem big LCDs are dropping. Saw a 32" LCD from Wal-Mart for right at the same price as the above 52" projection screen.

My questions are what should i get? Remember the lower and the bigger the better. I just dont really have any extra money so will be selling stuff and squeezing out what extra I can to put this together.

Also I was told that the Ati AIW is one of the best video cards to use to create a HDTV. Is this correct? Reason I ask is right now I would personally prefer to upgrade to a 7800 GT for the price. I have a X800XL and it does not run BF 1942 quite as smooth as I would like and I am sure the 7800 would run some other games like Doom 3 based games as well as some other games quite a bit smoother. But again, if I do that I would have to either find a tv with DVI-In so I could run the card straghit in and I would have to h ave some sort of input and capture card so I can do TIVO and such. Any suggestions on a good card for that? Remember price is most important but it has to look at least cable/VHS quality and I would prefer better if possible.

Thanks very much for any advice up front.

 

[MX2]

I was eyeballing this Samsung which is about the same price as the RCA. Personally, I would go with Samsung before RCA even if I am losing a few inches of screen space.

http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_shop...neID=ccchaddfliljggecfkfcfkjdgoodflh.0

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you want really big for low cost and have a ligh controlled room, check out front projection.

I have an Infocus 4805 with a 76" image.

It's only 480p, but 720p scales down very nicely on it.

 

[Golgatha]

I would get the 7800GT for Purevideo support. I have a separate PC I built for a dedicated HTPC with a 6600GT. The output with true HD material looks amazing and it offloads a lot from the CPU. As far as TIVO type devices go, I would get something that is external USB 2.0 and has hardware MPEG2 assist.

I use an ATI TV Wonder 2.0 on my main rig to record shows and then access them over GbE to my HTPC upstairs. If you want an ATI AIW card, I would wait for one that has the Theatre 550 chip integrated into it. Lots of choices and no perfect single solution as far as I can tell right now though. I'm afraid that my HTPC will be outdated with the new HD-DVD and B-Ray formats since they will only output over HDMI. My problem is my current HTPC only has AGP, so future video cards with HDMI support probably won't come in AGP

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: dfloyd
Looking for as big and cheap as possible. As low as possible please, if it was $500 that would be amazing, but I am realistic . It has to be wide screen and I would prefer HDTV out of the box.

I have never had a HTPC or even worked with one. I will be using the HTPC for everything from Gaming, to browsing, to TIVO (I hear this works really well and with the right software is free), to chatting or whatever.

I have seen a wide screen 52" HDTV Projection RCA from Wal-Mart for like $954. The screen had S-Video in, Composite In, and even DVI In (BIG PLUS imo). But still not sure this is a good idea or what I should seek or want.

I hear Plasma is awesome and considering the price it seems to have a big advantage over LCD, but it does seem big LCDs are dropping. Saw a 32" LCD from Wal-Mart for right at the same price as the above 52" projection screen.

My questions are what should i get? Remember the lower and the bigger the better. I just dont really have any extra money so will be selling stuff and squeezing out what extra I can to put this together.

Also I was told that the Ati AIW is one of the best video cards to use to create a HDTV. Is this correct? Reason I ask is right now I would personally prefer to upgrade to a 7800 GT for the price. I have a X800XL and it does not run BF 1942 quite as smooth as I would like and I am sure the 7800 would run some other games like Doom 3 based games as well as some other games quite a bit smoother. But again, if I do that I would have to either find a tv with DVI-In so I could run the card straghit in and I would have to h ave some sort of input and capture card so I can do TIVO and such. Any suggestions on a good card for that? Remember price is most important but it has to look at least cable/VHS quality and I would prefer better if possible.

Thanks very much for any advice up front.

A couple of things for you:

- What do you mean by "HDTV out of the box"???!!! Do you want an ATSC tuner? Do you want 720p, 1080i, or 1080p capability? Are you banking on your PC having the tuner or ??? I highly recommend you read this article on building an HTPC so you understand what it encompasses.

- You do not need a 7800GT/GTX anymore to get HD Purevideo support. When Forceware driver 81.xx gets released 6600s/6800s series will also get this support. Depending on what resolution you can get from your display and how much you're willing to spend then you should either go with 6600GT or 7800GTX. ATI tends to not have as good of deinterlacing as the Nvidia platforms.

- Please go to theAVS forums , read up on posts on DLPs, LCDs, and Plasmas to get a general gauge of what you are looking for and the pros and cons of each respective display.