HTPC to replace DVD player - + extras (info needed)

[BarnyardMonkey]

Hey folks,

After having another dvd movie stop halfway in tonight, due to scratched discs,i decided to give the HTPC a try. (Low to Mid range system)

Looking for some basic info/suggestions on some minimum/cheap system requirements that will do what i'm hoping to do.



What it will be used for

(HD/Blu-Ray won't be needed for this)

-DVD/Video player
-Picture storage/viewing
-Basic internet browsing (If any at all)
-Music files
-DVD to Divx converting (May use main PC for this)
-Maybe a little Emulator gaming - Old school stuff
-No overclocking


PC to Tv with good quality is one of the main things i was curious on,as i haven't tried this in about 7 years.hoping things have changed since then.
i have 2 TV's that this will be used on. (62" with S-video/Component - 40" LCD with DVI/Component/Svideo)


Hardware

CPU,Board,and Video is the main concern.
was gonna shoot for something along the lines of:

Matx board (onboard video would be nice to use for this,if possible)
x2 3800+
2G DDR2
HD3450 Video card? (not quite sure)

Also have a couple Athlon xp 2500+ barton barebones if these would work.



Any information on this would be appreciated.


Thanks.

 

[Blain]

Why not just opt for a fresh Philips DVD player?

 

[BarnyardMonkey]

Originally posted by: Blain
Why not just opt for a fresh Philips DVD player?

I thought of that at first, but wanna get away from having to use the DVD's everytime to watch the movies.the kids,and myself included,are doing a number on the dvd's.making most unable to play due to scratches and such.


Some of the extras your able to do with the HTPC is nice as well.


Thanks.

 

[bigsnyder]

I say give the barton systems a go. They will be very capable in playing back your collection, especially when paired with a HD3450 or HD2600 video card. Encoding your DVDs to DIVX will obviously be slower with these systems, but they will get the job done. You can always upgrade to a faster platform if you do not find that the barton systems are satisfactory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Get a 780G AMD AM2+ mobo (with onboard 3200 graphics), and a 2.5Ghz 45w AM2 CPU, the 4850e. Best HTPC bang-for-buck right now.

 

[BarnyardMonkey]

Thanks for the replies.

After checking the barton system,i found out it's a full size atx,and the case i have only fits Matx.(SuperCool DM-387 - was only $35) so looks like i may just grab another board/cpu.


That 780G setup was the exact setup i was gonna try for if i couldn't get the barton system up.but was curious if that onboard 3200 would suffice?.most setups i've seen with those boards weren't using the onboard for some reason.

2600/3450's are cheap at the moment,but if the onboard would work...that would work alot better for me.


Thanks.

 

[Raduque]

The 780G chipset's video portion was pretty much build from the ground-up to accelerate all forms of video. It'll make an excellent playback machine, and paired with just about any X2 4200 or higher will handle HDDVD/BRD with ease.

It'll also tear through DVD->DiVX encoding, but if you want the full HTPC experience you'll want to run a remote/tv-friendly frontend - and almost none of those are really good for transcoding. I'd leave that to your main desktop and then just put the files on a server or other computer.