Is it worth building a second pc as part of a home theatre system?

[FrodoB]

With the money/gift certificates I get for Christmas I want a Dolby 5.1 home theatre system. I have a DVD player and a 27 inch tv with S-Video. I should have about $300 to spend, and there are some deals on decent lower end systems at Best Buy and Circuit City for about that amount. But I was wondering if it'd be worth it to build a second computer for that amount instead of a receiver and just buy speakers that would be similar to the ones I could get from a $300 home theatre system.

Right now I have an extra Duron 700. My brother has an extra ECS K7S5A that I could buy for $25. I can take 256 megs of DDR out of my machine (I never fully utilize the 768 I have) and my second 13 gig hard drive that is used for media storage can be taken out. I use a 4 port router, so this potential new machine would be abe to use my dsl connection. So then I would just need a video card with S-Video out, a Dolby 5.1 sound card with some kind of input for my tv and VCR, a DVD drive (which would be used instead of my 3 year old Magnavox player), and case and power supply. I also have an extra 8x4x32 CDRW drive that can be used in this machine. I was thinking about maybe a Radeon 7000 w/S-Video out or Radeon 7500 LE ($40 to $50 at Newegg), Lite-On DVD Drive ($44), and a SB Live or Audigy ($50 - $80). Including a case this could be had for under $200. And then I'd have a bit over $100 for a speaker/subwoofer system. That sounds cheap, but I'm guess the quality of the speakers would be similar to ones found in a regular $300 system.

I also thought about an NForce board with its own onboard video and 5.1 sound. But I'm not sure if that has S-Video out or if it allows for my tv and vcr to be hooked up to the computer, which would send it to my speakers. This may be a cheaper option.

Is all of this even worth it? Or should I just buy a normal system? If it is worth it to build another computer, can I send the sound frm my tv and vcr to the speakers connected to the sound card. Is a computer based system able to amplify the sound for the speakers? Is the Duron 700 fast enough for this set-up? I could also eventually buy a wireless keyboard and mouse to brower the net from tv. And I am interested in having a second system anyway. Does it make sense to all of this?

 

[LikeLinus]

If you don't have an HDTV, you won't be able to browse webpages or read text on a standard TV. All text is blurry at standard TV resolutions and very hard to read. While you could use it as a DVD player and to stream music, i guess the real question is how often would you use it vs. the money spent.

Personally I just built a HTPC for my theater...but since i have a HDTV i can browse webpages and use my TV as a real "monitor". I use it mostly to stream music and video to my TV. I don't use it for DVD's since i have a nice progressive scan tv.

 

[Valinos]

do you need one of those set-top hdtv decoders (or whatever they are) to convert xbox games/dvd movies to 480p/720p/1080i? I have both connected to the component inputs on my Toshiba 50" HDTV, but they don't look quite like the stuff playing on the TVs in the stores. I also had a computer connected as a HT setup with a Radeon 32mb v-out to svideo. Easier to read the text than say an older tube TV, but still blurry.

 

[LikeLinus]

The stuff they are playing in the showroom is a 1080i feed from DSS. It's a bit gay that they don't show you what it'll look like without an HD feed.

You do NOT need a set top decoder for Xbox or computer or DVD player. You only need a set top decoder for OTA (off the air - antena signals) and DTV.

 

[RaiderJ]

can I send the sound frm my tv and vcr to the speakers connected to the sound card. Is a computer based system able to amplify the sound for the speakers?

Yes, you should be able to connect all the audio sources you want as aux. inputs to your computer, although a trip to Radioshack may be inorder. Computers don't act as audio amps, so you will need to by powered speakers, or an amp + speakers.


Is the Duron 700 fast enough for this set-up? I could also eventually buy a wireless keyboard and mouse to brower the net from tv. And I am interested in having a second system anyway. Does it make sense to all of this?

A Duron 700 should be sufficient to play MP3's, DVD's, but may be a bit weak for any type of realtime video encoding, should you want to have a PVR-type setup. As for a keyboard/mouse, I personally like the combo setup that Newegg has.

Overall, if you only have $300 to spend, I'd go with the non-computer route. You'd probably just get a nicer setup for the same cost. Using computers as HTPC's is really fun, but it does take some work to get setup properly, and it does require you to buy extra stuff that a normal setup doesn't require.

 

[gecko96821]

This might not be all that helpful for you since your budget is only $300, but it's a cool article about building a PC for a home theatre system...

link

 

[FrodoB]

Thanks everyone for all the info. I'm a little down on the idea now, but still hoping it can somehow work. Would the DVD video from the computer to my tv be of poor quality? Is text really that blurry on a regular TV? I have limited space in my apartment, so I didn't want to have to use a monitor for a second computer. The idea of building an HTPC is so damn fascinating to me. 🙂 But I guess $300 isn't enough, despite what I already have. Maybe if I used a dual display video card, I could use an old monitor for just messing around with the system and send dvd to through the svideo out to the tv. A friend of mine has an old 15 inch he wants to get rid of. My entertainment center has enough large compartments to store the monitor. I'm desperate for this to be feasible. I also want a second computer just to be able to experiment with Windows 2000 networking. But first priority is the dolby 5.1 system. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone.