PC is 50' away from TV

[ochadd]

My PC is close enough to the television that a 50' HDMI cable might make the distance. I use a GTX 260 video card that has HDMI capability and onboard sound. On my old ATi 3870 I could not get the sound to pump through the HDMI cable so scapped the idea.

I'm torn between building a stand alone HTPC or trying to set it up through my main PC. It also seems that kind of distance brings in some quality concerns pumping video through the cable at that distance.

I've been obsessed with the idea of a HTPC for some time now. Cash has been tight so $200-300 max would be what I have to work with. Any recommendations on what I should do?

 

[Eug]

Regarding that 50' length: Have you measured it? Be sure to include all routing turns, etc., and add several extra feet for the loop to connect it to the PC and TV. The reason this is important is because you could probably do a 50' feet run with Monoprice silver-plated 22 gauge HDMI cable. It's a bit pricey at $87 plus shipping, but it pays to spend a bit more when you're dealing with such long lengths.

When you have to use longer lengths than 50' though, things get dicier. For one thing, most companies have 75' as the next step up, which is a fifty percent increase in length, and consequently the risk of signal problems goes up dramatically. At those lengths, many people recommend active/powered solutions to prevent significant signal degradation.

 

[shempf]

50' is not a problem.

<strike>RAM elect also make a quality unit, bluejeans is more expensive I believe.</strike>

edit=checked records, it was a component cable that works great via RAM

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: shempf
50' is not a problem.
RAM elect also make a quality unit, bluejeans is more expensive I believe.

Audioholics HDMI test

RAM Electronics' $130 50-foot cable did very poorly in their shootout. They don't list the gauge, but my guess is it is 24 gauge, judging by the fact that RAM Electronics doesn't sell any longer than 50 feet.

Blue Jeans doesn't sell a 50-foot silver-plated 22 gauge cable.
They sell a 50-foot tin-plated 22 gauge cable ($68).
They also sell a 50-foot bonded-pair 23.5 gauge Series 1 cable ($135).
They also sell various 24 gauge cables, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them for a 50-foot run.

I think the best bang for your buck is probably the Monoprice silver-plated 22 gauge HDMI cable for $87, although I would consider the Series 1 $135 cable from Blue Jeans as well.

 

[ochadd]

It's actually about 20' straight away but 50' should give me enough to do the routing. I'll take a look at that monoprice cable. Thanks

 

[Eug]

Just a note: The 22 AWG cables are very stiff.

If say 35ish feet were enough, less expensive and more flexible cables may work well. YMMV.

 

[sivart]

how do you plan on controlling the PC from 50' away? Blue-tooth, RF....

 

[kalrith]

I struggled with this same decision. I have a decent PC that's about 30' from my TV. I had thoughts of setting it up as my HTPC and main PC, but I ran into too many complications. The main problem is that I'd often be gaming on it while my wife would be watching TV on it. That coupled with a lot of energy consumption made me look into a cheap HTPC build.

My goal was to build a PC with low energy consumption, low cost, and good video playback. Here's what I purchased. All prices are after tax, shipping, cashback, and rebates:

• $32: Abit AN-M2 motherboard
  $32: AMD 1.9GHz low-power dual-core processor w/ HSF
  $7.50: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 RAM
  $37: 9500GT video card
  $97: 1TB "Green" hdd w/ 32MB cache
  $82: Hauppauge HVR-2250 dual-ATSC tuner
  $0: Case & power supply that were both free after rebates

$287.50 is the final price. I had a spare copy of Windows XP Home and will be using MediaPortal as my free media center. The only thing left to purchase is an MCE IR receiver for my universal remote, which is $21 shipped on ebay.

I just wanted to let you know that building an HTPC can be very cheap if all you want is good video playback (i.e. not gaming and not uber-fast post-processing).

 

[Crucial]

Where the hell can you find those prices now? That looks like maybe some hot deal used prices on that stuff.

 

[swbsam]

What are you looking to stream? if xvid, hulu, netfix then I suggest just getting an xbox 360

I built a media center for around $380 with a tv tuner card that I now realize is useless.. You can get everything, including blu ray for around $350.. Without bluray $290. Have an extra hard drive? Shave off some cash there too..

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: Crucial
Where the hell can you find those prices now? That looks like maybe some hot deal used prices on that stuff.

Everything's new, and most of it's from scouting out hot deals over the past week or two. The exceptions are the motherboard and the case and power supply. I bought the motherboard here from a reputable ebay store. I got the case and power supply about a year and a half ago on an awesome FAR w/ free shipping deal. I didn't need it at the time, but I figured I could use it eventually.

Newegg had the processor for $37.99 - $5 coupon code - $1.04 Live CB = $31.95.
TigerDirect had the memory for $51.98 - $4.50 Live CB - $40 MIR = $7.48.
Newegg had the hard drive for $109.99 - $10 coupon code - $3.02 Live CB = $96.97.
Newegg had the 9500GT for $58.49 w/ coupon code - $1.61 Live CB - $20 MIR = $36.88.
I followed this link to Buy.com and clicked "Save $25 at Buy.com" on the left. I signed up for Equifax Gold and received a $25-off coupon code about 5 days later. As long as I don't forget to call and cancel with Equifax within the next 3 weeks, I won't have to pay them a dime. The HVR-2250 was 108.01 - $25 coupon code =$83.01. I haven't received an email for Live CB yet, so I didn't include that in the price.

Obviously some of these prices assume I receive the rebates. I've received every mail-in rebate I've ever sent in (probably 30+), so I'm not too concerned about that as long as I remember to send them all in.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: swbsam
What are you looking to stream? if xvid, hulu, netfix then I suggest just getting an xbox 360

I built a media center for around $380 with a tv tuner card that I now realize is useless.. You can get everything, including blu ray for around $350.. Without bluray $290. Have an extra hard drive? Shave off some cash there too..

I think we need some more information. HTPC is a very broad term. Some people use their HTPC to play BD, to record OTA TV or cable TV, to play games, to surf the net, to store media streamed to several other computers/devices, etc. What you use your HTPC for will have a great impact on what you buy. Also, if all you want is to play videos off of your hard drive, then an xbox 360 might be your best bet. If you have either an xbox 360 or a PS3, then you might not need to hook up a computer to your TV at all.

 

[Crucial]

I guess I don't deal with rebates anymore. Too much crap to deal with. My time is worth more to me.

To each his own. I've never seen an AN-M2 without onboard video though. Some kind of gimped board for an OEM PC builder?

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: Crucial
I've never seen an AN-M2 without onboard video though. Some kind of gimped board for an OEM PC builder?

That's what I thought at first, but it's actually AN-M2 V2.0, which includes firewire but no onboard video. It doesn't show up on the website, but it includes it in the manual.

 

[ochadd]

Originally posted by: kalrith

Originally posted by: swbsam
What are you looking to stream? if xvid, hulu, netfix then I suggest just getting an xbox 360

I think we need some more information. HTPC is a very broad term. Some people use their HTPC to play BD, to record OTA TV or cable TV, to play games, to surf the net, to store media streamed to several other computers/devices, etc. What you use your HTPC for will have a great impact on what you buy. Also, if all you want is to play videos off of your hard drive, then an xbox 360 might be your best bet. If you have either an xbox 360 or a PS3, then you might not need to hook up a computer to your TV at all.

I'm looking to play Bluray disks, music, and my ripped DVDs. Would also like to do the Netflix streaming service. I live in a rural area and have Dish network with a DVR that accepts an external hard drive so I'm not sure why I would need those functions.

Honestly I'm happy sitting in the computer room. My significant other does not enjoy that.