Building a Home Theater PC: Why do I need a Soundcard?

i want to use my denon ht reciever to decode dd, dts, pl2, etc. signals from the htpc (the mobo has a connection for direct digital coax out):

[analog tv cable]-->[tuner card]-->[htpc motherboard's onboard soundcard]-->[digital coax out]-->[high end digital coax cable]-->[denon ht reciver for decoding (dolby digital, pl2, etc.)]

you notice in this configuration buying a seperate soundcard is not specified.

do you know if this would work?

also, are there any video cards with a dedicated component video out?

redshifter said:

i want to use my denon ht reciever to decode dd, dts, pl2, etc. signals from the htpc (the mobo has a connection for direct digital coax out):

[analog tv cable]-->[tuner card]-->[htpc motherboard's onboard soundcard]-->[digital coax out]-->[high end digital coax cable]-->[denon ht reciver for decoding (dolby digital, pl2, etc.)]

you notice in this configuration buying a seperate soundcard is not specified.

do you know if this would work?

also, are there any video cards with a dedicated component video out?

Click to expand...

I dont know why it wouldnt work. I have my digital coax out on my motherboard and it connects to my receiver. Though I have never streamed a DTS feed to it, only stereo from my mp3 player.

I dont recall ever seeing component outs on a video card, but I would imagine that someone makes one.

thanks for the encouraging reply!

i don't suppose you could try outputting a dolby digital signal from your htpc?

geforce 6600 and up include a s-video to component (i think) dongle to plug into the sc. the reason i want a dedicated component connection is i have a really nice component cable and hate the idea of the adapter dongle bottleneck.

HTPC sound and video

One advantage of a nice PC sound card would be playback of lossless audio files at 24-bit / 96kHz resolution to your receiver (assuming your receiver supports it). Some also decode formats like DVD-A in addition to Dolby and DTS.

Concerning the video cable, you should be able to get an inexpensive adapter to convert from VGA to component video. Svideo is inferior quality to component so an adapter from s-video to component would still have s-video quality.

redshifter said:

thanks for the encouraging reply!

i don't suppose you could try outputting a dolby digital signal from your htpc?

geforce 6600 and up include a s-video to component (i think) dongle to plug into the sc. the reason i want a dedicated component connection is i have a really nice component cable and hate the idea of the adapter dongle bottleneck.

Click to expand...

i don't think its s-video to component, on the graphics card, at least on mine, it is a proprietery plug that can output svideo or component, and there are two seperate adapters that i plug into the graphics card for each. it will output hdtv to my tv no problem, works great for music videos during parties

to be clear, what i am after is analog component video.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
not digital hdtv component video.

Creative's Sound Blaster 2 and XFI line up offer superb sound quality.

http://www.soundblaster.com/

If you want to order one go here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188

Or if you live in Canada: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1618860&CatId=107

Or you can just simply pick one up at Future Shop/Best Buy/Circuit City.

TV Tuners Card

None of the cards I know of do component.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116625


A Hauppauge PVR-150 will do normal TV very well. Composite and S-Video only.

MPEG2 record datarates:
2MBit/sec, 4MBit/sec, 6Mbit/sec, 8Mbit/sec, 12Mbit/sec.
Selections for DVD Standard play (8MBitsec), DVD Long Play (4MBit/sec) and DVD Extra Long Play (2.5MBit/sec)
NTSC format* at 29.97fps: Full D1: 720x480, MPEG1: 352x240
PAL format* at 25fps: Full D1: 720x576, MPEG1: 352x288
Audio capture formats: 32/44.1/48 KHz, 16bit stereo, 192/224/384Kbits/sec
Video digitizer: 10 bits
Chroma sampling: YUV 4:2:2
Four line adaptive comb filter for both NTSC and PAL to remove dot crawl
Fast video locking for security camera applications
Video file format: .MPG
MPEG file tested compatible with: MediaStudio 6.0, MyDVD and DVD MovieFactory DVD authoring applications

here is an adapter that converts vga to analog component:
http://www.datapro.net/products/CSV-925B.html
does anyone have any experience with these?

In response to the sound card question,

On board audio uses up CPU resources. Having the sound card will work better for gaming and other things that use up lots of processing.

Also, there is better EAX support on sound cards.

SheepStar

redshifter said:

here is an adapter that converts vga to analog component:
http://www.datapro.net/products/CSV-925B.html
does anyone have any experience with these?

Click to expand...

you don't need that, just get something like this for your graphics card

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9600/aiw2006/index.html

now you have your graphics card, you have a tv-card with dvr capabilities and it can output component video

Sheep said:

In response to the sound card question,

On board audio uses up CPU resources. Having the sound card will work better for gaming and other things that use up lots of processing.

Also, there is better EAX support on sound cards.

SheepStar

Click to expand...

Not to mention the CPU creates electrical noise - which leads to muddier sound quality.

You can only get a maximum of EAX 2.0 on all other CPUs and sound cards, Creative's line up serves up to EAX 5.0 Advanced HD.

Here is an inexpensive solution to your component video problem

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&kw=OPVGATRCAA&is=REG&Q=&O=productlist&sku=353561
For $30 and it will be at component quality and you can still use your nice cable.

For the sound card as sheep has said I would go with a stand alone PCI sound card and not use the one on the mother board just becuase you are executing more cpu computations to do something that the card can do itself. So for games, DVR NTSC playback and possibly HD your computer would be running full blast if you dont have a card (ie. more noise, power consumption and lower quality video and audio.)

redshifter said:

thanks for the encouraging reply!

i don't suppose you could try outputting a dolby digital signal from your htpc?

Click to expand...

I can try this when I get home ... and report back

how could the onboard soundcard introduce noise or cpu usage if it is only passing through the digital pcm or bitstream from the tuner card or dvd drive to the reciever? all the processing is done by the tuner card, dvd drive, and reciever.

i'm not against using a soundcard. for this budget pc i'm not convinced it is needed.

redshifter said:

thanks for the encouraging reply!

i don't suppose you could try outputting a dolby digital signal from your htpc?

geforce 6600 and up include a s-video to component (i think) dongle to plug into the sc. the reason i want a dedicated component connection is i have a really nice component cable and hate the idea of the adapter dongle bottleneck.

Click to expand...

Adapter dongle bottleneck? What does that even mean?

Most, if not all, current Geforce cards output component video. Straight up.

The connector on the back of the card *looks* like S-video, but it's not. It has 6 extra pins on the connector... two each for the three component cables.

It's real component, not S-video -> component.

My 6800GS outputs perfect 720p to my plasma TV, and the onboard Toslink connector (on my Biostar Tforce 939 motherboard) outputs perfect Dolby Digital and DTS (100% noise-free) to my receiver.

jonnythan said:

Adapter dongle bottleneck? What does that even mean?

Click to expand...

let me clarify: the dongle is an adapter using wires. these wires are of lowest quality usually, which represents a quality bottleneck between htpc and the component cable. think of it this way: you have a great tv, and a great home theater, but your source is a mono vcr. the vcr is the bottleneck in your system.

i do not want to get in a discussion of the impact of cables on analog a/v quality. i'm convinced cables make a difference and i have found the point of diminishing marginal returns. my concern is a WIRED ADAPTER (dongle) will impact video quality. i and willing to go with a dongle but would prefer not to (like naves' suggestion). thx!

notes on sound/video

another point for an independent sound card:
1) Better Dacs / higher bit-rate processing / higher number of voices possible
(a card like the X-treme music is much better than a normal Realtek sound chip - however the audio HD chips are fairly good)

Another point for an independent TV tuner like Hauppaugn
1) Built in hardware accelleration - ATI/Nvidia cards are software only for video capture / playback. In order to use them effectivelly without dropping frames you need a fairly powerful cpu.
2)Hauppaugn has low cost dual cards, so that you can capture two stream of information at once (ie record two channels), which isn't possible on an ATI/Nvidia card

redshifter said:

let me clarify: the dongle is an adapter using wires. these wires are of lowest quality usually, which represents a quality bottleneck between htpc and the component cable. think of it this way: you have a great tv, and a great home theater, but your source is a mono vcr. the vcr is the bottleneck in your system.

i do not want to get in a discussion of the impact of cables on analog a/v quality. i'm convinced cables make a difference and i have found the point of diminishing marginal returns. my concern is a WIRED ADAPTER (dongle) will impact video quality. i and willing to go with a dongle but would prefer not to (like naves' suggestion). thx!

Click to expand...

You put way too much faith into the quality of your expensive wires.

The dongle will make *absolutely no* impact on what you see on the screen. I have a 25' component cable going from my PC to my plasma. Everything is pixel-perfect at 720p. The quality of the image when viewing anything - even small text - is identical to when I used HDMI.

Plugging component cables directly into your video card is the answer. You already have everything you need.

BTW, if you end up using some sort of VGA -> component adapter, you're doing the exact same thing. "cheap" connections, "cheap" monitor cable, etc.

jonnythan
thanks! i guess i'll see for myself soon. again, i'm not interested in opening the interconnects can of worms here. we all have our opinions, and what works for us.

back to audio:
i would prefer to use the dac's in my reciever. they are 24/96 dac's and i'm content with the sound in my ht. if i wanted upgraded sound quality, i would invest in a hi-rez $300 sound card, which would blow my budget.

sorry if i'm beating a dead horse, but i have not gotten an answer yet on this:
can i output raw pcm and bitstream data to my reciever for decoding from dvd, hd media, tv tuner sources on the htpc?