HTPC with receiver?

[paradox]

Hi,
I'm considering upgrading my current cheap DVD player + ancient TV into something a little bit more exciting At the moment I'm just trying to get a handle on all the different technologies.

I would really like to center my system around a HTPC. We would use it for watching DVDs, recording TV, MP3s and karaoke. I was wondering if I need a receiver to go with the HTPC or not. It seems to me that since the HTPC takes the place of many devices (DVD player, tv tuner, CD player, etc) there is no need for a receiver to aggregate together all the inputs.

However is it possible to drive a set of surround sound speakers directly from the soundcard in the HTPC? Or is there likely to be problems with the PC being underpowered and the sound being substandard?

Thanks for any guidance you can give!

 

[paradox]

I guess if I could boil it down to one question, it would be this: "What does a receiver do that a HTPC cant?"

 

[MDS]

I guess if I could boil it down to one question, it would be this: "What does a receiver do that a HTPC cant?"

It can drive a set of surround speakers for one thing...

A sound card cannot be used to drive speakers to any appreciable volume. Computer speakers or near-field monitors that are intended to be connected to your sound card are self-powered. Now if you want to buy a 5.1 or 7.1 set of computer speakers from say Logitech and use them for home theater then you can use the PC.

Receivers have bass management, lots of processing modes like DD/DTS/Matrix decoders (PLII, Neo:6 etc) and a whole host of other features. An HTPC would be great for the video side of things but you should consider it just another 'source' to be connected to a good receiver.

 

[paradox]

Thanks MDS! So if I understand correctly, I could do away with the receiver if I bought something like the Logitech Z-550 or the much higher end Yamaha YSP-1. However its not really 'recommended' as a receiver will give me much more flexibility, both with what I input into it, as well as what speakers I connect for the output?

 

[MDS]

Correct. The receiver will be far better on the audio side considering all of the digital processing modes it has (some of which are not available on any software media players), ease of setup, level calibration, and multitude of devices you can connect but the HTPC will work fine. You can always consider a receiver in the future if your requirements change [and they will eventually - the more you learn and experience, the more you will want. ]

 

[paradox]

Thanks for your help! Now all I need to do is pick the right receiver ... easy ;-)

 

[pjviitas]

For sure on getting the reciever.

I just pump signal out of my HTPC and leave the amplification to a reciever.

To make life simpler keep everything digital so we are talking digital coax for sound and DVI/HDMI for video.

Good luck!

 

[paradox]

Hmmm, I see. While I have somebody here who has a HTPC hocked into a receiver, mind if I ask a few questions that have been bugging me?

Firstly, with the digital audio connection to the receiver, does that work even if you playing things like mp3s, etc? I notice on my PC there is an option to only send AC3 audio from DVDs out the S/PDIF port or I can send everything over S/PDIF using something called 'PCM'. If you are sending Mp3s, WAV files, etc does the receiver convert them into some kind of 'emulated' surround sound, or do they just come out of the front two speakers?

Also have you got your HTPC's video out connected into the receiver using DVI/HDMI, or does it go directly to your TV? Do you think it is important to get a receiver that can take DVI/HDMI input? I notice its only the higher end ones that seem to have it.

Thanks for your help! I think I'm finally starting to get the 'big picture'

 

[pjviitas]

I am not an expert on how audio gets ported through a PC however its my understanding that the best native support you can get from a stereo source is 2.1.

S/PDIF output should behave just like a multichannel out - i.e. if your only putting 2 channels(stereo) to the card then all you will get out is 2 channels regardless of how many outputs you have connected.

I know there are ways to artificially create more channels from 2 however I am just talking about native support here.

I am definitely not the person to talk to about this however. I am sure there are people on the board who know more about this than me.

I would put everything through the receiver to avoid any lag problems.

Trust me...save yourself a ton of headaches and spend the money on an HDMI receiver. If your seriously thinking of hooking a PC to your A/V system you wont regret it.

BTW, I would recommend you take the view that I just desribed. View your PC as an add-on to your A/V system. It will give you many more options and the frame of reference an existing A/V system provides is invaluable.

I simply look at my PC as a digital A/V device making it the following:
-DVR/PVR
-MPEG/AVI Player
-MP3 player

The only thing that I might recommend you let the PC replace on your existing A/V system is the DVD player. There seems to be a pretty good body of evidence starting to support the DVD player/software combo in PC's as being better than monolithic DVD players.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards, Hedgehog

 

[MDS]

Firstly, with the digital audio connection to the receiver, does that work even if you playing things like mp3s, etc? I notice on my PC there is an option to only send AC3 audio from DVDs out the S/PDIF port or I can send everything over S/PDIF using something called 'PCM'. If you are sending Mp3s, WAV files, etc does the receiver convert them into some kind of 'emulated' surround sound, or do they just come out of the front two speakers?

Those settings are the same as on a dvd player. Sending AC3 (Dolby Digital) is the same as the setting on a dvd player called 'bitstream'. It means that the sound card will just send the raw bits without touching them and the receiver will have to identify the bitstream and choose the proper decoder to decode them. That is what you want if you connect to a receiver.

If you set it to PCM, the sound card will decode the Dolby Digital to 2 channel PCM and send the PCM.

PCM is Pulse Code Modulation and is the lowest common denominator in digital audio (it's a sequence of numbers). The audio on a CD is PCM. A WAV file is PCM. MP3, WMA, AAC and other 'lossy compression' formats are also PCM but have been encoded and need to be decoded for playback.

If the receiver is sent PCM, it will be two channels. You can then use one of its matrix decoders to turn it into 5.1.