My first attempt to plan a home theater computer integrated space

[Corpus]

I’m a newbie and I hope this isn’t too much for a first post.
I just purchased a used Yamaha HTR-6230 5.1 500 watt receiver via an ebay transaction. The long story is that I bid on a Yamaha RX V2300 6.1 660 watt receiver and when I went to pick it up the seller had this unit and the manual for the V2300. I only checked that it powered on and went on my way. The seller said he’d take it back if there were problems. It wasn’t what I wanted, but for $62.00 and a 20 minute drive I am considering keeping it.
The downside for me is that the 6230 only has 8 DSP sound programs, while the V2300 has 26 yielding 46 variations. (Bummer.) The 6230 has HDMI 1080p pass-thru, whatever that is good for. (2 in, 1 out.)
So far I have tested it with an old pair of Aiwa speakers, but they don’t have good sound themselves.

The whole what’s my plan thing: I’m not a “watch TV” guy. I don’t own one and I don’t have cable/dish whatever. I enjoy a few shows and I stream/download them from pirate sites on the internet and watch them on my tiny laptop. I watch movies this way as well. At work I stream music through headphones for 10 hours a day and I listen to bass-heavy music. I’d like to be able to listen to that music on speakers at home with good reproduction. I have about 1000 CDs and only 25 DVD’s. Quality better than DVD has not wowed me yet. My tiny laptop is threatening hari-kari, so I decided to upgrade my home experience.

My original idea was a 40” monitor quality screen on a wall-mounted arm behind my bed in my 15'-6"’x11’x8’ (1365 cu.ft.) carpeted bedroom with a new small PC tower, wireless keyboard/touchpad. I’d integrate the receiver, Sony 200 CD megachanger and whatever comes in the computer would play DVDs.

After seeing the potential and looking into it a bit, I’m having trouble deciding if this is the proper room for it. My living room might be a better choice for the amount of sound I am hoping for. It is tiled wit an area rug.
Dimensions: 25'x14'-6". half-vault is 8' on one side, 13' on the other. 2900 cu.ft. without vault, 4715 cu.ft with vault.

Speakers: If it is the living room, I’m thinking about the Pioneer SP-PK52FS setup, but replacing the subwoofer with a SVS PB 1000. This is driving me towards that room. 

TV/monitor: For the bedroom I can easily get by with a 40”-42”. By changing to the living room, I’m suddenly into a much larger screen and finding appropriate furniture. I have a pair of couches that I find uncomfortable. I may also want a second monitor to see text/detail easily… ugh.

I feel like I need to see the budget for each room and the benefits of one over the other before I decide on a room. I’m hoping for suggestions for minimum computer requirements including video card, suggestions for TV/monitor(s) that can handle the computer monitor task, and any other home theater advice you can offer.

 

[rojo]

Firstly, you didn't do too badly on your Yamaha for $62 and a 20 minute drive. That 500 watts is 100 watts per channel (possibly at unreasonable distortion, but conservatively 70 wpc at healthier levels -- which ain't too bad, really).

I'll let others comment on the Pioneers and SVS sub. I'll comment on other things.

Firstly, if you end up putting this gear into your living room, get an area rug if you don't have one. Consider it an essential part of your home theater setup.

For a keyboard, the best wireless HTPC keyboard with touchpad is the Rapoo E9180P at the moment. The E9090P is expected to become available this summer and will add inductive charging and backlit keys; but for now, the 9180 is the best for the money. If you aren't a very good touch typist, you might have to look for a Logitech DiNovo Edge, but its touch pad isn't really much of a touch pad.

For a video card, this fanless Asus GeForce GT610 will handle x264 @ 1080p in silence without breaking a sweat, and it has an HDMI out to carry audio + video from your PC straight to your Yamaha receiver via a single cable.

I'm pretty fond of my Samsung television. If you decide to get a Samsung DLP TV as well, using it as a PC monitor can be a little tricky if you aren't prepared. When you plug the receiver into the TV, make sure you plug it into the "HDMI / DVI" input, and then go through your TV's setup menus to rename the input "PC". It took me a long time and a lot of searching to make my text readable using my TV as a monitor.

What else? XBMC is free and excellent for organizing your movies and TV shows and browsing from the couch. A Logitech Harmony remote will be great for navigating XBMC, turning on your CD player, and whatever else you want to do; but you'll need an MCE compatible USB IR receiver. (The cheap Streamzap receivers aren't MCE compatible, so you won't be able to make your Harmony do keyboard-ish things that XBMC requires.)

Anyway, good luck!

 

[Corpus]

Awesome suggestions for the wireless keyboard, video card and I now have XBMC to research. I'm off to a good start. Thanks, Rojo!

One thing I found while researching the HTR 6230 is that it does not decode HDMI audio. Only video comes through the cable. Only the DTV optical input will attempt to decode surround sound. This becomes an issue when selecting video cards, or my receiver isn't going to work out...

 

[rojo]

Nah, no big. You don't have to use the video card's built in audio device. A lot of PC motherboards' integrated sound includes an optical and digital coax audio out, which ought to be just as good plugged into your receiver. You'll just have to run two wires instead of one. If you choose a PC that doesn't have optical / coax out on its integrated audio, I'm sure you can find a cheap PCI sound card that offers those output connections.