networking question

[gweedo]

OK so I have a few "things" on the way from monoprice and have a question as I will be pulling the AV rack out and tweeking and upgrading things..

I just bought a Sammy LN52A630 and it has a PC hookup on the back, never thought about it before but what the heck I am giong to use this function.. Is my best way to get pc usage through it just to hookup the HD15 cable and use that, or can I use the rs232 jack on the back of my Denon 3808ci? Not sure how to go about this and get sound through the 7.2 at the same time, vidoe seems easy enough?? I have a dell E1705 (will never buy another Dell as long as i live) running XP pro, not sure if I need any more info to get some opinions..

Thanks....

 

[bandphan]

OK so I have a few "things" on the way from monoprice and have a question as I will be pulling the AV rack out and tweeking and upgrading things..

I just bought a Sammy LN52A630 and it has a PC hookup on the back, never thought about it before but what the heck I am giong to use this function.. Is my best way to get pc usage through it just to hookup the HD15 cable and use that, or can I use the rs232 jack on the back of my Denon 3808ci? Not sure how to go about this and get sound through the 7.2 at the same time, vidoe seems easy enough?? I have a dell E1705 (will never buy another Dell as long as i live) running XP pro, not sure if I need any more info to get some opinions..

Thanks....

By pc hookup you are refering to video only not networking. As for the rs232 on the avr, its for control gear communacation. Just use the vga input on the tv and set video output in the pc to match your display or close to it, you might also want to increase your windows font size to make higher resolutions easier to see from a far.

 

[GlocksRock]

What is it you don't like about your Dell? I have had nothing but very positive experiences with Dells for the past several years, that's all I use, and all I reccomend to everyone, and nobody I know of has ever had any issues with them. But basically the PC hookup is just for video, run a vga cable from your PC to the display, and you can get a soundcard that has either toslink or s/pdif and run that to your receiver for 5.1, or just use the speaker out jack on your pc for stereo audio.

 

[jopela]

Can you tell us a little more about what you want to hook your PC up for? If you want to use it as a full entertainment PC I would recommend getting an HDMI card and connecting it through your receiver like you would any other AV component. The newer HDMI cards support both video and sound so you can do everything with 1 cable.

But if you have another reason for doing this let us konw and we will see what we can come up with.

I drag my PC out and connect it to the TV when my wife will be gone for an extended period of time for some quality game time. I just use the DB15, but I am building an entertainment PC and it will be HDMI.

On a side note, whats with the dell hatred? As an IT Manager I am responsible for over 1500+ dells and they are much more reliable than any other comparable OTB computer out there. (I would not own one for home use, becuase I like to build my own, but they are not bad machines)

 

[GlocksRock]

When you say HDMI card, you mean an HDMI video card right? Or is there a card just for HDMI out that reroutes the audio from your soundcard, and the video from your graphics card?

 

[highfigh]

OK so I have a few "things" on the way from monoprice and have a question as I will be pulling the AV rack out and tweeking and upgrading things..

I just bought a Sammy LN52A630 and it has a PC hookup on the back, never thought about it before but what the heck I am giong to use this function.. Is my best way to get pc usage through it just to hookup the HD15 cable and use that, or can I use the rs232 jack on the back of my Denon 3808ci? Not sure how to go about this and get sound through the 7.2 at the same time, vidoe seems easy enough?? I have a dell E1705 (will never buy another Dell as long as i live) running XP pro, not sure if I need any more info to get some opinions..

Thanks....

If you're trying to control the Samsung, the Denon won't do it. You need a master controller for this, like Crestron, AMX, Control4, URC's MSC-400 or something with RS-232 output. You can use the Sammy as a computer monitor, though.

What's wrong with your Dell? I'm suing one right now and it has been great. Will it turn into a pumpkin when it hits the 1 year mark?

 

[GlocksRock]

You may also be able to run video to it via HDMI, but I wasn't able to do that on my old Samsung 720p DLP tv, the only way to get video from a PC was to use the PC input, but on my current Mitsubishi DLP tv I can use any of the HDMI inputs with a PC, so I route my video from the PC with a DVI-HDMI cable into the receier, and it works very well.

 

[businessjeff]

When you say HDMI card, you mean an HDMI video card right? Or is there a card just for HDMI out that reroutes the audio from your soundcard, and the video from your graphics card?

This is a tricky thing since its fairly new. As far as I know, ATI was the only brand that was offering this feature, not any nvidia card. Im not sure off the top of my head if they used HDMI or not, it makes since that they would, but a dual link DVI cable may be able to carry A/V so.. By saying an HDMI card, commonsense would make you believe that the card must be A/V but, I wouldnt give many companies today the benefit of a doubt in their abilities to use commonsense.

Anyways, these cards use PCIx16 and a PCI 1x slot to work. It actually comes with 2 cards which get bridged together. So its actually processing sound and video and routing it all through the video card.

Now, is this worth it? Ive never been a fan of HDMI, but in very few circumstances they do serve a purpose. If you have to use HDMI then obviously thats the way to go. Most the time though its much cheaper to get the same A/V quality using DVI. In order to figure out whats best for your situation though, we would have to know what you want to be able to do, and where your PC is in accordance to you A/V setup, and what TV your wanting to output too would be essential as well.

 

[GlocksRock]

The only real benefit I could see to using HDMI is to have the option of using the new audio codecs, but since I don't have a blu ray drive in my PC, there really is no need for that, other than to minimize the amount of cables I'm using, but going from 2 to 1 isn't that big of a deal.

 

[businessjeff]

from what ive read DVI cannot handle lengths over 5ft, and the new HDMI 1.3 is supposed to be higher bandwidth then DVI. So it all really depends on what you want to do, ultimately though that only reason why you would want to go HDMI is if you have too..

 

[jopela]

When you say HDMI card, you mean an HDMI video card right? Or is there a card just for HDMI out that reroutes the audio from your soundcard, and the video from your graphics card?

NVidia has cards that process both audio and video and output it over an HDMI. Most videocard manufacturers have a card in their lineup that uses Nvidias chipset to do this. Asus has one that looks promising. Here is a write up I found about it.

ASUS, the leading company in the new digital era announces another new multimedia enjoyment product Xonar HDAV 1.3. Xonar HDAV 1.3 is the world’s first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio/video enhancement combo card. Xonar HDAV 1.3 is capable of decoding Blu-ray films and lossless digital audio formats including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio at 24-bit, 96-192 Khz. The card design on PCI Express based and making it able to deliver the highest quality 7.1 channel.

The ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 also uses analog audio which providing clean 120 dB SNR and peerless 0.0004% low distortion for all 7.1 channels. Xonar HDAV1.3 also integrates with Splendid HD Video Processor that increases color performance and enhances edges for a more brilliant, crisper high definition image without rely the CPU load.

The heart of Xonar is an ASUS AV200 codec chip, which features interprets high quality signals to premium audio components. The card is the first in the Xonar family to use opamp sockets to allow for solder-less modifications to customize sound to the individual requirement. It also comes with the well renowned DS3D GX 2.0, which revives EAX 5.0 and 3D gaming audio in Vista.

HDAV 1.3 is also avialable in HDAV 1.3 Deluxe version where offers all the same features as the standard card plus addtional HDAV H6 surround channel expansion card.

 

[gweedo]

almost forgot I started this thread, sorry guys..

I am looking to hook my Dell laptop up to my Sammy and not have to use my PC speakers as noise..

I am pretty sure I can't just slap a new card in my laptop as there is nowhere to put it??

I understand how to hookup my tv as the monitor, but how do I get the sound though my reciever?

as for the RS232 I thought maybe it was a way to control everything, never used it b4 and was unsure what it did..

As for Dell PC's, I have had nothing but problems!! Took over 9 months, 11 pages worth the phone call notes by Dell, ~20 hours of phone calls, 2 mother boards, 3 sets of memory, 2 hard drives, and one pissed off consumer to finally get them to try and send me a brand new REFURB'ed computer?? I mean WTF, I didn't pay over $1600 for a refurb, I refused to take that and finally got a guy who spoke good english and offered a brand new laptop, after I asked for a refund.. The new one has since been down for a video card.. That only took 3 months to fail..

oh and the original issue was a BSOD for memory parity errors.. I think it was the original tops video card, but who am I to say.. I only make wafers not software.. LOL


Anyway, that felt good to tell that story!! lol I'll go Mac next..

 

[MDS]

As for Dell PC's, I have had nothing but problems!!

Sorry I can't really offer any help other than to say that it is the nature of the beast...sometimes you get a lemon. Not all hardware plays nice with other hardware, although in reality it is always the software (drivers) that cause the problems.

I've owned a few Dell computers and they were mostly solid but the one complaint I have with Dell is that they operate like Sears of yesteryear. They will do things like take the industry standard ATX power supply and reverse a few pins on it so that when it dies you can't go to the local store and buy a new one, you have to get the replacement from Dell. That is bullsh!t!.

As for R2232 'support' for a HT component...forget about it. RS232 is a low level generic communication protocol and the probability of onboard drivers that recognize any particular higher level protocol (such as Denon specific) transmitted over R2232 is ZERO!

 

[highfigh]

almost forgot I started this thread, sorry guys..

I am looking to hook my Dell laptop up to my Sammy and not have to use my PC speakers as noise..

I am pretty sure I can't just slap a new card in my laptop as there is nowhere to put it??

I understand how to hookup my tv as the monitor, but how do I get the sound though my reciever?

as for the RS232 I thought maybe it was a way to control everything, never used it b4 and was unsure what it did..

As for Dell PC's, I have had nothing but problems!! Took over 9 months, 11 pages worth the phone call notes by Dell, ~20 hours of phone calls, 2 mother boards, 3 sets of memory, 2 hard drives, and one pissed off consumer to finally get them to try and send me a brand new REFURB'ed computer?? I mean WTF, I didn't pay over $1600 for a refurb, I refused to take that and finally got a guy who spoke good english and offered a brand new laptop, after I asked for a refund.. The new one has since been down for a video card.. That only took 3 months to fail..

oh and the original issue was a BSOD for memory parity errors.. I think it was the original tops video card, but who am I to say.. I only make wafers not software.. LOL


Anyway, that felt good to tell that story!! lol I'll go Mac next..

Dell for Business has US based support. I bought a Vostro 1500 for <$500 and it did a couple of odd things, which they fixed via Go To Meeting. I don't know what could have caused all of the problems with yours but it may have been "The One" that was destined to be a royal PITA.

Also, mine is running XP, not Vista, which I don't plan to use. Ever.

 

[gweedo]

Another note on Dell PC's.. My @#$%@#$ video card died again?? (maybe I should have knocked on wood when telling the previous story?? ) Oh and to top it off Dell has none in stock and the back order may or may not be here first week of Feburary? dam I hate dell!! LOL

 

[zhimbo]

What is it you don't like about your Dell? I have had nothing but very positive experiences with Dells for the past several years, that's all I use, and all I reccomend to everyone, and nobody I know of has ever had any issues with them.

I had good experiences for a long time with Dell, but with my current computer, I had a faulty graphics card, and it felt like an ongoing war with [strike]India[/strike] customer-service to get the damn thing replaced. I've definitely soured on them recently as a result, although I don't expect anyone to be overly swayed by my single personal anecdote.

 

[highfigh]

Sorry I can't really offer any help other than to say that it is the nature of the beast...sometimes you get a lemon. Not all hardware plays nice with other hardware, although in reality it is always the software (drivers) that cause the problems.

I've owned a few Dell computers and they were mostly solid but the one complaint I have with Dell is that they operate like Sears of yesteryear. They will do things like take the industry standard ATX power supply and reverse a few pins on it so that when it dies you can't go to the local store and buy a new one, you have to get the replacement from Dell. That is bullsh!t!.

As for R2232 'support' for a HT component...forget about it. RS232 is a low level generic communication protocol and the probability of onboard drivers that recognize any particular higher level protocol (such as Denon specific) transmitted over R2232 is ZERO!

So Crestron, AMX, URC MSC-400 and all of the other controllers that use RS-232 are just pizzing into the wind? If Cat5e and null modem connectors are used, you can get a replacement at Radio Shack or many computer stores. As far as actual internal hardware, you're right, though.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Not sure what you are trying to do but the Denon 3808 is an awesome music server. All my music is stored on my CPU in WAV files (DELL) and a simple ethernet cable to the AVR and I have thousands of songs to listen too. Background music is through Rhapsody so I have millions of songs for that use.

 

[MDS]

So Crestron, AMX, URC MSC-400 and all of the other controllers that use RS-232 are just pizzing into the wind?

No, they have their own proprietary protocol to accomplish control of various devices. The point is you can't just connect a null modem cable from one of those controllers to a receiver with an r2-232 port and expect it to do anything. Few manufacturers actually publish remote codes to operate the devices and accept them over r2-232 but if they did then sure you could program a controller to send the data in a format the receiver understands. But sadly, that is just not a widespread practice.

You can't send an HTTP 'get' command to an email server that only understands SMTP - regardless of the fact that the underlying protocol is tcp/ip and the data traveled over a CAT5 wire. Same principle for r2-232.