For the past 2 years, I've run an old HP desktop of ours as a Home Theater PC (HTPC). It's been great and we love having it. But over time, I've often wished that it was a bit better than the old system that it is. Specifically I wish it had better sound for our theater room and supported HD.
When we moved to Georgia 2 years ago, we set aside one room in the house, a 14 by 17 foot room as a home theater room. Our one lavish overindulgence in the new house was to build out this room with a 120 inch HD projection system and surround sound. It's bee a real pleasure to have and since we built it, we've gone out to the movies twice and have been disappointed both times. Largely due to the poor sound at theaters where volume is used to cover up poor quality.
Recently I was poking around the NVIDIA website looking at some drivers and I stumbled across information abut NVIDIA motherboard HDMI support. Ok, so um... wow.
Why is this a wow? Well, HTPC support for High Def formats is severely lacking. You need the right chipset on the motherboard, the right drivers, the right CPU to crank out all of that decoding to process the HD signal, and a video card that can push HDMI. All together it is very, VERY costly to build a HD capable HTPC that can do it right. What's new and different about these motherboards is that they take the vast bulk of the expense out of the equation.
I found the ABIT AN-M2HD version of the motherboard on Newegg for $90. This motherbaord can output HDMI natively, without the need to buy a $300+ video card to push the HD signal with. Now that's deal. I added in a case, 2 GB of memory, an AMD X2 6400 processor, a 500GB drive, DVD burner, Power Supply and some needed cables fr under $600 total order. With luck, it'll assemble in just a few hours of effort and testing and will come in far, far less than the $1,400 it would cost to build an HD HTPC using a conventional motherboard price as of last time I checked parts)
The other great thing about these motherboards is that they have an integrated on-chip HDCP key (High Definition Content Protection) so that when I toss in a blu-ray and HD drives, the signal can be properly processed by the new system and displayed in full High Def glory on our screen. For those wondering what this means, new HD standards include copy protection built into every components that can play HD signals, from the Blu-Ray player to the TV and even the cables between them. Using the wrong parts anywhere along the way in the chain can prevent your system from being able to properly play copy protected content. While your home movies won't have copy protection, your Bu-Ray or HD discs will, as may any of the potential movie download services that are just starting to come into maturity.
When the hardware arrives, I'll post up the details and assembly notes.
When we moved to Georgia 2 years ago, we set aside one room in the house, a 14 by 17 foot room as a home theater room. Our one lavish overindulgence in the new house was to build out this room with a 120 inch HD projection system and surround sound. It's bee a real pleasure to have and since we built it, we've gone out to the movies twice and have been disappointed both times. Largely due to the poor sound at theaters where volume is used to cover up poor quality.
Recently I was poking around the NVIDIA website looking at some drivers and I stumbled across information abut NVIDIA motherboard HDMI support. Ok, so um... wow.
Why is this a wow? Well, HTPC support for High Def formats is severely lacking. You need the right chipset on the motherboard, the right drivers, the right CPU to crank out all of that decoding to process the HD signal, and a video card that can push HDMI. All together it is very, VERY costly to build a HD capable HTPC that can do it right. What's new and different about these motherboards is that they take the vast bulk of the expense out of the equation.
I found the ABIT AN-M2HD version of the motherboard on Newegg for $90. This motherbaord can output HDMI natively, without the need to buy a $300+ video card to push the HD signal with. Now that's deal. I added in a case, 2 GB of memory, an AMD X2 6400 processor, a 500GB drive, DVD burner, Power Supply and some needed cables fr under $600 total order. With luck, it'll assemble in just a few hours of effort and testing and will come in far, far less than the $1,400 it would cost to build an HD HTPC using a conventional motherboard price as of last time I checked parts)
The other great thing about these motherboards is that they have an integrated on-chip HDCP key (High Definition Content Protection) so that when I toss in a blu-ray and HD drives, the signal can be properly processed by the new system and displayed in full High Def glory on our screen. For those wondering what this means, new HD standards include copy protection built into every components that can play HD signals, from the Blu-Ray player to the TV and even the cables between them. Using the wrong parts anywhere along the way in the chain can prevent your system from being able to properly play copy protected content. While your home movies won't have copy protection, your Bu-Ray or HD discs will, as may any of the potential movie download services that are just starting to come into maturity.
When the hardware arrives, I'll post up the details and assembly notes.
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