Buying a PC to hook up to my TV

Zeon

Basically im going to buy a PC i can hook up to my new TV, mainly to watch video files from. I just have a couple questions.

One, my tv is an LCD hdtv, it does 720p. Will an onboard graphics card be able to output 1280x720, or will i need to buy a new card? My initial thought is it should be fine, but my gut is telling me it wont. I know this really depends on the type of graphics card, but im looking for a general "probably yes" or "probably no". If it wont, whats the cheapest, prefferably PCI graphics card i could get that would? Im not looking for this to be a beast of a computer.

Second, say i download an avi file that is "HD". What are the minimum specs to play this? Ive been trying to look around, but all i can find are the minimum specs to run the players.

Thanks.

*edit*

http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/product_spec.php?pcode=IB4119

Basically this is what im looking at. It fits my price range, and it beats the specs on my last PC, minus the graphics card, which i dont remember having problems playing videos.

But if i would be better off spending 100 more dollars and getting say, this:

http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/product_spec.php?pcode=IB8302

I would rather do that.

And keep in mind, all im looking to do is play videos and possibly audio (Once i buy a decent soundcard). I have a gaming computer, so this computer will be solely for media. I also know i will need (want) a bigger hard drive.

Daedalus

Any onboard graphics made after 1998 or so should handle 1280x720 just fine. However, it likely won't have a DVI or component output, so make sure your TV can accept VGA and not just HDMI or component.

Rook

Minimum Configuration
(to play 720p video)
# Windows XP
# Windows Media Player 9 Series
# 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent
# 384 MB of RAM
# 64 MB video card
# 1024 x 768 screen resolution
# 16-bit sound card
# Speakers

That's for wmv HD. It sounds about right, maybe a little of an underestimate. I have a 3.2athlon, and it will play 720 fine but won't do 1080 stuff.

Zeon

Rook wrote:

Minimum Configuration
(to play 720p video)
# Windows XP
# Windows Media Player 9 Series
# 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent
# 384 MB of RAM
# 64 MB video card
# 1024 x 768 screen resolution
# 16-bit sound card
# Speakers

That's for wmv HD. It sounds about right, maybe a little of an underestimate. I have a 3.2athlon, and it will play 720 fine but won't do 1080 stuff.

So i should probably pick up one of the slightly more powerful computers they have. The store im going to usually gets a ton of offlease stuff, mainly from offices. Hopefully theyll have something.

And yep, my tv has VGA in. That, plus trying (Unsuccessfully) to get hard subtitles on a video file i had made me consider this.

Thanks guys.

maximumzero

Mac Mini.

Or hell, look into an Apple TV once those are released.

Zoolander

maximumzero wrote:

Mac Mini.

Or hell, look into an Apple TV once those are released.

AppleTV can't play avi, which makes it a waste of good money.

The two computers you posted should be able to play 720p AVIs just fine (hell, my P3 1GHZ can play 720p AVIs fine), but the newer (much prettier) codecs like AVC and WMV-HD need beefy systems to run smoothly. I would go with at least the second system you posted.

jimmy8091

maximumzero wrote:

Mac Mini.

Or hell, look into an Apple TV once those are released.

Get an old $50 xbox and convert it into a Media Center. It runs 480p, upscaled to 720p content just fine. But if you need to run native 720p content, then it's a bit more work.

Rook

But... 480p looks like shit.

spookymuffin

I was looking into a PC for my living room TV as well, and I have all the needed video inputs, but I had a question about the sound. Should I just go from my headphone jack to the back to the TV, or is there some kind of device that I need to pass the signal through to make it sound decent?

jimmy8091

480p is what a regular DVD pushes, plus it's upscaled to 720p. If you're watching on a set that's less than 40" you won't notice a difference between 480p & 720p.



XMBC as a cheap alternative is really the way to go. Name one other option where you can get a high-def picture that can output digital sound for $50.

Aridhol

I'm going to second the Xbox MediaCenter option if you're wanting to do this cheaply.

I have as my media center
Athlon 64 3500+
Asus FullATX mobo
Nvidia Geforce 7600 DVI out to LG 42" LCD TV
2z250GB Seagate Sata Drives.
1GB DDR400 ram
2 Hauppauge winTV PVR 250 tuner cards for recording analog shit the wife watches
DVDRW drive

and the *MOST* important 2 parts of the entire system
M-Audio Revelution 7.1 Souncard with digital out

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc14.htm This case (NOT CHEAP!)
All the silverstone cases are well made and look god damn awesome in a A/V rack but they are pretty expensive

Zoolander

jimmy8091 wrote:

480p is what a regular DVD pushes, plus it's upscaled to 720p. If you're watching on a set that's less than 40" you won't notice a difference between 480p & 720p.

If you are far away from a small-screen TV, you won't notice the difference between 480p and 720p. But from an average distance to an average-sized TV, the difference is very noticeable.

Still, XBMC is a pretty good cheap option, but it's only got an 8gig harddrive, right? Getting all the stuff you need for softmodding it, and installing a new harddrive and stuff - wouldn't it be better to just get a cheap computer?

Zeon

Zoolander wrote:

jimmy8091 wrote:

480p is what a regular DVD pushes, plus it's upscaled to 720p. If you're watching on a set that's less than 40" you won't notice a difference between 480p & 720p.

If you are far away from a small-screen TV, you won't notice the difference between 480p and 720p. But from an average distance to an average-sized TV, the difference is very noticeable.

I dont believe that. I can tell the difference between 480p and 720p on my tv. Not enough where i could walk into the room and tell you what resolution the tv is set on, but when flipping through the options on my tv, 720p is might brighter and cleaner than 480p. My room is also fairly small, but my tv is only 27".

Also, i bought the first computer i linked to. They were sold out of everything else except some 600 dollar computers that were better than my current desktop.... I think the 1.6ghz will be fine. It was even cheaper than on the website, i only paid 89 dollars for it.

Zoolander

Also, if you want to try a Windows Media Center-like software to play videos on your TV, check out TVedia. It has what's called a "10-foot interface", basically you can browse videos, music and photos on your TV with a pretty interface and without squinting. The library system is really great, you can add tags to your videos, classify by genre, director etc. etc. It can play back DRMed iTunes and WMP media. It also natively supports Windows MCE remotes, so you can use that to navigate instead of a wireless mouse.

You can also watch YouTube videos and Flickr photo slideshows and stuff without opening a web browser, which is kinda neat. Even cooler is that it works as a UPnP server and client, so you can share all your media across multiple PCs on a home network and have them all available for viewing on your TV.

I really sound like a shill, but it is an awesome piece of software. There's a 14-day free trial on the website, and it sells for only $35.

corcorigan

Zeon wrote:

Zoolander wrote:

jimmy8091 wrote:

480p is what a regular DVD pushes, plus it's upscaled to 720p. If you're watching on a set that's less than 40" you won't notice a difference between 480p & 720p.

If you are far away from a small-screen TV, you won't notice the difference between 480p and 720p. But from an average distance to an average-sized TV, the difference is very noticeable.

I dont believe that. I can tell the difference between 480p and 720p on my tv. Not enough where i could walk into the room and tell you what resolution the tv is set on, but when flipping through the options on my tv, 720p is might brighter and cleaner than 480p. My room is also fairly small, but my tv is only 27".

Also, i bought the first computer i linked to. They were sold out of everything else except some 600 dollar computers that were better than my current desktop.... I think the 1.6ghz will be fine. It was even cheaper than on the website, i only paid 89 dollars for it.

If your tv is having to upscale the 480p to play it at the native res (eg you don't have a CRT HDTV), then that will probably be what you are noticing rather than the actual increased resolution.