Please help me pick out some hardware

[teookie]

What I currently have:

WinXP pro
Celeron D 2.4 Ghz
motherboard w/ intel chipset
512 ram
AGP 4x/8x slot
some available PCI slots
160 GB SATA Seagate
a case and adequate power supply
42" 1080p plasma
6.1 surround sound

I want to build a basic HDTV PVR. Only one tuner for now but with the option of upgrading to two later. QAM would be nice but is not required. I don't have cable and will only be PVRing the stuff I get OTA. Based on this, I think I need:

ATSC tuner card
sound card w/ SPDF out
video card w/ DVI out, and sufficient resolution ( >1080 )

The hardware I've been looking at is:

HVR-1600
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
EVGA GeForce FX 5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 8X

Now, I'm not so sure about the HVR-1600 because it has poor reviews on newegg. Should this concern me?

The Sound Blaster specs say SPDF out but I don't see it in the photo?

Will this EVGA card handle 1080i?

I know this is a long post... I tend to get a little long winded sometimes. I would really appreciate some help though. The more I read about this stuff, the more I get confused.

Thanks in advance.

[sub]

Will this EVGA card handle 1080i?

I suspect not. Most people seem to say a nvidia 6600 or higher is recommended for high def.

[bogyver]

The sound blaster card most likely has a 1/8th inch spdif output, I have a sound blaster audigy, audigy 2 and a sound blaster live, and they all had 1/8th inch spdif output. the audigy 2 I had, had a front panel and it had the standard coax and optical but those are on the front. There are some card that do offer optical out on the back, if you need it.

You might consider getting a ati x1550 agp for your HD playback, I use the x1550 pcie in x8 mode (motherboard limiting it) and have been happy with it. I get occasional stuttering, which I'm still trying to iorn out.

As far as an HD card I use a AverMedia, PCIE and usb tuners, since I bet you dont have a PCIE 1x slot I would suggest the Avermedia Volar usb ATSC tuner, it about 60-60 dollars but is digital only. The thing I like about this tuner is it has a extremely sensitive tuner if you live in an area with reception issues.

Hope this info helps and good luck

[teookie]

thanks a lot for the replies. I will look into both of these cards later today.

Does anyone have experience with the HVR-1600?

[saintjo]

just did something similar. i had the 5700fx ultra graphics card and upgraded to the XFX GeForce 7600GT 560MHz 256MB AGP 8x Video Card (Dual DVI)

then got a DVI to HDMI converter and it seems to be handling 1920x1080 just fine.

i havent used the HVR-1600, but the reviews I am seeing seem to be love it our hate it.

btw, i would also recommend you bump up your RAM to 1g.

[teookie]

The sound blaster card most likely has a 1/8th inch spdif output, I have a sound blaster audigy, audigy 2 and a sound blaster live, and they all had 1/8th inch spdif output. the audigy 2 I had, had a front panel and it had the standard coax and optical but those are on the front. There are some card that do offer optical out on the back, if you need it.

What i need is a coaxial digital out as my DVD player is using my loan optical input on my reciever. The 1/8th inch digital out does not bother me, cause i can always solder up a RCA connection. I did notice however that on some cards claiming SPDF out, it is only 2 channel. An example of this was i believe the audigy SE.

just did something similar. i had the 5700fx ultra graphics card and upgraded to the XFX GeForce 7600GT 560MHz 256MB AGP 8x Video Card (Dual DVI)

Thanks for sharing. I think I will look into this card then if you are having good success with it. A little spendy, but if thats what it takes... Thanks also for including links in your reply; makes it easy to see what your talking about. What tuner card are you using?

As far as an HD card I use a AverMedia, PCIE and usb tuners, since I bet you dont have a PCIE 1x slot I would suggest the Avermedia Volar usb ATSC tuner, it about 60-60 dollars but is digital only. The thing I like about this tuner is it has a extremely sensitive tuner if you live in an area with reception issues.

I'm only ten miles from the transmitter so reception is no problem. I'll look into the Avermedia cards, thanks for the tip. but would a USB card really work?

[bogyver]

What i need is a coaxial digital out as my DVD player is using my loan optical input on my reciever. The 1/8th inch digital out does not bother me, cause i can always solder up a RCA connection. I did notice however that on some cards claiming SPDF out, it is only 2 channel. An example of this was i believe the audigy SE.

I Believe the sound blaster live card that I have is only a two channel analog out put, but since the digital is not tied to the analog out put it doesnt matter, So I guess what I'm trying to say is, even if it only has 2 channel analog out, the spdif will still out put the digital stream, in the case of HD surround sound that would be AC3 which is dolby digital to your receiver, but YMMV. So if your really worried about it then it may be better to get a card like the regular sound blaster audigy 1 (big, long, full height card and it has firewire) off ebay, I think I paid like 20 dollars for one. You could also look on newegg for a cheap card that does spdif out.

I'm only ten miles from the transmitter so reception is no problem. I'll look into the Avermedia cards, thanks for the tip. but would a USB card really work?

The USB tuner I have works great, no issues with not having enough bandwidth or any thing else, and GBPVR already supports it.

[teookie]

bogyver, the info towards the bottom of this page is what makes me think it's just a stereo signal coming through the digital out. I could be wrong.

At any rate, i think that I won't worry about the digital sound for now and just focus on the picture. If I can't get the picture to work than the sound is a moot point.

[bogyver]

bogyver, the info towards the bottom of this page is what makes me think it's just a stereo signal coming through the digital out. I could be wrong.

At any rate, i think that I won't worry about the digital sound for now and just focus on the picture. If I can't get the picture to work than the sound is a moot point.

I see what you mean, Thats kinda strange that they would do that, but I suppose it could be similar to what apple does to some of there products, putting the high end version in and deactivating some of the features