help me setup a system?

[jwester34]

hey all, I am new and would like to get your help/advice on getting a system put together. I have a nice intec case and a 500 gig seagate sata drive on a ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard MB with core2 e6750 2.66 cpu running 4 gig ram
i have a geforce 8800 vid card on there now, but it's not the best.
removing the video card, and keeping the rest of the components (mb + ram +cpu+ HD+case) what else should I get for hardware to put together a media pc? I want to watch downloaded movies, and hook in my cable tv to both record and watch live tv through it. I also have a blueray internal player for the pc.
what do i need for capture card, and video card? I was going with onboard 5.1 sound... should I get a sound card too? need recommendations here. I can get any OS via my msdn license... what should I use?
the follow up to this will be software, but I want to use gbpvr... it looks very nice.
thanks in advance for your help.

[Graham]

It's all about the video card.

Simply stated, the 'puter will do no more than copy a video stream from some device ... Bluray player or TV capture card ... to a screen. The only grunt that is required is in the video card when it is is "translating" the video stream to pixels for display.

If your setup will play Bluray disks ... it should play anything.

As to TV cards ... most folks around here are contented users of Hauppauge.

Sound ... if you are getting good results from Bluray disks with your onboard, then stick with it.

If have seen few complaints from Win7 users ... so that's likely to be the way to go.

The core message is ... it probably won't be hard to get what you want ... don't spend money until you have failed to get a good result with the kit that you already have.

[Reddwarf]

I'd recommend an ASUS/ATI EAH/AH 3450 or better, depending on how much $ you have to burn. I have very good results with the 3450 card on Win7, the 64-bit driver problems seems to be solved, I'v had no problems finding drivers even for older cards. What will you be watching live-tv from (cable or over-the-air etc)?

[Alex1411]

I also am having problems like that!Thank for info and your recommend!

[Reddwarf]

You'r welcome . Feel free to ask if you need more help.

[stustunz]

nothing wrong with the 8800 video card if you get the right drivers
there are other cards that have improved playback for people, but i would try it first and see what you think its only video playback not 3D games
onboard sound is damn good these days so no need for sound card

[jwester34]

i got one of these for my tuner card.... having not previously having one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6815100044
AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet PCTV tuner (A188) MTVHDDUET PCI-Express x1 Interface

good? bad?

[jwester34]

also putting win 7 ultimate on right now