Spare pc...add to HT?

apc
apc Posts: 779
edited December 2009 in The Clubhouse
I've heard mention of folks using PC's in the Home Theater or TV realms. Anyone here been there, done that? I'd like to hear more about the possibilities please.
Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Friend.
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  • packetjones
    packetjones Posts: 1,059
    edited December 2009
    I have an old laptop connected to my AVR that i use to listen music and watch DVD rips with. It is rather old so it does not have a lot of other uses. There are some people that have the whole HTPC (home theater PC) set up and use it as a DVR as well as browse the web on the tv. Overall I think it is great. It really depends on the specs of the PC as to what you can do with it. What are the specs on the PC you are looking at using?
    Front - RTiA5's
    Rear - RTiA3's
    Center - CSiA4
    Sub - PSW110
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  • apc
    apc Posts: 779
    edited December 2009
    It's an older Dell desktop. Pentium 4, gig of ram, cd/dvd drive, only about 50GB HD...
    Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Friend.
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  • doctorcilantro
    doctorcilantro Posts: 2,028
    edited December 2009
    I'm pretty seriously in to this and have been for some time. I should divulge a full system map sometime.

    Where to begin though.

    I have heard mention of XMBC but like J. River MC14 which handles audio, images, and video very well.

    For hardware the new mini-ITX stuff is making it even more convenient to put a low-power, small-footprint HTPC in your system which can still do 1080P video, audiophile quality audio, an picture organization and display.

    DC
    For Sale 2019:
    Tortuga Audio LDR passive preamp
    Decware EL34 amp
    Allnic H-1201 phono
    Zu Union Cubes
    iFi iDSD DAC, .5m UBS, iFI Gemini cable, Oyaide Tunami XLR 1.3M, Oyaide Tunami Speaker wire 1.5M, Beyerdynamic DT1990 headphones, PS Audio P3 power center

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  • henson
    henson Posts: 7
    edited December 2009
    Good luck! <object classid="clsid: D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0&quot; width="16" height="16" id="movie" align=""><param name="movie" value="http://forumsmiles.com/content/5/mov.swf"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="http://forumsmiles.com/content/5/mov.swf&quot; quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="16" height="16" name="movie" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"</embed></object&gt;
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  • doctorcilantro
    doctorcilantro Posts: 2,028
    edited December 2009
    Luck you will not need. Nor will you need a high-powered quad based system. I downgraded from a Q6600 clocked at 3gHz to this 45 watt AMD dual-core.

    Does 1080P and still can crunch FLAC analysis pretty fast (for ReplayGain).

    Runs on a 125w pico-PSU which is really quite 22nd century to me coming from the big ATX supplies back in the day!

    DC
    For Sale 2019:
    Tortuga Audio LDR passive preamp
    Decware EL34 amp
    Allnic H-1201 phono
    Zu Union Cubes
    iFi iDSD DAC, .5m UBS, iFI Gemini cable, Oyaide Tunami XLR 1.3M, Oyaide Tunami Speaker wire 1.5M, Beyerdynamic DT1990 headphones, PS Audio P3 power center

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