Computing from the Sofa
After I tried to replace my broken VCR with a hard drive based DVD recorder, I've been coming to the realization that the only solution is to build a home theater PC. Now, I fully will admit that I have direct experience in home theater PC's, but my reasoning is if I can build a computer, this should be the same, no?
I had my first reality check the other day, when I had the first of a series of tests. rather than going headstrong into the home theater realm, my plan is to recycle some hardware. If I like what I see, then I'll either build a dedicated system from scratch, or upgrade what needs it as my needs and expectations evolve. I'm basing the system around my gracefully aging Shuttle SN41G2 with its Athlon XP 2800+ processor. Unlike some, like Bill, my goals are merely to timeshift a week's worth of programming and be able to watch it on demand. That's it. I don't need to archive, transcode, or anything else, so I figure this should be enough horsepower to start with.
One of the good things about the Shuttle is that its nForce 2 motherboard includes a TV out connection via the integrated graphics. It is S-video, but includes a composite video adaptor as well. I figured I was good to go, but before I wired the whole shebang in, I decided to see what the display looked like on the TV. It loooked great on the 19" LCD, so it should display great on the 20" TV, right?
Not exactly. After lugging my desktop gear (including a pile of cables, wireless mouse, and keyboard, oh yeah, and the Shuttle) from the basement up to the den, at least I did get the image to display on the television, and the sound connected as well. After the boot sequence, I realized that the TV image was as clear as, well...mud. I felt like I needed Windows: Braille Edition as I couldn't read any text. I managed to open some icons more from memory than anything else. Clearly this was not going to work.
Then I remembered that the display setting on Windows was set for the LCD, that displays a native 1280 x 1024. This is well suited for internet surfing and looking at multiple Windows at once. It is poorly suited to an old fashioned TV set which won't be upgraded till next year at the earliest. To my surprise, even after I adjusted the Shuttle to display at the yesteryear 800 x 600 resolution, the desktop image was still fuzzy, and the text still unreadable.
Ah, now I know what those folks are talking about when they mention "the ten foot interface." I couldn't read anything on the TV when I was two feet away!
Let's just say that after this little experiment, and with ALL my gear stowed back downstairs, I've started to get little of that "sinking feeling." That feeling when you realize that what looked easy is not exactly going to be that simple.
Sinking feelings aside, I know with a little persistence, we'll be able to get this all working so stay tuned. Over the next few weeks, or however long this all takes, I'll chronicle the ups and downs of building a home theater PC as it evolves.
PS: Yes, I'm aware that Windows Media Center Edition would make this way easier, but I'm enjoying the struggle too much and want to try some other route(s) first.
--Jonas
Technorati tags:
display, do it yourself pc, home theater, htpc, pc building, television
I had my first reality check the other day, when I had the first of a series of tests. rather than going headstrong into the home theater realm, my plan is to recycle some hardware. If I like what I see, then I'll either build a dedicated system from scratch, or upgrade what needs it as my needs and expectations evolve. I'm basing the system around my gracefully aging Shuttle SN41G2 with its Athlon XP 2800+ processor. Unlike some, like Bill, my goals are merely to timeshift a week's worth of programming and be able to watch it on demand. That's it. I don't need to archive, transcode, or anything else, so I figure this should be enough horsepower to start with.
One of the good things about the Shuttle is that its nForce 2 motherboard includes a TV out connection via the integrated graphics. It is S-video, but includes a composite video adaptor as well. I figured I was good to go, but before I wired the whole shebang in, I decided to see what the display looked like on the TV. It loooked great on the 19" LCD, so it should display great on the 20" TV, right?
Not exactly. After lugging my desktop gear (including a pile of cables, wireless mouse, and keyboard, oh yeah, and the Shuttle) from the basement up to the den, at least I did get the image to display on the television, and the sound connected as well. After the boot sequence, I realized that the TV image was as clear as, well...mud. I felt like I needed Windows: Braille Edition as I couldn't read any text. I managed to open some icons more from memory than anything else. Clearly this was not going to work.
Then I remembered that the display setting on Windows was set for the LCD, that displays a native 1280 x 1024. This is well suited for internet surfing and looking at multiple Windows at once. It is poorly suited to an old fashioned TV set which won't be upgraded till next year at the earliest. To my surprise, even after I adjusted the Shuttle to display at the yesteryear 800 x 600 resolution, the desktop image was still fuzzy, and the text still unreadable.
Ah, now I know what those folks are talking about when they mention "the ten foot interface." I couldn't read anything on the TV when I was two feet away!
Let's just say that after this little experiment, and with ALL my gear stowed back downstairs, I've started to get little of that "sinking feeling." That feeling when you realize that what looked easy is not exactly going to be that simple.
Sinking feelings aside, I know with a little persistence, we'll be able to get this all working so stay tuned. Over the next few weeks, or however long this all takes, I'll chronicle the ups and downs of building a home theater PC as it evolves.
PS: Yes, I'm aware that Windows Media Center Edition would make this way easier, but I'm enjoying the struggle too much and want to try some other route(s) first.
--Jonas
Technorati tags:
display, do it yourself pc, home theater, htpc, pc building, television
posted by digitaldoc at 9:18 PM
3 Comments:
Yea it is sad the quality of tv-out. Set everything to LARGE, even the font size. You might have to reduce your screen size to 640X480 also. Best picture i have ever gotten has been from nvidia cards. ATI AIW cards would show great video, but the text was still blurry.
Good luck with it :)
Mike
Istill cant figure out why my Hauppauge PVR150 records with lines in the recording, even from a sat feed..almost looks like it is interlaced or something...wierd
Thanks for the thoughts Mike. That is the lowest resolution on the graphics slider, but I hadn't thought about adjusting the text size.
We'll see what kind of quality for the recording, but I've got the same Happaugue card in the mix so stay tuned...
--Jonas
In my experience, the composite TV OUT connection on most video cards stinks. S-VHS is better than composite, and obviously component or HDMI is better than S-VHS.
What you really want is a dual-output card that routes video only to the TV display, and routes desktop to a conventional monitor. I have yet to find a compromise setting that allows computer desktop to look good on a video display.
Newer LCD or Plasma displays can probably handle a computer display with no trouble, but you would have to change display settings for video. I would find the constant switching of resolutions to be an annoyance.
My ATI X-1300 has an analog output and a digital output. The analog output has a component TV output associated with it. So one option is computer monitor on the digital output, and TV on the analog output via the component jack. The other option is computer monitor on the analog output, and TV on the digital output via an HDMI connection on the TV display.
If you go the HDMI route, don't get suckered into paying big bucks for a DVI to HDMI cable. Some of the electronics stores want over $200 for these things. I bought on on line for about $15 including the shipping.
It's the software that comes with the card that allows you to route video only to a dedicated TV display. I had a devil of a time with the ATI software. A recent upgrade to the latest version of Catalyst got everything working, and the setup wizard walked me through the entire setup in about 2 minutes. I'm sure NVidia has something similar.
Post a Comment
<< Home