Blood for the Baron!

My PC is similar to your setup Jim, just chucked into the Antec 900 instead

There was me think my study was the dogs bollocks with my PC, PS 3 (connected to another TV). Thought I was all space age.

I had the 900 prior to this one. Lovely cases, no messing about!

Sorry if that's information overload, Steve. My point was you can have your PC, DVD, Blu-Ray, Games console and more all in one if you go for a decent computer.

All you will need is an HDMI port for the TV and an optical audio port for the 5.1 sound. I just bought Lisa a kicking motherboard will both as onboard features (no need for additional sound and graphics cards).

So essentially a PC, TV, amplifier and speakers. The resolution of the TV is good enough to use as a monitor too.

The PC has benefits but it also has drawbacks, mostly noise and speed. You can't spin up a movie as fast as a bluray player with an HDD. Also, when you consider a bluray player with said HDD costs under $200 us its not worth spending that kind of money on a media PC. I use one occasionally but for the most part its the bluray player that will do the work.

What do you use the VGA adapters for, Jim? HDMI/DVI would be better. If you are using HDMI then you don't need a sound card as the audio is passed directly without any processing to the receiver too.

All I do is copy all my downloads to an ext HDD and voila, instant library. I was thinking of network storage, but can't be arsed yet.

My set up is a Panny 50" neo Plasma, Marantz SR4500, Pioneer 676a SACD/DVDa player (720p component-optical-AC3), Soniq Blu ray Player (HDMI-SPDIF), EPI 100 speakers and a nice 10" sub. If everything is hooked up digitally it becomes a lot easier to manage, just the setup can take a bit of time to get right.

The VGA adapters are for running my three monitors as well as the Plasma TV, took a bloody age to find ones that worked, I must be the only person on the planet with flatscreen VGA. AFAIK the HDMI lead will send a sound signal to the TV, but only in stereo. I use the sound card to send a 5.1 signal to the amp as well. I generally mute the TV, in fact.

HDMI will transport multi channel. The TV will only output stereo. If you have an HDMI receiver your output will be multi channel, so hook it up to that and problem solved.

You could use DVI to HDMI adapters, that would give you a much better picture. Or even better, these;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-DVI-to- ... 232656f4bc

Remember, because its digital you don't have to spend a fortune.

My Main PC is a I5 3550, 8 gig ram and quite a few disks. Never did see the point of spending heaps on video cards, I just use a GT440. Not even sure of the specs of my other machines. I have about 8 PC's in the house for various jobs, media, storage, video capture, work etc.

I've got a Commodore Plus 4. Somewhere. In the loft I think.

Get it out and go for it, Steve.

But leave the Commodore in the loft.

Chop, not sure what problem you're trying to resolve? My graphics card has four outputs - I have the HDMI port feeding the TV, with the DVI and 2x mini-display ports feeding my three monitors by use of adapters. And an optical lead from the sound card to the amp. The mobo has an onboard optical sound port, but the Xonar kicks the crap out of it for balls and chunk.

Of course you can do (almost) everything with a PC, but I don't want a massive PC-setup messing up the living room. The hardwired master-PC for 'tougher' use is located in the nerd room, the rest of the house is served by mobile devices (tablets, phones, etc.)

Besides that, specialized hardware is so much more fun to use!

I prefer these babies over WinAmp at any time!


Yes, there are VST plugins, but this is just way more interesting! Knob-infested machines rule!