Basis HTPC (1 Viewer)

[Pete_w]

What I want is a basic 'HTPC' to play the odd VCD because my fairly old but reliable DVD player does not play them. What I have is ..500MHZ PIII,256MB Ram,TNT2 Ultra vid card with TV out,Pioneer 10x DVD-Rom drive,Soundblaster live card,Power DVD XP(I think is called). Could any of you fine folks tell me what else I need to do this...needs to be pretty cheap. BTW my TV is a 6 year old 27in Proscan. Thanks

 

[Matt Weyen]

I'm guessing you have an s-video input on your tv. If so, try finding a video card with s-video out (I suggest an ATI Radeon). Run the SoundBlaster Live to your recievers coaxial digital input (with a mono 3.5mm to coaxial converter, can be had for a couple bucks at a place like Rat Shack). Use Powerdvd to do spdif out (in the configuration options) and you should be set. Make sure to mess with the video settings in powerdvd or your picture quality might just be crap. And, one last thing, make sure to run your resolution at 640x480 (not 800x600 or anything higher) because ntsc tv's run at that resolution and the vid card's s-video will output 640x480 no matter what you set your res. to, it will just squish it and mess up the picture quality a lot! By the way, to set it to 640x480, go to where u set resolutions, hit advanced, choose adapter and then choose list all modes. My pc won't even give me the option of 640x480 if I don't go to list all modes. Hope this helps.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

If all your're looking to do is play VCD- you just need a card with Tv output. Since it seems you have one- connect it to the Tv- and you should be fine.

-Vince