On the subject of a combined PC music *and* home-theater system, I spent some time this morning doing some research. Here's what I turned up...

Being ever on the lookout for ways to integrate my PC with the rest of my gear, I was hoping to find an "audiophile grade" multi-channel card that would provide superior front-channel stereo and also decode an external signal for 5.1 surround so I could continue to use my Sony DVD player to provide cheap, clean video signal to my TV and let my soundcard do the surround processing. My search led me to the M-Audio Revo 5.1. Unfortunately however, it appears the Revo is incapable of on-the-fly processing of external signal (it appears to be record only, if I read correctly). If I'm wrong, someone please clarify.

The better solution to integrating music/home-theater into the PC, but seemingly always in the future and fraught with video limitations, is to go with PC application based DVD playback and use a large VGA compatible monitor/HDTV. Unfortunately, display limitations have included: 1) quality CRTs seem to max out at around 24" (i.e. Widescreen Sony GDM-FW900, would not consider the 29" class "presentation" CRT's that max out at 800x600); 2) big LCD's have been pretty cheesy (i.e. 42" Viewsonic LCD has similar resolution limitations--can't do HDTV or VGA very well); 3) video card-based and external scan converters going from VGA-to-NTSC/HDTV are 'iffy' at best, or; very expensive (front projectors with $400 replacement bulbs). Of all of the above, a front projection system seemed best, but I really hate the thought of TV costing me $1.00/hour in replacement bulbs and a rapidly depreciating projector.

Just recently, it appears that a reasonably priced, medium-sized (30", ~$1,400), high-quality VGA compatible LCD HDTV has *finally* arrived:

Syntax Olevia LT30HV (also a 27" version):


Here's a nice review:
Syntax Olevia LT30HV 30" LCD HDTV

I decided this would be a great way to put a Revo 5.1 or future variant to use in a PC-based music/home-theater system. Surely, it's about time isn't it? And if the Revo 5.1 doesn't float your boat for music, then you can probably run an EMU card simultaneously and use an external speaker switch-box to change from the Revo to the EMU.

-coma

P.S. I don't read industry mag's much anymore, but going by anecdotal evidence and personal observation, I expect we're still probably 5-years out from total, consumer-level PC/TV/HT/music integration. In the meantime, and to avoid an otherwise unnecessary (but pretty cool) $1,400 expense, if you know of a high-quality 5.1 card that can process external signal on-the-fly, I'd appreciate knowing about it. Thanks .

I'm confused... you need on-the-fly 5.1 decoding (sensible enough) so that you can use your external DVD player.

You don't want to go to an internal (PC) player because... display solutions aren't up to snuff? Why do you *need* a VGA-compatible device?

1000 hours for a bulb is considered low, so even if it was 1000 hours, and even if you could only find the bulb for as low as 500 dollars, that would still only be 50 cents per hour used. Most have 2000 hour bulb life, and can be found for around 300-350, so now you are looking at a price of around 15 to 20 cents per hour for front projection. I don't know where you got a dollar from.

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Right, to use my PC exclusively for sound, since it's already the my main source for sound in my office/media room.

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My relatively inexpensive 27" Sony CRT and DVD player are above average performers compared to what I could accomplish via an exclusively PC-based system of the same size and features. I spend a lot of time at my PC and have just been looking forward to the day of high-quality audio and excellent visuals on good size displays to arrive, i.e. the "one-box" soution.

-coma

To do Dolby Digital and DTS decoding requires a license which costs $. You already pay for that in a hardware DVD set top box or software like PowerDVD. I've never heard of software which takes an input of DTS/AC3 and then decodes it and send out through analog out of soundcard. Why not just use a software DVD player?

For displays you have an option of Component, VGA, or DVI so there were many displays you could watch movies on. As for using them to compute it maybe more limited bu is 1280x768 enough for you? That resolution on a 30" display is rather large.

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Loose calculations on my part... thanks for the $/hour clarification. In my home, $0.20/hour works out to $25/month to operate. Not as bad as I guess-timated, but still an ongoing expense. And there yet remains the dark room issues except where you use the brighter and usually more expensive projectors. Still, it would probaby be my preferred choice of all of them unless combo PC/HDTV LCD displays continue to improve and come down in price. The PC/TV merging has been a couple decades coming now.

- coma

it's not audiophile grade by any stretch but the platinum or better model of the audigy 2 series of sound cards can take in external multichannel audio. they have both the digital coax and optical inputs in the break-out box that mounts into a 5.25 inch bay.
certainly you may be looking for better quality, but i think it's sufficient for watching DVDs.

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I'd be interested to learn of 30"-ish displays that showed similar quality/resolution to a nice 19" CRT or a nice HDTV. All the dual-use displays I've come across in my (admittedly casual and infrequent) searching have been disappointing to me. The 42" ViewSonic LCD I saw in my local CompUSA is a good example--probably only good enough for a PowerPoint presentation or casual viewing.

- coma

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Thanks kalzone. I'm far less serious about how a movie sounds, so a "Platinum" Audigy might be a good way to go to avoid having to buy a dedicated receiver to decode movies and have to deal with speaker switch-boxes, etc., or having to buy a new display, though that Olevia is pretty tempting.

Music in my office/media room is handled primarily by my PC--and I really only intend to go further in that direction, so anything along those lines is good.

- coma

P.S. By the way, I plugged my old SBLive! 5.1 card into my PC this morning just for kicks--what garbage it is on music. And to think how impressed I was with it only a few years ago...

Isn't the Audigy2 Platiunum like $150? If so you can just get a Panasonic XR-25 receiver for that price.

High definition plasma are still expensive so the only cheap high def option for flat screen is LCDs and they max out at 1280x768 (which is enough for 720P). Computer monitors are still higher res. It all comes down to is that enough for you? For me it's not enough but if you'll run multiple monitors it's no issue. The 1280x768 screen could be used for movie/TV purposes and light computer use.

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Good point about the Panasonic XR series. I had begun to look at one for the family room HT setup, perhaps doing another one for the office/media room for HT use would be okay. Probably easier to flip some switches on speaker switch-boxes than to disable/enable soundcards in the Windows control panel and reboot. I guess we're still waiting for the ONE soundcard solution...

Thanks Ian.

P.S. Yes, multiple monitors is an option, but I've already got 6 hooked up to this machine . Good thing I've got PCI slots...

You may be right Ian but I think it's the newer "ZS" model probably. I have the original Audigy 2 Platinum which I'm sure by now is less than $100 on Ebay.

yup! that one is selling for $86.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...144044876&rd=1

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Used/refurb XR-25's are right in that price range.

P.S. Though having an Audigy would restore game-playing capability to my PC--something I haven't had for a long time.

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but couldn't you play any of your games with any soundcard?

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According to my 15-year old, my soundcard stinks for games. Something to do with EAX, or acceleration, or something like that.

-coma