Desktops forum: Poll: Is your PC connected to your entertainment center?

I don't really have a need to yet. I'm sure in the near future it might be more desireable and maybe even necessary. I've always wanted to be able to play all of the music on my PC through my home system during parties and such, so I'm guessing it won't be too long before I start feeling the need.

I don't have my PC in my Entertainment Center and my son a computer programmer used to have his hooked in some how because if he downloaded a program on his harddrive he would simply use his mouse to drag the program from his PC across and onto the Large screen TV. I think he just had the audio Video Card hooked from the PC to the Entertainment Center. This way he was able to drag from one screen to the next much like using several monitors to do high tech work using each for different tasks. I really don't know how he accomplished it but I'm not a programmer. He is and he didn't seem to have any trouble at except lining up the video on the screen of the TV but that was because it was in a different room. We would watch TV from PC long ago well at least two or three years. In computer time its ages. If you have an A/V card you can hook up your PC to it especially for sound effects and Gaming.

My PC is connected to both my 32" Panasonic LCD and a Denon AVR 1801 receiver. My XFX MG-630i-7159 has both HDMI and DVI outputs, in addition to the VGA output, and a coax SPDIF output on the rear panel. I use the PC to play music and movies through the system. No Hi-Def yet.

I currently have an AMD X2-4400 with 4Gb ram,XP Pro, 1 TB of HDD's and a Creative Sound blasster X-Fi with front audio box, crossfire video cards. All connected to a JVC 5.1 surround sound system using fiber optic cable. The tv is a 50" Panasonic connected to the pc with a DVI-I bus cable (no hdmi on the set). I use it more for fraging and video's more than music (which also sounds great). Scare's the bejesus out of the dogs when turned up

I'm listening to "Echoes" on my local HD Public Radio station right now. I have a Creative SoundBlaster 24 bit Live card, and I run SPDIF coax out to my Yamaha receiver. The HD stations sound great, but DVDs on Power DVD Deluxe in 5.1 are amazing. This card is 7.1 capable, but this receiver only puts out 5.1. 7.1 with HDMI will probably will my next stereo upgrade. I would like to see wireless speakers become more common -- and affordable -- before I do that.

i have duel monitors a remote and a DVD drive. my second monitor is positioned where anyone in the room can see. so i don't see the need in hooking it up to the TV especially since i hardly watch movies.(I'm a gamer)

I built up a good quality sound system over many years. I use it to play music (mostly from CD's, though I can play mp3 files etc through it also). I play the sound from my TV through my HiFi system and I am very satisfied with the quality (even though it's not 'surround sound'). My Computer is in another room quite a long distance from my Entertainment Centre. I sometimes use the Computer to play music when I'm in this other room. I can see no good reason for combining the two.
David N.

In relation to this topic, yes my PC is connected to both TV and stereo.
The PC I build up back in 2004, it has a Celeron 2.0 Ghz processor, 512Mb RAM, NVidea Gforce graphics card with 256 Mb RAM with SVHS output, Much TV fusion Video Capture card, Soundblaster Livewire 5.1 surround card with 16 Mb RAM, 250MB Maxtor Hard Drive, SONY DVD burner and XP Professional operating system. The total cost at the time was just under $1200.
The TV I use is a ROWA (TEAC clone) 26 inch CRT, the stereo is an old Phillips 393 35W for front and a GENEXXA STA-825 50W for the main speakers. It is a bit of a mixed hybrid system but it works.
Back in 2004 programs were limited to the likes of Media player 9, Nero and VDub just to name a few, but I have noticed a whole range of programs becoming available for entertainment PC systems such as Aimersoft and Prism Video conveter by NCH for DVD and other formats to PC conversion, then there is Tube Hunter Ultra by Neoretix, which great for grabbing those flash videos from Utube and others and converting them to AVI files. However I still use Windows media player now version 11 to do my final output.
Despite the fact I originally set up my system as a prototype and back in 2004 I was probably one of the "first kids in the neighborhood" well at least my neighborhood to have such a system. The system has so far proven itself many times over, despite the usual cantankerous PC problems.
The best part I like about this system is having all your CD and DVD in the PC, where there less likely to get damaged, scratched and stolen. It is also easier to share your files to friends by downloading the files into a memory stick, which is a lot easier than waiting by some tape recording device to finish its job.
Can there be any improvements to what I have got, yes most definatly.
I am sizing up for my next generation system and looking at something close to a gaming PC although I don't see the need for over clocking however I do like the idea of a water cooled system (or rather ethylene glycol(the green stuff used as radiator coolant in cars)), but mainly for quietness as the fan noise can be noticeable in quiet scenes.
So I would be looking at something with either an AMD 64 or Dual core processor 2GB of RAM, HDTV capture card, I think I will keep the Soundblaster Live wire card, I might give the NVIDEA 9600 a try, dual hard drive 200GB for the operating system and programs, 1TB for my media storage, Blue Ray DVD burner, I will probably keep the XP operating system (still not too sure about Vista)and all housed in a nice 19 inch 3U rack mount case, if I can get one.
As for my Audio system I am considering a nice Valve (Hollow state) job probably custom made, I like the valve amp because it makes a good compliment to the CD player or rather digital media player, as they tend to remove that "digital edge" that seem to make digital recordings sound a bit harsh. A 42 inch LCD TV or a Panasonic 3 LCD video projector.
The most important item to remember when building up an entertainment PC is RAM size, I would not go any lower than 1GB, I know my system has 512MB and on fast action scenes frame jitter is apparent, where as systems with 1 GB RAM fast action scenes run quite smoothly. As with processor speeds I have run DVD files on a PENTIUM 2, 450MHz machine with XP and 126MB RAM where I would say that would be the lowest limit before image and sound breakup occurs. Again that only happens on fast action scenes.
The PC is not the only weapon of choice for entertainment systems, the laptop is also making it onto the scene as well as I have seen quite a few known brands such as Toshiba an Dell produce versions with the SVHS TV output and Acer have made a stand alone entertainment PC, but you don't have to rely on PC's and laptops with SVHS or HDMI output plugs either a lot of large screen LCD and Plasma as well as video projectors also have VGA inputs therefore making any PC able to be an entertainment PC.
Having to turn all you equipment individually can also be eliminated by utilizing USB mains controllers or windows home automation systems. For these systems you will have to hunt around for them, but thats what the internet is for.
PC entertainment systems are the way of the future there is no doubt about it, at the moment the technology and systems are still in its infancy, but will rapidly improve over the coming years, as more of us pioneers work out which is the best combination to use.

Gateway 3Gbs Vista PC w/2Gb,1Tb(2x500)HD, E-Mu 1212m/0404 soundcards, Realtec 5.1 on-board; Blue-Ray Burner; Firewire; Blue-Tooth; Wi-Fi; w/
Gateway 24" HDMI/DVI/VGA/S-Video/Component/Composite inputs, 1920 X 1200 Pixels Per Inch/3ms response , Ultra Color Gamut Pivot Display;
Gateway 17" 1.6 Gbs XP Laptop w/2 Gb, 250 Gb HD+160 Gb ext HD, CD/DVD Burner, Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless;
These are connected to:
Mackie 32.8 main mixer (64 channel w/8 sub-mix sends + monitor outs)&
Mackie 1202 send/receive mixer (12 ins/6 outs + monitor outs);
(2)Yamaha 5.1 up-processors > combined up-mix up to 10.2;
Sony 5.1 down-processor;(+ 2 un-processed channels = 7.1)
DBX & Beringer Compressor/Expander/Limiters;
Denon, Phonic, Yamaha Equalizers,
Yamaha Power Amps (8 channels w/total of 3000 watts+);
Technics 52-Band(sweepable Q)Electronic Equalizer/Real Time Analyzer;
JVC CD Recorder,JVC Super-Audio CD Player,Apex DVD Player(All Region),
(2) Samsung DVD Recorders(8 hours per DVD); Samsung VCR/DVD recorder;
(2) Technics DAT Mastering Decks;
Furman & Isobar Surge protectors;
Mixdown Main Monitors: (2)Yamaha NS10M Near-Field Monitors,
(2) Yamaha NS 1000M Mid-Field Monitors, (2) DCM TimeWindows,
(2) Auratone Cubes, Velodyne 12"/1000w sub;
Mixdown Monitor Center/Surrounds: choice of Klipsch,Infinity,DCM,EV or JBL, Mixdown Monitor Surround Sub: Klipsch 12"/180 watt;
Mains: (2)JBL M16s(tops) & (2)Eminence 12" w/4X6 Horns in Cerwin-Vega custom cabs(midbass) & (2)Mackie SWA 1801 18"/1000watt subs
FujiFilm 7.1 MegaPixel still/30Fps Video Camera;
Shure SM-57, SM-58 & Audio Technica AT-3031, AT-2020 microphones;
Sony M-D Recorder/Player(for the road);
(2) Sony 32" WEGA Video Monitors; TWCable/Roadrunner 10+Mbs;
The system is wired mostly w/ Mogami and Audio Quest Jade/Sapphire.
I guess you could say it is connected. This Is My HD HTPC Set-up!
And that does'nt include the Guitars & Basses and their rigs, Keyboards, Drum Machines, Percussion, Harmonicas, Juice Harps, Horns,
Wash boards etc...
Next up on the shopping list is a couple of Flat Screens & a Projector, along with a video switcher/mixer and some software.
Master of the Entertainment Center says: "We could use a little more tallent in the monitors, please." the unknownsoundman

Yes, I have 2 computers, I.P. duel core and AMD duel core attached to a 42 in Samsung plasma along with a PS3 this is also attached to a 5.1
sourround sound audio system. My Dish HD allows HD/tv to play with the same system to the tv. Im very impressed with the Blue-ray movies on the PS3. The scaler on the playstation 3 does a great job on regular dvds. My main interest is gaming. I have all the Rainbow six and Ghost Recon games, as well as the delta forces games by Novalogic.
Ghost Recon 2 [pc] looks as good as the HD games on playstation. My graphics card is a Nvidia 8500. 3 gigs ram. You cant have to much ram when playing games...

In the past year, I have built two HTPC's. Each HTPC is connected to an HDTV via HDMI and to a receiver using 5.1 analog RCA cables. If you are building one of these, I highly recommend a sound card (e.g. X-Plosion or X-FI-Prelude) and receiver setup which uses 5.1 analog (PCM) instead of a digital connection (coaxial or optical). Each HTPC is equipped with the LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray HD DVD Combo Drive, 4 x 500 GB SATA 3G/s hard drives, an Intel Q6600 chip, ASUS MB and 2 GB RAM. They each have an ATI video card. I recommend video cards that are passively cooled (e.g. ATI 3400). One of my cards, the ATI 2600, is far too noisy for a home entertainment environment. As for streaming high-def video accross your home network, I recommend a wired gigabit router. I tried wireless N draft, but playing a high-def movie with a wireless connection left the playback choppy. As for software, I am running Vista Ultimate. I highly recommend using My Movies to manage you video collection. It has a Windows Media Centre plug-in and interacts well with PowerDVD and Daemon tools. I use PowerDVD 8 to play my movies.

I have my desktop PC connected to my TV video and I also have a spare output on the sound card connected to a mixer/PA system which is under the TV. I have about 50,000 MIDI and karaoke tracks on a spare drive on the PC and I use Winamp with a plug in to play karaoke tracks on the TV plugging a couple of mikes into the PA along with the output from the PC. Result - a great karaoke system which uses very low cost, easily available karaoke tracks. As an additional feature I can control my desktop PC from my laptop using logmein from www.logmein.com which means I can sit on the settee with other people selecting the songs they want to sing in comfort:-)

I'd love to connect my computer to my entertainment center but getting my hands on the remote is enough trouble, THANK you very much!

I have 3 computer systems and all have tuners and media center installed, including the 17" laptop. My main system is in the den, where I use a 24" LCD monitor as a TV after the days PC work is done.

In the back bedroom resides the old desktop and the old 21" CRT monitor. When the grand kids visit it gets heavier use (TV, computer, games) than my main, which is off limits to the kids.

When I travel I take the laptop, which has off-air recorded HiDef programming on the hard drive. If there is a on-air program I want recorded when on the road it goes on the laptop hard drive. HiDef looks really good on it.