Mark7798 Posted May 26, 2001 Share Posted May 26, 2001 Ok I am going to college next fall and need to be able to watch my DYDs. This will be painfull without my HT system. I have decieded to turn my computer into a movie and music system. I already bought an ATI 64mb Radeon w/ tv out. I am buying the 4.1 from best buy next week. I am thinking about a philips AE sound card. Is all this a good choice and will it all work together? I am trying to get good compatiable stuff the first time and make this as painless as possible. And does the Radeon work well with DVD and games?? Thanks for all you help...advice...sugestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark7798 Posted May 27, 2001 Author Share Posted May 27, 2001 HAHA DYDs LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twm1010 Posted May 29, 2001 Share Posted May 29, 2001 OKOKOKOKOK THIS IS REAL IMPORTANT. Are you a player trying to impress the ladies or a dork who's gonna sit around with his buddies watching Star Trek in surround sound? (or a normal guy with too much money)I don't know anything about the Acoustic Edge, it probably works fine but so does a soundblaster, play with both, see what you like. The Klipsch's will do you nicely either way but please ask yourself, do you need all that? Tom PS the radeon does DVD's just fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark7798 Posted May 29, 2001 Author Share Posted May 29, 2001 I am just a normal guy who is too smart to study and *might* want something other than party with the ladies and my lady. Thanks for the soundcard information though. I will look into both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiplemw1 Posted May 30, 2001 Share Posted May 30, 2001 good for you man, my resident assitant had two 12" cerwin vegas powered by a 215 x 2 amp, 2 sets of pro-media 4.0's, a pair of crappy surrounds and an infinity center in his room. It was a great room for movies, we had people come down from first and second floors to ask us to turn it down, haha, we found the resonant freq. of his room, it was sweet, good luck with the college thing, where are you going? later shipley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiplemw1 Posted May 30, 2001 Share Posted May 30, 2001 Mark, I was required to buy a laptop as an incoming freshman to rose-hulman, and I now use it to play dvd movies everyonce in a while, but the sound card sucks A@@. My r.a. same as above found a nice, usb soundcard from roland that is very sweet indeed, I'm pretty sure it has component, toslink, coaxial, and other connections as well as it eliminates hard drive noise, not sure about the others just used to the hd noise caused by my laptop and I've found that was a way to fix it, hope this might help, if I knew the model # i'd post it but until I do, I'll try to find it, later shipley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted May 30, 2001 Share Posted May 30, 2001 Get a good A/V receiver with 500watts and 5.1 analog in and out RCA plugs. Then you can get 24/96 stereo, analog surround, 5.1 AC3, 5.1 DTS from the s/pdif. The analog inputs handle the 4ch analog from your soundcard for gaming. And the analog outputs are to feed your Klipsch their 4ch DSP mixed-down analog they need. For $200 or $300 you get the best quality 24/96 stereo, AC3, the only way to get DTS, much better signal quality, no-cpu cost, and 500 extra watts for somethin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark7798 Posted May 30, 2001 Author Share Posted May 30, 2001 Ok thanks for all the information. I am not sure I understand the last post. I am kinda new to putting this stuff together. Do you mean buy a normal HT system then conect the computer to it via the soundcard?? How does this work with the klipsch speakers? And ,if I am understanding you correctly, is it worth all that extra room with the computer and the HT system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark7798 Posted May 30, 2001 Author Share Posted May 30, 2001 Oh ya I am going to St. Joes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted May 30, 2001 Share Posted May 30, 2001 The lattest versions of Win-DVD and Power-DVD are said to have DTS support, reviewed as "with a good phantom center channel" to "poor with dropped sound". A separate decoder will have alot better sound than a software decoder, better d/a converters, and you can't use software sound with hardware DVD decoders such as the Hollywood+ or ATI's hardware decoders(Radeons) The Midiland ADS2000 has analog inputs for your soundcards' 4 point EAX or A3D gaming sound(this is why you would use the analog out of you soundcard) The s/pdif will passthru surround to the decoder's AC3, but no DTS. http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/ADS-2000/ADS2000.html or the SH-AC500D from Panasonic that does DTS http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1240610877 Both give you a remote and it is easier not to mess with splitters and leave everything hooked-up. 2 months ago I saw a champaign edition Sony A/V receiver with deluxe everything on egghead.com, connections for DVDs, vcrs, cd players, s-video I/O's, maybe even RGB outs and all controlled with a good remote for $300. Plus 500 extra watts to play with. Leave Klipsch positioned for gaming and connect to receiver. Get some roomie's HiFi speakers setup for HT. Use remote to switch.(if you can set it up right, the right receiver will let you play the Klipsch and HT) CD-DTS, or music DTS cd's must be in the specs if you want that feature. You can have the Livedrive with all the extras and it won't come close to what a $40 Hoontech card can do with a good receiver. But ya got to understand, that EXTRA 500watts with the 400watts from the Klipsch is good for dorms, barracks, whatever. BTW, If you take the grill off the bottom of your door and stick your sub into it, you just turned the hall into one big port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark7798 Posted May 30, 2001 Author Share Posted May 30, 2001 Ok I more question If I have a ATI 64mb Radeon with tv out, and a philips AE, I wont be able to use powerDVD because the Radeon already decodes the DVD?? Does Radeon provide some DVD software then?? If I dont want to buy a seperate decoder how can I make this work with just the stuff listed above and the 4.1s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted May 31, 2001 Share Posted May 31, 2001 Hey, you can always listen to you movies in stereo. I had the AIW32 and it had a s/pdif for AC# and DTS passthru. It would use the stereo soundtrack for computer sound. This message has been edited by rol1 on 05-31-2001 at 02:28 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma43q Posted May 31, 2001 Share Posted May 31, 2001 not mistaken, your ati radeon should have a software dvd player from ati themselves. and again.. ati radeon has its own hardware decoding. can someone corrects me if i am wrong? but windvd / powerdvd should be able to decode the dvd via your ati radeon decoding chip. afterall, the signal will have to go thru the radeon itself... i am not a engineer or something.. but i am trying to explain in a logical way... so in the end, the signal should be decoded by the ati hardware decoder and the software should not be having any problem projecting it in the monitor. and it is like a geforce 2 card, it has something built inside to help decoding dvd playback but it is not hardware. and ati cards have good dvd playback quality go to www.3dsoundsurge.com to read the review on phillips acoustic edge card. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted May 31, 2001 Share Posted May 31, 2001 "but windvd / powerdvd should be able to decode the dvd via your ati radeon decoding chip" The software decoders do all the work with your cpu, then uses the ati to display while it handles the surround mix-down of the 5.1 to 4 channel out thru your sound card. The software that ships with the ATI/AIW, that can speak to the Radeon's hardware, has decided that you do not need surround-sound thru your soundcard. It only plays the stereo soundtrack thru your soundcard. If you want surround-sound with your Radeon DVD decoding you have to use the s/pdif out of the Radeon. If your soundcard has s/pdif input (like the $39 Hoontech NX card) you may be able Radeon's s/pdif out off of the dongle into the s/pdif in if you have one. No bets on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twm1010 Posted June 3, 2001 Share Posted June 3, 2001 Dorm fun? The guys across the hall from me first semester had 4 sets of Bose 301's set up. Yeah. holy **** . They watched US Marshalls and it shook my door open. And that was a damn DivX with only stereo sound (i didn't ask how it was set up). Well here you go. I believe PowerDVD3.0 (find it on net, pssst thats illegal) is able to use hardware decoding, at least it used my decoder card, i'm sure it could use yours. The SoundBlaster Live 5.1 should be able to send a Digital signal out to the reciever of your choice providing you have the right cables. OR You hook up some kind of computer speakers and let the SBLive be your reciever. It will do it. I make some noise with my ProMedias, they're more then the average person needs, but if you insist on overkill, go get the reciever and some speakers and a powered sub and blow the walls down. Also, being a resident assistant now, note one thing, psychotic residents cannot be stopped from killing you in the middle of the night. Be nice with your speakers. Tom AOL: Benge5X Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahabut Posted June 6, 2001 Share Posted June 6, 2001 Ok, so you have a good start on an "entertainment" system. I would suggest the SBL platnium over the AE phillips. Other than that you have a great setup and should have no (as in zero) problems with conflicts. Couple of thoughts, one, Don't use power DVD with the ATI radeon. It's a waste. The ATI card has HARDWARE decoding, last time I checked power DVD doesn't use it at all. Use either ATI's player or any other HARDWARE decoding player. As for adding a seperate preamp, it's totally frivalis(spelling). If you look around on the net you can find a few companies that have DTS,DSS,dolby prologic, and Dolby digital software, it works with the SB Plat, I don't remeber the site I found it on but you should be able to find it easily. PS- I know what I am talking about, I run a business that builds custom computer and home entertainment systems. If you haven't already baught the parts e-mail me and I will send you some prices. Good luck in school. PPS- I use only Klipsch Speakers. ALLWAYS and FOREVER ------------------ Real life is just another window on my desktop! -The Shadow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted June 8, 2001 Share Posted June 8, 2001 Does any of the software decoders play any of these cd's http://www.musiccdworld.com/dts-cd.shtml I'll bet, that 70% of DTS-DVD capable receivers can not play one of those, even this years models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwK Posted June 8, 2001 Share Posted June 8, 2001 For DVD's I recomend you getting one of these. http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/hollywood_plus.htm It is a GREAT card, the best. I got one with my 12x DVD player. It has SVideo out, Digital sound out. And you can run DVD movies and work on your computer with out slowing down your computers preformance, or skipping the movie. And theres a Remote Control you can buy for it, that Sigma makes. It will cost you about 100 bucks, but I think you would be ALOT happier with it, than using Power DVD or some other Software decoder. ------------------ K6-2 450 SB Live Value ( not 5.1) Klipsch Pro Media v2 400 ( soon to be 4.1 ) 2 Fisher STV-873's on front channel 2 Fisher surrounds on rear channel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwK Posted June 8, 2001 Share Posted June 8, 2001 Your Radeon should come with Software that works with the Radeon and uses the Radeons built in Hardware Decoder. The Radeon is a good card for DVD decoding. As for the sound card, I think you should go with the AWE Live Platinum. And if you were going to buy a Reciever and what not, you could use the Digital out from your computer to an imput on your Reciever, with your Klipsch on the Reciever. Not sure if that Helped any but... ok The Hollywood Plus card, would still be your best bet. It will work as your decoder, and has a Digital Sound out, and S Video out, with a Svideo to RCA converter. ------------------ K6-2 450 SB Live Value ( not 5.1) Klipsch Pro Media v2 400 ( soon to be 4.1 ) 2 Fisher STV-873's on front channel 2 Fisher surrounds on rear channel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcunneen Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Hi guys, I have a question: I use PowerDVD 2.5 to watch movies (it came with the computer) and it's cool except for 2 things: 1) it's not quite as smooth as tv or video - it doesn't actually *jerk* as such, just gives the impression of juddering 2) the colours are slightly funny - if there's a sunset or something the gradations aren't smooth, i can clearly see the layers of colour, as if i'm in a low-colour mode or something (which I'm not). I have an Athlon 1200, 128MB DDR RAM, and a Hercules Geforce 2 GTS 64MB. my monitor I watch movies on is a 19" flat Viewsonic. If anyone reading this can shed some light on the matter, please don't hesitate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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