Home Entertainment Upgrade

Dr_Jones · Post by **Dr_Jones** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:52 pm

I use it to transcode video on the fly that the ps3 wouldn't normally play, xvid etc.

AJ · Post by AJ » Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:25 am

Update
Stage 1 is complete. I bought this TV yesterday.

http://www.sony.com.au/homecinema/homec ... kdl40w3100#

Sony are doing a "Get a free PS3" offer on it so I should get that within 28 working days, sweet! TV is getting delivered tonight, just in time for boxing day cricket!

Post by **aza013** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:07 am

lol well done AJ ook great

AJ · Post by AJ » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:41 pm

Iâ€™m well made up with the TV and canâ€™t wait to get the PS3 and watch a Blu Ray on it. HDTV comes out brilliantly and PS2 is fantastic to play. When is FOX going to start broadcasting in HD? 

Guy in one shop started to try and sell me a surge protection board for about $150 - $200. Necessary? I have about $600 left for amp and speakers. Do I go 7.1 or is that too many speakers? Iâ€™ve always been happy with 5.1 and our place isnâ€™t massive so I donâ€™t want speakers cluttering it all up. I want to keep it Sony and have wireless rear speakers. I guess that narrowâ€™s it down quite a lot. Remember, I donâ€™t need DVD player. What do you think?

Dr_Jones · Post by **Dr_Jones** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:50 pm

There's little content with more than 5.1 anyway I think. Foxtel in HD sometime in 2008 I believe, not sure if that's just a couple of channels though.

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:12 pm

Hey mate,

just noticed this thread..

Should be a nice setup .. I'd shell out the extra for the surge protection board, or get a UPS to run everything off.. UPS would be the better option for the same price - especially if you're going to be running a PC off it as well - gives battery backup as well as surge protection.

I have the opposite view of Sony.. lol..
everything Sony that I've ever owned has turned to sh*t.. from my very first Sony 4x speed cd burner that as you can guess - didn't burn playstation games

$800 Sony Ericson phone which died in the first 6 months .. Sony CD players etc that died.. walkmans.. even my playstation fried itself..

It sucks, cause I really wouldn't mind a playstation 3, but knowing my luck it will die pretty quick .. & my hatred for Microsoft far outweighs my hatred for Sony.. so I'd get a PS3 over XBox any days of the week..

But anyways.. I definitely recommend getting a dedicated entertainment PC! Doesn't need to be too flash unless you want to play games with it hooked up to the TV..

AJ · Post by AJ » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:24 pm

I've had really good luck with Sony so I'm sorry to hear that for you. That's really unlucky. I don't like games on PC and I'm not really in to computers all that much but I'm planning on the following parts for my next PC. and I want to be able to stream all my music and internet content to the TV/stereo. TV already has a PC input and has picture in picture so I could use that as a monitor too if I wanted.

HDD
WD 750GB

CPU
E6600 Dual

Case
400W

DVD/CD x 2
Liteon (DVD & CD RW)

Motherboard
Abit AB9

Video Card
Asus 320Mb 8800GTS or Asus EN8500GT 512Mb

RAM
Kingston 2Gb

Wireless
Dlink Wireless Router

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:07 pm

Thats a pretty beefy computer for a multimedia set up..

Just a word on the config you've listed, the Abit AB9 is a Pentium 4 motherboard, so isn't going to be compatible with the Core2 DUO E6600 CPU & everything is far too overpowered IMO for what you've indicated your needs are.. & TBH I think it's massive overkill if you don't play games

The most important component in a dedicated multimedia PC is the storage & the case.. after that, a decent wireless keyboard & mouse & the ability for the video card to have s-video / tv in / out

If I were a PC Salesman I would be out of a job in an instant cause I wouldn't be able to bring myself to sell you a system like that given what you've told me about not playing games & not being into computers that much.. Everything is specced out almost as good as my new gaming PC that I'm building..

I'll shoot you over a spec list & price estimate for both a minimally specced machine & reasonably specced system when I get home.. Honestly though for a multimedia machine you could get away with spending $50 for a Celeron D 1.6Ghz CPU, $50-$100 for motherboard, $50-$60 for 1gb RAM, $185 each for 2 x 500gb Seagate HDD's, $40 max for a DVD +/-RW Burner, and $50-$100 for a case w/power supply .. You could possibly get away with using the built in video card on the Motherboard, but otherwise you could spend $50 and get a massively overpowered video card for what you need

AJ · Post by AJ » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:30 am

Cheers for that Mr C. I'd like to see those ideas. I want to be able to 'back up' my dvd's too so that's why I'm looking at dual layer dvd burners x2 also. I have also budgeted for wireless mouse and keyboard. Good idea for the tv in/out, I forgot about that.

AJ · Post by AJ » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:00 am

I went to a Sony Central store last night to check out the amps and speakers. I wanted wireless rear speakers but they only sell that with a home theatre in a box system (HTIB) which is basically a dvd player with sh*t amp built in. If I want a real amp and speaker set up, I canâ€™t get wireless rear speakers. Also we talked about how to wire the PS3 to the amp and TV. I had initially thought HDMI from PS3  AMP  TV but this would loose quality and is only really possible with a $3000 amp. The best way to do it is to run HDMI from PS3 to the TV, then optical the audio out from the TV to the amp. This is the system that Iâ€™m interested in now http://www.sony.com.au/homecinema/catal ... ryId=34346#

Iâ€™ve also had to change the plan for the set up, see image below. Iâ€™ve added foxtel to this now also. I bought a SCART to component lead last night but canâ€™t really see the difference between that and the RCA wire that I had already. Iâ€™m going to give it a few days and then switch back and see if I can see any difference.

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:57 am

With regards to backing up your DVD's you really only need the one burner .. you have to copy the disc to your hard drive before you can burn to a blank DVD .. not like CD's where you can use 2 burners to go from 1 to the other

I've never actually tried copying 2 DVD's at the same time one the same computer before, so I'm not sure if its possible to run multiple copies of DVD Shrink without Virtual Machines.. but it would most likely slow the process down a fair bit if you could..

As for the Mid Range computer system;

CASE: - Anything between $50-$100 that comes with at least a 400W power supply is going to be good enough, unless you want something that looks cool.. then you'll need to pay extra
Omni ATX Midi towe case (1966) 500W Black - $75.00

CPU - For the CPU, I'd personally go with AMD, you'll get more bang for your buck than you will with Intel.
AMD Athlon 64 4000+AM2 Dual Core Processor Retail AM2 - $76.00
OR
Intel Celeron D 440 2.0Ghz 512K CACHE 800FSB LAG775 - $79.00

You can spend more on the CPU if you want to, but anything you can buy from a computer shop these days is going to be plenty good enough..

MOTHERBOARD - Don't bother going for anything with built in wireless & all that crap, but look for one with SATAII (Serial ATA 2) capabilities - this will allow you to use the faster SATAII hard drives. Also need to make sure that the Socket type is compatible with the CPU you're getting e.g. Intel Dual Core LGA775, AMD Dual Core AM2 etc

For an AMD - AM2 CPU, this motherboard will be plenty good enough;
Asus M2N-MX -SE GF6100 PCIEx16 VGA DDRII SATAII RAID - $75.00
The following site has info on selecting a compatible motherboard for an AMD CPU etc.. http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Tec ... 69,00.html

For an Intel Motherboard you can use the following motherboard selector guide to find the one you need;
http://mbsg.intel.com/mbsg/
I haven't been able to find a price on the Intel Celeron Motherboards

So you might either have to go with an AMD, or one of the cheapest Intel Core 2 Duo's ($150 or so)

RAM Memory is pretty cheap these days... & it's all pretty quick in comparison with ha few years ago, any DDR2 RAM, whether its 512, 1Gb, 2Gb is all going to be plenty for a multimedia PC - I'd go with 1gb or 2Gb though since the price is not that much more.. if you go with 1Gb you can always upgrade to 2gb later on
You only really need to spend more than $50-$70 on RAM if you're into gaming
I can't exactly give you the greatest advice on which RAM to get, cause I haven't been keeping up to date with what the best brands are these days .. If you ask someone at a computer store they'll be able to give you an idea .. you should be right with just about anything you get.. paying $30 for 1Gb of RAM though, if it dies within warranty, you get it replaced for free, if its outside of warranty, who cares its $30 - you go buy some more

Most important thing with RAM is to make sure the motherboard supports the speed of RAM you're getting, 667Mhz, 800Mhz etc..

HARD DRIVES Seagate are by far the most reliable brand out there .. Have heard nothing but bad things about Western Digital, my experience with them haven't bee ntoo goo either .. not sure about Samsung, have had problems with Maxtor before as well..
You're best off getting SATAII hard drives .. just make sure that the motherboard you get has support for SATAII

DVD Burner - Anything under $45 should be fine, get a Sony one if you like

I'm sure that their burners are fine these days, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've gimped them from being able to copy 'Sony Pictures' DVD's or something.. lol
Just make sure its +/-RW

VIDEO CARD - Don't bother getting one straight away, the built in video card on the motherboard should be fine if it has an S-Video port / TV In / Out etc etc ... As I said, no need to go spending more than $50 on a video card if you're not a gamer.

The area you're going to save the most money is with the Hard Drives .. If you can live with only having a 250Gb Hard drive, save yourself a big chunk of your $$ and only get a 250Gb one, most people will never fill it up, but if you do you can get yourself a second one later on.

Anyways, I think I've waffled on enough by now.. I guess I basically could have said to just get the cheapest of everything because anything you can get these days is going to be faster than a few years ago & you could run a multimedia computer on any of the old equipment you've got laying around .. you could even go & buy an old P4 2Ghz machine & use that, But for the prices of new stuff these days theres not much point

I recommend that you buy the parts & get the computer store that you buy it all from to build it for you, it will probably cost about another $120 or so, but then you have a warranty / can take it back to them if anything goes wrong etc..

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:37 am

I don't really know much about Home Entertainment speakers / amps etc .. but why not look into using some computer speakers?
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_li ... &sid=25258

They're pretty beefy speakers .. pretty sure they have wireless rear speakers as well..if not you'll be able to find some 7.1's with wireless rears..

Just to clarify, are you planning to have your computer somewhere else in the house as a desktop PC as well as a multimedia PC? Or are you planning to have it hooked up to the TV so that you can use it to watch videos / dvd's etc?

Dr_Jones · Post by **Dr_Jones** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:51 pm

Weird I see a massive difference in colour between Component and composite connections with my foxtel. Try hooking both up at the same time and using PIP to see the difference. As for the HDMI and Optical, you can use HDMI for picture and go straight from the PS3's optical out to your amp, that's one less component in the chain. Keep in mind that if you go for the more expensive amp you can take full advantage of the new HD sound formats aswell and these will only work through HDMI and not the optical out. Standard DTS and DD still work fine through the optical out though.

AJ · Post by AJ » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:57 pm

mr-charisma wrote:Just to clarify, are you planning to have your computer somewhere else in the house as a desktop PC as well as a multimedia PC? Or are you planning to have it hooked up to the TV so that you can use it to watch videos / dvd's etc?

With the computer, I want to store all of my music and was going to store all my movies and stream them to the playstation and use it like a juke box. I also want to be able to download movies quickly. I want to store and edit my home movies and pictures on it too so it needs to be fast to handle doing that and I donâ€™t want it to take 2 hours to up load a 10 minute video and a couple of pictures. That sort of thing. At the moment my video footage, some movies, pictures and a tiny amount of my music is stored on my Maxtor 300 GB portable HDD and it has 157 BG of space free. When I get around to backing these up, again, I donâ€™t want it to take days to do.

I was going to have the PC linked wirelessly to the PS3 but after speaking with Bennoz, this can creat delay and pausing. That sh*ts me so the PC will be in the living room but probably not using the TV as a monitir for it, but yes, I'd like my movies on the big screen and music coming out of the amp.

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:21 pm

Ah, well in that case, spend a bit more on the CPU, RAM - Since its pretty cheap, get at least 2Gb

more expensive *usually* = faster ..
and definitely at least 1 x 500Gb SATAII HDD for now..
Go Dual Core for the CPU, up to you whether you want to go AMD or Intel. With Dual Core, Chuck on an aftermarket CPU Cooler (The stocko ones are usually pretty crap)

Graphics card, still up to you, just remember that a $50-$100 one is faster than anything that was out a few years ago, & my 3 year old one is fine for video editing etc..

Wireless
I've got a 108Mbps wireless router & wireless cards @ home & I never usually have any problems streaming video over wireless from PC > PC unless theres a lot of other traffic going through the router, lately its been near impossible with a few people playing online games etc.. Does the PS3 have a network cable port or something if you decide not to go wireless?

Other alternative might be to get a litle 8Gb USB flash drive to copy files to & a DVD player with support for USB Flash Drives .. it can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes though..

Dr_Jones · Post by **Dr_Jones** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:26 pm

PS3 has wireless and gigabit ethernet.

harry90 · Post by **harry90** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:35 pm

dont get too committed to anything....and dont forget...technology is better, faster, smaller and more efficent by the month (as in updates in technology) !!! So if your gonna get something, i would suggest to not go overboard with spending....
in the end do what you will...the setup looks great and im sure it will be perfect !!! And believe me, if i had the opportunity to go with what you are, i would take it...

AJ · Post by AJ » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:43 pm

On my old laptop when I was doing video editing, I would try and listen to music at the same time, that would screw the whole thing up and it would take ages to do anything. That's why I'm looking at quad core processors. Come to think of it, if I wanted to do anything and listen to music it would cause it to run so slow.

Initially, I wanted a multi room wireless set up, similar to a Bose system. But they are $8000 + around $1500 per additional room. Ouch. Not worth it in a unit (I'll just get bigger speakers

). When I get a house then that will be the go.

mr-charisma · Post by **mr-charisma** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:23 pm

I don't see anything wrong with getting cutting edge stuff

.. my next PC is going to be pretty madly specced with some of the newest gear

.. I'm not a Harvey Norman salesman though

(& never will be

) so I always just recommend the specs & price that suits a persons needs .. most people can quite happily get by with a sub $400 / $500 computer these days ..

I think you're crazy AJ!

Even 1/4 of that price is insanity!

I'd be stretching the budget to get those $600 computer speakers I linked

Though the only Home Entertainment setup that I will ever have is going to be a computer & some beefy PC Speakers

Then I'll have a projector or a really big TV when I want to watch movies

I would be keen to see & hear the difference between an $8000 home entertainment system & one thats set up with a computer though

AJ · Post by AJ » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:29 pm

mr-charisma wrote:I'd be stretching the budget to get those $600 computer speakers I linked Though the only Home Entertainment setup that I will ever have is going to be a computer & some beefy PC Speakers Then I'll have a projector or a really big TV when I want to watch movies :PI would be keen to see & hear the difference between an $8000 home entertainment system & one thats set up with a computer though

What would I use to drive those speakers though? I'd still need an amp.

A few years ago I went to a Bose demo and was very impressed, fell in love with them then, my wallet is yet to do the same.