Re: Opinions Please on new Client for SageTV

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November 1, 2010 at 11:45 pm #2068
nwboater

    [quote=”autoboy”]
    [quote]I like Sage Extenders – in fact own an HD100 and an HD200. Our problem with that is that I’m also somewhat of an audiophile (audiophool?). The SPDIF out wont give the best audio out with HD audio. Since we are using a sound card in the HTPC there is no easy way to get the full HD audio to the soundcard from the Extender. Otherwise I sure would go with an HD300. For most people they make a lot more sense than a Client PC!
    [/quote]

    You mean that you are using the analog outputs from the HTPC to get HD audio output on your receiver that DOESN’T have HDMI bitstreaming available.  That’s what I think you are saying, because the HD300 can bitstream full HD audio from a blu-ray over its HDMI port to a receiver with HDMI 1.3 inputs.

    It sounds like a perfectly good build.  The motherboard is kinda strange since you are using an old Nvidia chipset with bad graphics built in.  I’d go for a modern AMD based motherboard and you can have your pick of either the Nvidia 8400 graphics card you already have, or the AMD graphics built in.  You don’t need to pair the graphics card with a motherboard unless you want SLI or Crossfire for gaming.

    I have the Nvidia 7025 chipset in my wife’s computer and it is a perfectly acceptable system for basic stuff, but the graphics lacks most HD acceleration and is really only fit for an office machine.   It’s also a bit long in the tooth when it comes to SATA connections.  But in a HTPC it doesn’t really matter much.
    [/quote]

    Guess I should have explained what I’m doing with the audio. I’m taking each of the Analog outs from the Sound card (6 total) to inputs on our power amps. No receiver! Only problem with this is that I’m limited to play what’s on the computer. But since we have all our cd’s, movies, recorded TV and photos on the server it works fine for us. We actually use SageTV for all but critical 2 channel music listening. For that we use JRiver Media Center MC15. It has better audio.

    Thanks for confirming that the video card can be a different make than the onboard video unless gaming. We don’t do that so a non-issue.

    I’m inclined now to spend the extra money and use the Gigabyte mobo that Meester.Rip recommended. It would allow for a lot more future options.

    Cheers,
    Rod