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However, I don't think sitting at a desk in front of a computer with a TV tuner card and a monitor will be able to replace the comfort and convenience of plopping down on the couch to watch TV.

Agreed. And here's the answer: a VGA to Component transcoder. Use that HD-compatible TV as a monitor for your computer. Now the only issue is whether or not ATI has added better custom resolution support for the 9700. The 7500 AIW I have sucks quite hard, as I can't get a custom resolution that gets rid of excessive overscan. nVidia can do it, so why can't ATI?

And as long as I'm making a wishlist, how about somebody make a VIVO card that accepts HD signals via YPrPb component input? I'd pay good money for that.

You can get ATSC HDTV PCI card for your PC (MyHD, AccessDTV, etc). These cards reportedly need 10 gig per hour of recording, which is a bit more than a Tivo at Best quality will use (like 2.5 times). IMHO, HDTV would be a better use of that space.

And while there are currently no HDTV Tivo's available, Tivo has shown a prototype one. When will it be available? Probably as soon as it becomes worthwhile ($$$) for Tivo to sell them. Tivo/Replay/etc. are having a hard enough time selling boxes that handle a format that at least 95% of the population of the US can handle!

You can use a program like PowerStrip to force 1920x1080i (or nearly any other suitable HDTV resolution) with your PC. This is what we did. Here are some notes:

Custom timings, custom resolutions, and HDTV.

Of course, it totally depends on the hardware you use.

(emphasis added by me)

Whether I maximized the TV display on the PC or output the video (either via composite or s-video) to my 34cm or 68cm TV, the quality was simply YUCK. Very soft, poor colour reproduction, and pathetic bleeding of bright parts of the image (which I clearly see demonstrated in screenshots of other TV card reviews).

Well, there's you're problem. You're using inferior methods of connecting to your TV. Please note: non-HDTV users (with or without an HD tuner, doesn't matter) can skip this comment.

If you want to get good quality output on a TV from a PC, you need to get a VGA to Component transcoder. Some people may be able to use a vga to rgb breakout cable instead (component is YPrPb (3 connections), rgb is RGBHV (5 connections). most HDTVs will have at least component, and may also have RGB. Either will work, depending on what inputs your TV has). Using a transcoder, a Radeon 7500, and PowerStrip (to set "odd" resolutions, like 848x480p, or 960x540p, or 1920x1080i), I get very good output from my HTPC (hand-built Home Theater PC) on my Mitsubishi 46807 (46" 16x9 HD-compatible (ie, no HD tuner) rear-projection TV). In fact, the only degradation that I can see is something I had before -- AT&T broadband only offers digital STBs with composite and RF output. That means my TV image quality is capped by the quality of the composite output (not to mention the quality of the cable broadcast itself, which isn't too hot to begin with), and not by the quality of the signal between my PC and my TV. Never mind the fact that Motorola makes DCT-2000s with s-video and TOSLink optical audio outputs, so I could get a slightly better picture and much better audio (dolby digital 5.1, where available). AT&T doesn't offer them, and won't let me buy my own. grumble grumble.

Currently, none of the commercial PVR manufacturers support HDTV. So, if you want to record Digital TV, you need to build your own. By the way, Digital TV is great for PVR's, no compression is needed, the TV program is an MPEG2 stream - making the PVR's job easy. This is very similar to the PVR's for DirecTV.

There are a few choices for HDTV PVR cards:
Telemann Hipix - They have a semi-open source project for their Windows drivers. Availability seems to be a problem.
AccessDTV - Has some nice features, like pausing live TV. But, they have some drawkacks - Locked video files, so they can only be played back on the same machine - and their PVR guide is a subscription service.
MyHD - Newer card, some nice features like DVD vob playback (scaled to 1080i or 720p, looks great!)
Hauppage WinTV-HD - Not sure if this is still sold. Not well supported if it is.

Pop one of these into a computer system, add a big hard drive to hold those HD programs (~ 9GB/hr), and off you go.

I use the MyHD card, and I have been using the DVD scaling feature as much as the HDTV reception. I copy my DVD's to the hard drive of my system, and now I have a pretty nice video library, with immediate access - no swapping disks.

I recently took on this pc-to-tv project, thought I'd share my experience.

I purchased a 42" mitsubishi hdtv.. after adding all the usual suspect components (progressive scan dvd/dts receiver/surround speakers) I looked at hooking up an existing pc to the system for listening to mp3's/having a cool winamp visual screen on the tv, as well as having icq and aim from the living room. I purchased a wireless keyboard/mouse combo off ebay for about $30 which works very nice from up to a 15-20 foot range. overall, it worked wonderfully with the exception of resolution (for hdtv standards). my goal was to get 1024 res on the 42". I found a cool VGA to component (Y-Pb-Pr) converter for $119. This is where I'm at now.. my next project will be a wireless video transmitter from the computer to the tv, since the fans do get kind of noisy, not to mention the issue of heat.

They mention HDTV in the article, but only in the context of HDTV output of a lo-res source. The DVD's are 480p at best. So, you can scale them up to 720p or 1080i, but it's not full HD.

Slap an HDTV PCI card in there, and get true 1080i (1920x1080) HDTV. They also HD PVR functions, and some even do DVD decoding & scaling in hardware.

Check out the MyHD Card, the HiPix, or the AccessDTV cards for options.

Unfortunately, none of these (that I know of) support Linux. The MyHD is the newest, and the HiPix has an open source effort to enhance their Windows software.

If you live in an area that has digital TV broadcasts (most major cities do), HDTV is the way to go.. there is a LOT of HD Programming available.

There are companies doing this already. below are a few examples This one is Mac-ish looking and these could pass for stereo components. One Two Three

This is a great project.. a fully open sourced PVR. If I lived in Europe, I would be all over it.

For use in the U.S. a Digital TV receiver card such as the HiPix or the AccessDTV.

Depending on how the hardware interfaces with the control software, it would be excellent if it could be made to work with U.S. cards.

home theater case

No doubt there are others.

The set/tuner will cost >$1000.

$379<=$1000

-Aaron

How does this affect PCI or AGP HDTV tuners, such as this one. I already have a UHF antenna on my roof, which picks up the major networks very well, so I was considering buying one. $350 for free NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and FOX until they change the standards again. Not a bad deal unless they change the standards in 6 months.

Hook up the Live to some real speakers. No. Not those. Virtually nothing you can buy that are advertised as "computer speakers" qualifies. I'm talking about an actual preamp/amp/receiver and some good home theater or music speakers.

The Live is very, very noisy. The connector for digital output conforms to no standard known on earth (yes, you can often connect it to other gear and it will work, but the voltage on the thing is totally out of whack). There's also absolutely no dejittering or noise protection on the digital output.

The DACs are low quality, which makes a big difference if you're not using the digital output (see above).

Most people putting together home theater PC's used the Live only because nothing else was available. That changed last year when M-Audio made the Audiophile 24/96 available. It has high quality 24 bit/96 KHz 2-channel output and a good digital output for 5.1. Apparantly the latest version has 4 input/output 24/96 channels now.

Best resource for information is the HTPC forum on AVS. I haven't been reading there recently, so I don't know what the real story is on the Audigy.

Personally, I found the review linked to be pretty useless. They didn't actually talk about sound quality at all, at least not beyond the absolute basics.

Here is the information you are looking for.

Can I use the console with my computer?

The Xbox console is a dedicated video game console. Its sole purpose is to provide you with the best video game experience available on the market while connected to your television. You can also use Xbox as a DVD home theater system if you purchase the DVD Playback Kit.

Can the Xbox hook up to a computer monitor

The Xbox video game system is intended for use with television sets or television/VCR setups. This focus allows gamers to enjoy the superior visual and sound capacity of high-definition and high-resolution television sets.

While picking through some of the links at the manufacturer's site, I stumbled across this. Not a bad read. The interesting part is that most HDTVs don't even come close to the 1920 x 1080 standard but rather sample the image down to a lower resolution. Talk about a waste of bandwidth!

That said, for those of us in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, which has a large number of digital stations, DTV and HDTV are just lovely. On a clear day, my rooftop antenna picks up six or seven digital stations. The picture quality is stunning even on the standard definition stations, much crisper than the clearest cable channels and most DirecTV channels. And HD shows look better than the picture at the local movie theaters. The picture has yet to fail to elicit a "wow" when I've shown it to people.

And the cool thing is, it's on my computer using an ATSC tuner card which means I can record the digital signal to my hard disk for later viewing - not as slick as a TiVo, but adequate. (And before you ask why anyone would watch HDTV on a 17" monitor, the monitor on that PC is one of these, more or less, less expensive than a new HDTV if you buy it used.)

I do wish the prices would come down on more traditional HDTV sets and that they'd get the integration issues straightened out so a separate settop box wasn't required. Better market penetration will equal more incentive for the networks to produce more HD shows. But if you're willing to actually learn about what you're buying, the technology is out there and working.

Indeed. And you'll find that the AudioPhile 2496 card from Digital Connection works like a charm for recording from SPDIF-in. (It kicks ass for a soundcard in many other regards as well, IMHO) However, due to timing issues, I think that a very high-quality timer in the CD player will become a necessity in order to create pretty much perfect digital copies of whatever music.

None of this is huge, of course. Someone decides to do the first digital rip from standalone CD player, and then the 320k mp3s come rolling in, followed by the 650mb images of burned CDs made from WAVs for the audiophiles. No biggie, I say.

Some people are doing it !! Look at Digital Connections. They have info on Home Theatre PC's - what equipment to use etc. as well as tested home systems.
There is also talk about tweaking the G400 into displaying HDTV signals from DVD's. I have yet to find a card that exploits this, but according to the documentation on the GeForce2, it should be able to display in all HDTV modes (480p to 1080i)as well as record HDTV !!

I have a DXR2 in the bedroom. I loath Creatives awful interface. I replaced it with a Hollywood+, which has a wonderful interface...anyone thinking of getting the DXR3 because it's "just the same", don't. It has the same awful Creative Labs interface as the DRX2.

As for the quality, I use the RGB output to drive the projector at 640 x 480. It does a great job of scaling, and the image is brighter as the scan rate is doubled and the phosphors are refreshed twice as often. Also, the Hollywood+ has an AC-3 output, so there is no question of audio quality.

If I was doing it again, I'd probably buy a Digital Connections MPACT2 card. Joe Kane of the Imaging Science Foundation uses one of these for his own DVD viewing, and that is more than good enough for me.

I set the earlier version of this board up on a Sony VHP-D50Q that is also running HD signals, and the 720 x 480 progressive mode playback delivers a picture that will make the pain of waiting for HD quite a bit easier.

Don't let one bad experience with one poorly engineered card turn you off of a whole catagory. Besides, it's far, far easier to remove silliness like "region coding" and "macrovision" on a PC-based player than on a stand-alone. Coupled with the fact that it is, for a little while more at least, the only way to get the true progressive scan image off a DVD