The PC and ahe Video Entertainment Center?

EvilNight writes "Did you ever find a use for all the old hardware laying around you house? I've used mine to build a computer for my entertainment center. Components: PII350, 32mb ram, 1GB IDE HDD, Pioneer DVD drive, keytronics remote keyboard, and an ABIT BH6 (1.0) motherboard. I want to use the computer for the following tasks: Video playback on TV (all formats), Video Capture (800x600 if possible), Boot a desktop on the TV (no monitor), and playing DVD on the TV. All I need is a good graphics card. This isn't as simple as it seems." Yep! It gets more complex. Click below for more.

"I need a card that can have the copy protection (MacroVision) disabled on the DVD/TV out so I can run it through a receiver and VCR without having the MacroVision make a mess of the signal. The Realmagic supports this (using zone-selector) as do some other ATI cards (I think). I'm aware of the Sigma SCC box that can filter these signals, but it degrades the video quality a bit and I would rather kill the signals completely instead of filtering them out.

I'm not really particular about what operating system I use. I think I will probably go with Win98 since it has the best hardware and multimedia support.

What graphics card would be best equipped to handle this? It needs to be able to boot and run a desktop using only the TV out, and I can't find any cards that can do this AND do decent video capture as well. I don't mind buying two cards if I have to. I think the best solution would be a Realmagic Hollywood Plus card and some other video card that can do the capture and put the desktop on the TV. What works the best? Someone out there must have their PC set up for this sort of activity. What are your experiences with your hardware? Is there any card that has decent hardware DVD, boot-to-TV, and video capture all in one package? Any pair of cards that can accomplish this together without spending a fortune getting them?

While I'm at it, does anyone out there know of a soundcard that can playback or record AC3, THX, basic surround sound or other advanced formats?"

Whew! I must admit, if something like this is possible, then it looks like this could be another role has been for the PCs of the next millenium. Is anyone really surprised?