Simple Entertainment Questions

I am looking for a simply home entertainment system. I live in an apt
and will likely never get even 5.1, no less some great home theater
experience. I don't care about HD until I can't get a TV that does not
have it. My TV is non-LCD and I kind of like it that way. But I do
have thousands of CDs I want to digitize and would like to use my
computer as a DVR. I currently have a 100W per channel stereo and
never push the volume at all. Oh, and my current computer is a newish
Compaq Presario (Intel dual core E2140, on-board sound and video,
DVD).

What I would like is to drive the TV and speakers from the PC. If it
makes a big difference I can't get the TV closer than about 30 feet
from the PC.

So what kind of set up can I get?


TIA.


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Matt Silberstein wrote:
I am looking for a simply home entertainment system. I live in an apt
and will likely never get even 5.1, no less some great home theater
experience. I don't care about HD until I can't get a TV that does not
have it. My TV is non-LCD and I kind of like it that way. But I do
have thousands of CDs I want to digitize and would like to use my
computer as a DVR. I currently have a 100W per channel stereo and
never push the volume at all. Oh, and my current computer is a newish
Compaq Presario (Intel dual core E2140, on-board sound and video,
DVD).

What I would like is to drive the TV and speakers from the PC. If it
makes a big difference I can't get the TV closer than about 30 feet
from the PC.

So what kind of set up can I get?


TIA.


If you look at some of the video cards, they have a round mini-DIN connector
on the faceplate. You can see in the picture here, it is labeled as
"TV-out".

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...102-152-03.jpg

Pictures of some of the pinout possibilities, are shown here for mini-DIN.
The DIN connector could have seven pins for example, of which four on the
outside circumference would be the S-video pins. (VIVO cards have all but
disappeared.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video

The TV set could have a composite video connector (RCA jack). It could
have an S-video connector (DIN 4 pin). More modern sets may have
component video input (YPrPb), and the advantage of a format like
that, is there isn't a bandwidth cap. Composite and S-video are
related to broadcast television, where the video signal is designed
to be passed in a limited bandwidth TV broadcast channel.

When you buy a video card, they can come with various adapters and cables
included. If you're buying a video card, just for the ability to drive
more types of display devices, then perhaps you'd be looking for a
good assortment of cables to go with the video card.

In the picture here, the video card example above, comes with a couple
accessories. For example, the yellow thing has a DIN connector with four
pins on one end (gets S-video from the graphics card output) and there is
an RCA connector on the other end, and that connector has composite 75 ohm
on it. Composite is the only input my cheap color TV set has on it, and so I
use that "yellow bullet" to do the conversion. Inside the yellow bullet, should
be a capacitor that joins the luminance and chrominance together, to give the
composite signal.

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...102-152-06.jpg

The other adapter in the picture, wires certain pins on the DIN, to
three color signals. They labeled that adapter as "HDTV", as the HDTV
is more likely to have those connectors on the back. In the article
here, you can see the cable ends in three male RCA connectors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YPrPb

If the TV set had S-video (4 pin DIN) on the back, then you'd need an
S-video cable to go from 4 pin DIN to 4 pin DIN. Some video cards
bundle one of those cables, but it may be easier to just go to the
store and buy the length of cable you want.

So those are examples of analog TV outputs. There are also digital
means of getting a signal to a TV set, such as DVI or more likely HDMI,
which is more popular with modern (LCD TV) sets. The length of the
digital cable, may be more of a problem, but the picture quality
should be a lot better.

This is what I'd do -

1) Purchase video card with DIN "TV-out" connector on the faceplate.
Ensure "yellow bullet" or DIN to composite video adapter is included.
Or, a DIN equipped cable for carrying S-video to the TV set.
2) Install video card, install drivers. Connect any necessary adapters
and cables, between video card DIN and back of TV set. The cables
used should be coaxial and 75 ohms impedance. Stores like RadioShack
may have examples of cables, but more reasonably priced products
can be found elsewhere. (Everything doesn't need gold connectors on it.)
3) For audio, you'll need a 1/8" stereo miniplug to whatever standard
your stereo uses for input. My stereo had a mixer, with multiple stereo
interfaces with RCA connectors. So on my stereo, I need a 1/8" plug to
dual RCA adapter, to allow cabling the computer audio to my stereo system.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103225

To go from that adapter, to the stereo, I'd use a patch cord like this.
As this is an "audio" cable, it doesn't use coaxial cable, and should be
as cheap as dirt. Again, you can get lower prices elsewhere.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2102939

As for the length of the cable, I haven't tested really long runs of video.
I wouldn't expect too much of a problem with composite or S-video, because
the bandwidth is about 4MHz, and not quite as much of a problem as
extending the 15 pin VGA for a computer monitor. Long runs of cable have
losses at high frequencies, and for computer monitor usage, sometimes
you have to drop the resolution setting, to be able to use it that way.
A long run of cable would probably work OK with analog video. Just a guess.

Another word of caution. Don't expect miracles from the TV set. My cheap
color set is uniformly miserable with just about every kind of composite
signal I've tried on it. So after going to all that trouble, you might
not get a crystal clear picture.

Good luck,
Paul