do i need more power?

[bdizzle]

Im getting ready to build a htpc from some spare pc parts i have, and would like to know if its enough power to do what I want. right now im not concerned about noise, looks or anything like that. after I figure out exactly what I need, then Ill worry about the cosmetics.

With that being said, Id like the machine to be able todo 3 things: upscale DVD's, record live hdtv, and upscale sdtv while im watching it. for the upscaling sdtv part, for those whove done it, what kind of results should i expect (480p/720/1080)?

Heres what i have or will have in the next couple weeks:

HARDWARE

32" Samsung LN-S3251D (720p/1080i)
9800 pro (DVI/VGA/s-video)
Athlon XP 2500+ (2.1GHz)
2x512mb pc3200
Hauppage pvr-150
abit nf7 (nforce2)

SOFTWARE

ffdshow
zoom player pro
dscaler
TheaterTek
PureVideo Codec
MCE 2005

also, id look some recommendations on how i should connect the pc to my tv. right now i have the pc connected through vga, but i know i can get a better picture. will buying a dvi>hdmi cable give me the best picture, or shoudl i use component? also will the 6200 (with component out) be better than 9800 pro for this purpose. a lot of people recommened it to me in a different thread, but i was trying to connect to a sdtv then.

Lastly what should I do about audio. I dont have a receiver, so im using the speakers on the tv. i have an sb audigy card, sb live card, and onboard audio on my mobo. i believe i read somewhere that using onboard sound was better, so i was thinking of getting a stereo to rca convertor or using sp/dif to connect to my tv.

thanks in advance

[jkaiser]

Nothing on your list will record HDTV, just Standard Analog. The main option is an Over the Air recording. Some of these can also record the unencrypted QAM channels from your cable - but as ymmv based on your cable provider.

I don't own one, but isn't the 6600 that every one is suggesting?

You might want to bump the memory up to 1 GB - newegg has 1 GB for $65 this weekend.

PVR-150 is nice, but hopefully you will have room for another one (or get the PVR-500) as in my case there seems to be a lot of times when there are 2 or more programs on at the same time that I want to timeshift.

[bdizzle]

outside of recording hdtv would everything else be possible with what I have? i eventually will upgrade to better components, but right now im just trying to test **** out to make sure its working.

what kind of video card or cpu would i need if i wanted to record hdtv?

thanks

[TuneyToons]

How high do you plan to upscale dvd's? I have had a hell of a time getting an athlon64 (athlon 3000+ venice core) to keep up on 1600 x 1200. I have oc'd the thing to 2.4 Ghz, and the cpu spikes that result in picture stuttering are still occasionally popping up. I am going to have to go with an athlon x2 soon.

[bdizzle]

well the max res on my tv is 1366x768, so id like to scale it to that. i know for upscaling dvd's/tv id need to upgrade my cpu and vid card probably. i would just like to see if the upgrade in pq would be worth the money and time id spend b4 shelling out the money

[TuneyToons]

Well, I use an XGA projector and upscaling with FFDShow to much higher than 1024x768 looks really good to me. I would love to have enough horsepower to go 2000x1500. At that resolution, some dvd's look as good as OTA HD. Uhfortunately, my processor cannot keep up.

I would also like to say this is not psychological. I have the picture blown up to 150" diag in 4:3, and I can clearly see the difference. The trick I employ is introducing the blur in the chroma channel, using a sharpening kernel, and then scaling to the higher res. These are the filters I use from FFDshow. It is very processor hungry.

hope this helps.
Vitoon