HTPC vs stand-alone player

[ryanjoachim]

I'm looking into putting together an HTPC out of components I have laying around the house.

What i'm wondering is, does anyone know the quality of blu-ray drives/video cards vs stand alone players?

Also, I have an ATI 4870 that does 1080p+7.1 surround sound (dts-hd and dolby tru-hd) that i'm planning on using as both my sound card and video card.
Since the 4870 has an audio chip built-in, and i'm sending the video/sound information through a dvi-a to HDMI converter to my reciever...will I be losing much quality compared to a separate sound card or stand-alone player?

[polktiger]

my understanding is that as long as the signal going to your Onkyo (i assume from sig) is digital, you don't need one of the high end audio cards as its really only the quality of the DAC that makes the higher end cards worth it. Sometimes they may add an additional decoder, but if your 4870 decodes what you need, I don't see much point in getting an extra card.

I also have a 4870 card, but I can't give you a good comparison since the computer is hooked up to a POS monitor.