Media PC

[Lowell_M]

I made my lame attempt at finalizing my media PC tonight. When I say media pc, I mean that I took a 4 year old PC, put an ATI Radeon 9550 video card in and bought a logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and connected it to the DVI input on my TV. I'm really just going to use it as an Itunes jukebox, internet browser and file server for my laptop.

Video: I'm a little dissappointed in the display through my TV, but it will do. Really, it looks like crap compared to what I expected, but I will play around a bit and see what I can do.

Audio: The difference between the SPDIF output on the soundcard using Itunes (Apple Lossless files) and my CD player is indistiguishable compared to using the DAC in the H/K receiver . If I run the SPDIF through the external DAC it doesn't sound as "Big" as the output from the CD player. I'm pretty happy with audio overall considering what I put into it and what I was looking for.

Keyboard and mouse: HELP!!! I have to be 4 feet from the transmitter to get either to work and that is WAY too close to the TV to make it usefull. What do I need to look for to find a keyboard and mouse that will work 10 - 15 feet from the transmitter?

[bigaudiofanatic]

is the transmitter in direct line of sight to them they are only sapost to work about that far away but if you have a clear line of sight ull be able to get it a little farther GREAT choice going with itunes as aposed to windows media player GREAT

[Lowell_M]

I just found this one. Looks like it should work. Anybody had any other suggestions?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...8753&CatId=537

[disneyjoe7]

I'm thinking you have a normal Blue tooth keyboard and mouse. They're designed for short range so not to interfere with other keypads and mouse.

[Lowell_M]

is the transmitter in direct line of sight to them they are only sapost to work about that far away but if you have a clear line of sight ull be able to get it a little farther GREAT choice going with itunes as aposed to windows media player GREAT

It's on top of my center channel, which is about 4 or 5 feet high.

I've always liked the iTunes interface and playlist organization. Apple Lossless appears not to be too bad either.

[Face]

My PC looks great on my 56" DLP, maybe you need to play with your display settings. You can't beat Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 on such a big display. :D

[Lowell_M]

My PC looks great on my 56" DLP, maybe you need to play with your display settings. You can't beat Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 on such a big display. :D

What do you have your resolution set to?

[Face]

1280x768. If it helps, I'm using a G-Force 7800GTX vid card.

[Lowell_M]

1280x768. If it helps, I'm using a G-Force 7800GTX vid card.

If I set it at 1280x768 the display is very jittery. I have it set at 848x480 right now and think it will to the trick for now. I really dissappointed in the richness of the picture. I expected colors like a nice HD broadcast (like CSI Miami or something.

[Face]

Look in your TV's manual, it should give you a list of resolutions that'll work.

[surfntomm]

ignore previous comments, i have a htpc that i use to play high def downloaded files (so sue me........not literally ;) ) and i have a wireless keyboard and mouse that works great from 12 feet right now. line of sight is needed but is pretty leniant. It's a laser mouse with great precision, not for gaming but for regular use it is very crisp and smooth. click here for product link
search ebay, i got mine for 20 dollars shipped last year. if you can find a wireless setup that uses blue tooth then you will have better connectivity than this but this works great for me so far.

in terms of video connection, you NEED to use the native resolution of your display adapter. for my vizio tv its 1366x768. its a pain to get the resolution but its possible to get it even if it is not listed in your supported resolutions in the nvidia control panel or ati, depending on your vid card maker. you can change the registry values by going going to run-->regedit (search online what tree to go to to find the values to input, its pretty simple).

hope this helps