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InvisibleLinkA
Intrinsically No Good


Registered: 07/28/99
Posts: 2,314
Loc: Lost Woods, Hyrule
Home Theater PC w/ amp
    #12109433 - 02/27/10 05:23 PM (13 years, 10 months ago)

I'm starting to work on plans to build a HTPC.  It'll most likely be mini-itx system running linux and mythtv w/ a flash drive for the system and a 2TB drive for media and a DVD drive, all in a nice looking case.  That'll all be easy enough, the part where I'm hitting a wall is that I'd like to do amplified 5.1 sound in the same case, to drive passive speakers.  I don't need house-shaking power, but I want it to be worthwhile.  My receiver is dying and I'd like to get rid of it when I build this system.

I know there'll be some hurdles, mostly heat, but I think that can be circumvented easily enough with proper fan/vent placement and insulating it from the rest of the system.  I can find very little information on this, making me think no one's done it before (maybe for a reason?).  Currently I'm trying to find a 5.1 amp but having no luck, so thinking I might have to go with a 6-channel car audio amp, which would allow me to use the 12-volt rail off the PSU.  However, that would probably take up a lot of space, and most home audio speakers are 8ohm so it would be pretty inefficient since car amps are designed for 4 or 2.

Anyway, I know there's a lot of audiophiles around here.  I was hoping someone could provide some tips or knew of some resources on where to start.  I can't even find a forum that has touched on this topic before, both on finding a proper amp, and in hooking it up to the sound card.  Sound output on a computer is mildly powered, so is that a high-level signal or is it still low-level?

I'd appreciate any input or direction.

-Link


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Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other.  -- H.P. Lovecraft "The Silver Key"


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Invisiblelegallyhomeless
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Registered: 07/01/05
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Link]
    #12109722 - 02/27/10 06:23 PM (13 years, 10 months ago)

:pm:


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InvisibleFleadh
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: legallyhomeless]
    #12112666 - 02/28/10 10:55 AM (13 years, 10 months ago)

I Just have My PC hooked up to My dolby surround sound home theater system.


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InvisibleLinkA
Intrinsically No Good


Registered: 07/28/99
Posts: 2,314
Loc: Lost Woods, Hyrule
Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Fleadh]
    #12113533 - 02/28/10 01:30 PM (13 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Fleadh said:
I Just have My PC hooked up to My dolby surround sound home theater system.




Yea, my surround sound system is dying, so I want to include it in the HTPC when I build it.


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Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other.  -- H.P. Lovecraft "The Silver Key"


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InvisibleOrthopox

Registered: 02/23/10
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Link]
    #12226099 - 03/18/10 05:25 PM (13 years, 10 months ago)

I would run a spdif cable to an external 5.1 amp.


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InvisibleThirdEyeOpening
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Link]
    #12240547 - 03/21/10 07:07 AM (13 years, 10 months ago)

Your best bet quality wise, would be getting a good HD audio card, and running optical/coax to a DTS or equivalent home theater receiver.

Id go for a receiver with HDMI inputs, just easier to deal with than DVI/VGA/component, assuming you have an HDMI capable video card.


I say this because the audio card is going to encode the audio data stream into a DTS or equivalent digital format, then it sends it to the receiver, which decodes the digital data, and sends the proper signal to each speaker.

A car amp works on stereo, or very basic Dolby, and 99% of them are analog. You can get sound out of 6 speakers , but it will the same sound out of the fronts as the rears, and the sub/center. It will NOT be 5.1.

True 5.1 sound HAS to be digital, to fit on one wire.

Or a wire for each individual speaker has to be run from the source to the amp. And they are amped individually using Dolby pro II usually, but it wont be DTS quality.

A car amp has no decoding ability.

And if you did somehow run across one, its going to cost a hell of a lot more than a receiver from best buy.


And whats the point of a good movie if the audio is basically stereo?


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Invisiblebadchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,372
Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Link]
    #12241966 - 03/21/10 12:41 PM (13 years, 10 months ago)

I'm doing something similar, although I'll be using the PC almost exclusively for storage.  My plan is very simple.

I'm getting a laptop with HDMI output. 

I'll simply output all the media content from the PC into a new receiver.  Very simple, very easy.


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...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge.  It is an indellible experience; it is forever known.  I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did.

Smith, P.  Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27.

...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely.

Osmond, H.  Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436


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Offlinesnoot
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: badchad]
    #12286083 - 03/28/10 02:16 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

You can get a nice receiver these days with hdmi, so I would use hdmi all around. Why not do wireless?


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I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.
- Simone de Beauvoir -


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OfflineSeussA
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Re: Home Theater PC w/ amp [Re: Link]
    #12353627 - 04/08/10 05:21 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

You might consider going another direction...

Find a nice 5.1 (or 7.1) receiver and use that as the base of your system rather than the computer as your base.  You will need to custom build a case to house everything, probably the most difficult step.  Rather than going with a high end PC, go small with low power mini-ITX form factor board.  Consider a lower power (and silent) SSD drive and housing your media on a large NAS drive somewhere else in the house.


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