Hi I'm building my first HTPC and I've been looking around for the right graph ic card and well the more I look the less I seem to be able to find one. First off I want the card to be nvidia as I intend to run Mythtv which is a linux Free Open Source digital video recorder and their drivers then to work better with linux. Next I'd like the card to be passively cooled with 512 mb memory and lastly able to do all the grunt work on the grahics leaving the cpu to do it's own thing. So hardware accelerated I think is the term though not 100% sure plus HDCP enabled. Sorry lastly the card has to have an onboard hdmi port not a Dvi port with a hdmi connection adapter. This is to future proof the card in case I replace my amp with one the can handle hdmi connections. Their is other stuff that the card needs to be capable of but I just can't remember the specifics right now but in the end I want to be able to watch HD tv, blu-ray disc in 1080p on my LCD tv thanks in advance
Well I don't want this thread to die from neglect and also I really need the advice. So all you guys that have built a htpc capable of playing blu-ray movies in their native format both video and audio could you recommend a graphic card that you yourself use or would have liked too. thanks in advance wanna b Hdgeek
hi, I have a media centre the motherboard I used was socket775 Abit Fatality with onboard HDMI, I found it to be excellent worth the money, dual core cpu, and ATI X300 graphics card. get them for dirt cheap now the board it self is about £40 now and the card is probs around the same, cpu will be about £60.
The more I get into this the more I realize I don't know sqat. So I'm gonna look at some onboard graphic motherboards that will take care of my htpc needs for now and just get on the upgrade tread-mill when I need to. Finding out that everything from the bluray disc to the mother board had to be hdcp compatible in order to get the bluray experience is one thing but trying to find compatible hardware is ridiculous. mother boards in particular, I've wasted a tonne of time trying to find one that didn't have onboard graphic so I could use the rig as a gaming machine as well.At least now that I've changed how I'm going about this htpc thing I'll know where to look..
