My Gigabyte boards have optical SPDIF outputs but I must confess to using the analog outputs. Nothing to complain about even in analog. The onboard video out (VGA,DVI-D or HDMI) does 1920x1080 flawlessly. I'm sure other manufacturers have the same.
You should be able to get a respectable machine <$500. Get the biggest drive(s) you can as TV eats space - about a gigabyte every 10 minutes.
What audio outputs are available from your TV?
Manufactures of TV's and Blue-Ray DVD players are rapidly changing what inputs and outputs are available on their units. Composite and "S" video are gone. Component video, analog and S/PDIF audio are disappearing. Soon the only connections may be HDMI.
Manufactures of TV's and Blue-Ray DVD players are rapidly changing what inputs and outputs are available on their units. Composite and "S" video are gone. Component video, analog and S/PDIF audio are disappearing. Soon the only connections may be HDMI.
Every TV HDMI port I have seen has been an input. What are you expecting the PC to be doing regarding the TV?
It is not typical to record an HDMI signal as the data rate is staggering - 1.5 Gigabits / second. It is far more common to record Over The Air (OTA) or cable clear QAM - at least for the US. The cable / OTA feeds are a tame 8-19 Megabits / second so it's not a big deal to record it.
G²
It is not typical to record an HDMI signal as the data rate is staggering - 1.5 Gigabits / second. It is far more common to record Over The Air (OTA) or cable clear QAM - at least for the US. The cable / OTA feeds are a tame 8-19 Megabits / second so it's not a big deal to record it.
G²
My needs are very small.
I just want to avoid building a separate switchbox for the optical S/PDIF.
I would like the PC to work as a preamp.
My DAC only has one input, a toslink connection and there's no room to add any more.
It is a rather unusual request. You can either use the analog inputs of your card, but that will reduce quality of your TV signal sound. A better option would be using a sound card with SPDIF input and routing this input to its SPDIF output internally to minimize the card - PC - card round-trip delay which could break lip sync. E.g. cards with Envy24 and spdif input offer this functionality (ESI Juli, various cards with the mio/dio addon card). Still it would require manual reconfiguration of the card mixer when sourcing from TV. A trivial single-click/single-shortcut script in linux, a few clicks in the mixer window in windows.
But this way you would circumvent the PC volume control. I do not know if your TV spdif output is a subject to the TV volume control. If not, you will have to route the incoming signal into your PC, do the volume control and feed it back to the card. I am afraid you will have to fight latency in such case. IMO it is an ugly solution in any case.
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TV sound persons (guys) are proud of their work.
They strive for quality just as much as Radio sound men do.
It's the TV company that restricts the sound quality by adding a reduced audio signal to the video signal.
The old FM sound track that accompanied 625line transmissions was a very good <12kHz sound channel.
The stereo Nicam track was a pretty good 14bit digital sound source.
I'm told that the sound track that accompanies HDTV is capable of better quality than Nicam.
Done properly, the sound of a live performance from TV can be exceptional.
They strive for quality just as much as Radio sound men do.
It's the TV company that restricts the sound quality by adding a reduced audio signal to the video signal.
The old FM sound track that accompanied 625line transmissions was a very good <12kHz sound channel.
The stereo Nicam track was a pretty good 14bit digital sound source.
I'm told that the sound track that accompanies HDTV is capable of better quality than Nicam.
Done properly, the sound of a live performance from TV can be exceptional.
I'm not dissing TV/movies as a source per se.
My standards just aren't very high when it comes to every day tv. Sure, I'll try for the best possible solution but the bottom line is always performance/time, money and effort invested. I can always go for a Mini-DSP solution if the computer solution becomes too expensive or too much work.
Either way movies won't be a problem since I'll be using the PC as a source.
My standards just aren't very high when it comes to every day tv. Sure, I'll try for the best possible solution but the bottom line is always performance/time, money and effort invested. I can always go for a Mini-DSP solution if the computer solution becomes too expensive or too much work.
Either way movies won't be a problem since I'll be using the PC as a source.
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