Building HTPC need advice on Video Card

Let's get some terminology straight so that we all agree on what we are talking about.

A "video card" generally refers to a video graphics card that performs graphics processing for the computer, and comes in either AGP or PCI-e format. Rarely does a video grahics card "capture video".

A "video capture card" is a card, usally PCI, that will capture video from an external video source like a VCR, camcorder, or game console, and record the video to the hard drive. It has video input connections for composite and svideo, sometimes component. The captured video can usually be watced in real time on the pc monitor. Captured video inputs at the video capture card and outputs to the pc monitor via the video graphics card.

A "TV tuner card" captures over-the-air TV signals from local broadcast stations. Most TV tuner cards can do video capture from other video sources as well, so you don't need a separate video capture card. The TV signal can be recorded to the hard drive. Additional software pemits TiVo like functions like time shifting. Windows Media Center can handle all your Tivo functions quite well, and there is no need for additional software.

A TV tuner may be either analog standard defnition or digital high defnition. Some cards are combo tuners with SD and HD functionality. Most TV tuners come on PCI cards, but a couple tuner models are presently on PCI express. In addition, there are tuners in USB card formats.

With respect to which video graphics card, you should consider how loud and noisy the graphics are is if you intend to put the box in your living room. The noise makers are the fans on the cards, of course. Unfortunately, nearly all of the high performing graphics models come with big noisy fans and accordingly are loud. Momma won't like all that computer noise in the living or family room.

If you don't have a need for the very best pc gaming performance, choose a card that employs passive cooling. Check out the Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO Ultimate. Pretty good pc gaming, but absolutely silent.

Many of us WMCE users have multiple TV tuners in the box. I have two HD tuners (AverTVHD MCE A180) and one SD tuner (Hauppauge PVR MCE250). I can record TV from all three tuners simultaneously. Each tuner is on a PCI card. So, you may run out of PCI slots if you intend to use multiple TV tuners, depending on your motherboard.

For instance, motherboards with PCI express and PCI slots create more problems. You may have to give up a separate PCI sound card, and resort to using the audio onboard the motherboard. Some builtin audio produces 6 and 8 channel audio, and are very good. So, keep that prospect in mind when you design your HTPC.

The X1900 All in Wonder looks like a killer card for a HTPC...

The Asus A8R-MVP is only around $100, and the X1800XL AIW is $360

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=AT-AIW18XL&c=pw

or the X800XT AIW is $295

http://www.buyxg.com/store/item.asp?key=VC-131-102

For TV capture, thanks for the clarification BruxBox, I admit I've been fuzzy on that terminology since I never found a use for it until recently (a couple days ago ). Since I'm only gonna be capturing satelite programing I don't have much use for a TV-tuner card that captures local broadcasting. What card would you suggest for my satelite recording needs or would it just be the same thing? Also I will definately utilize WinXP Media Edition for most of my software needs.

Chunky, I do plan to play some higher end video games on the Plasma since it would be a waste to not utilize such a beautiful screen completely... but I'm also planning on building a high end gaming system so I'd prefer to keep the HTPC silent while leaving the excessive pixel processing to the potentially loud gaming PC.

The way my setup works is I have my satelite recievers hooked up to my Denon AVR-3805 reciever which hooks up to my Plasma and seperately to my Klipsch Synergy F-2 speakers (I'm still building up the rest of my sound system for surround sound completeness but currently I'm only at the Left Right and Center mark). I definately want extremely high fidelity sound output for both music and movie purposes. So you would recommend the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 before the Creative X-fi?

Pat, after seeing the advertisement of it on the THG homepage, I am definately sold on the thermaltake Black Bach chasis (since the plasma and my Denon AVR-3805 reciever are also black). The Asus A8P-MVP is a very nice potential mobo considering its passive cooling. Also the gigabyte RX16T256V vid card is very nice as well. I'm actually contemplating a dual-core processor since there may be a lot of seperate applications running on the PC at the same time and I wouldnt want any of my capturing to be disrupted by acute processing cluckiness. Do you guys think a dual-core would be warranted on an HTPC or am I possibly being too over cautious?

Thanks a lot for your help guys, after this system is up and running I'll definately invite you all over some sunday for football and Dr. Pepper (I don't drink beer ) 8)