10. Conclusions And Recommendations

Consider a little fiddling around with the low-end system both to bring down the cost of some components and perhaps to make one or two additions, for example more RAM or a graphics card. To our way of thinking, that's the only way we could be happy with the results in our entertainment centers on a day-to-day basis. And, curiously enough, with these modifications the resulting systems strongly resemble two systems we use ourselves.

The high-end system was a hoot to think through, fun to build and even more fun to use. We wish we could afford one just like it or a tricked-out version with a touchscreen case and more disk space. But alas, the chancellor of the general exchequer has forbidden such outlays, so we can only build and benchmark what the boss won't let us keep.

Would-be owners of HDMI-capable and -equipped PCs should also ponder carefully the implications of going that route right now. They must be prepared to do without high-definition audio beyond DTS and Dolby Digital. For the same chunk of change, or a couple of hundred dollars more, than what you'd pay to put HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray drive into a PC, you can purchase a standalone player that what's missing with PC-based HDMI. But to get all that's on high definition DVDs you have to plug that standalone player into an A/V receiver that can handle HDMI audio and you need enough speakers to hear all the channels you're paying good money to hear. Ultimately, only you can decide which way to go on this issue, and where best to put your money. And again, it will be interesting to see if forthcoming HDMI-equipped technology that integrates both sound and video will jump what we're learning to call the "SP/DIF barrier" to high-definition audio outputs. Stay tuned: we'll be sure to discuss and dig into this topic as it unfolds further.

Just as we were preparing to post this article, HDTV guru Matt Wright told us about the AVerMedia AverTV M780 Combo unit. The most exciting thing about it is that it's a PCIe 1x card (finally, something to do with those slots) that includes both an SDTV and an HDTV tuner module. You can watch SDTV and record HDTV, or vice-versa, or even record on both tuners while viewing pre-recorded content using the M780. The card incorporates some very slick new MPEG-2 hardware decoding capability that lowers CPU consumption on your PC while the card is busy doing its thing. We think it's an even better item than the AVerMedia HDTV and Hauppauge SDTV cards we recommended earlier in this story for both builds. And, at $90 it's sure to appeal to buyers on a budget, while its top-notch electronics and encoding circuitry make it equally well-suited for our high-end build. It's a low-profile card for which a low-profile end-riser is available, so it even fits in extremely close quarters. We only wish we'd heard about it sooner, so we could have used it to benchmark for this story!

• Harmony 1000 Advanced...
• • dbuys.com
  • $379.00
• • LENOVO
  • $482.00
• • Advanced Lamps
  • $399.00

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