New HTPC build

[TRC_14]

Ok well ive been thinking about building a home theater pc to control some stuff and add features to our so called "home theater". Well its not all hardcore with hdtv and stuff, its pretty much a basic 30" 4:3 tv. Well Ive just been skimming over some parts and this is just what ive been looking at recently:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129162- case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131569 - ASUS A8N5X ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103531 - AMD athlon 64 3800+
-74gb WD raptor (boot drive/programs) and a 300gb barracuda (storage/encoding/etc,)
-some kind of average soundblaster card probably
-maybe a gforce 6800 or 6600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820300901 -LINKSKEY LKA-CR15B 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Black Card Reader/Writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827131419 -LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-1635S
-probably like 1gb ram and some random psu

maybe someone here could recommend a good tv tuner card that can capture live tv (cable tv)
hmm im probably missing something but cant think of it now

now, onto questions:
1. will the resolution be poor on my "normal" tv (not hd/lcd) for TV and just windows, and other stuff.
2. Just to make sure, i hook the cable connection (comming from the wall) to the tv tuner card, then connect i guess it would be an S-video cable from the videocard to the tv correct? or somthing like that
3.any comments or recommendations or whatever, cuz this is just something i wipped up in a matter of minutes, im just kinda dottling on the idea so yea i'd like to hear some input.

[Staren]

I'm going to point you to the foums at www.byopvr.com before I say anything else. These are kind of a specalty set-up.

Now, the anwser to your 1st and 2nd questions are pretty much just 'yes'. You are going to have some issues with text on an SD TV. There are ways around it though.

Yes you have the cable set-up down.

As for the tuners to look at, I like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815117802 The Theater 550 Pro. It's the card on my parts list for my own HTPC project.

I'm going to tell you this right now. When you start getting into this, you WILL find yourself fighting the urge to pry your wallet open for an LCD or plasma sooner or later.

[TRC_14]

well ive got my own sony hdtv (not plasma/lcd though) in my room so if all else fails i can just throw it in there. now that i think of it, maybe i should do that seeing as i have a sony hdtv and bose speakers in my room, and just a normal 30" tv in the room i was gonna put it in (family room if you must know). Also, if i play a dvd from the dvd drive on the HTPC will it have the same resolution and clarity as it would if i played it from my normal DVD player (if it was using s-video)? I also here a lot about these scheduled recorders so you can tell it which shows to record ahead of time, but will this work with normal cable, or would i need satellite or digital cable?

[Staren]

The DVD should play at the normal DVD res if it has a TV to play on. That shouldn't be an issue.

As for cables, if you have an RGB component input, use it. S-Video is not HD, so you will not get full res on HD programs. DVI is better and easier if you have that on your TV and video card in the HTPC.

Actualy, you don't want digital cable if you don't have programing on it that you want. Getting the HTPC to control a set top box is a bit of a pain. Standard cable makes things a god bit easier. On a side note, never use the software that comes with any tv tuner. They are all so much junk. I'd look at a free program called GB-PVR at www.gbpvr.com It does all the sheduling, pause, rewind, ect, that you want to do. There are paid programs such as Sage TV and Beyond TV that are also good.

[TRC_14]

how do i get the audio from a dvd/tv to play out of the home theater speakers? or just the tv speakers?