Another Upgrade Question

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Last response: November 15, 2008 1:01 AM in Home Theatre

rickkipp

November 13, 2008 3:44:47 AM

I have an extra 6 yr old 'puter with AGP (Radeon all in wonder 7500), PATA, (4 of 80mb hd's), Intel P4 2.53ghz, 2 mb Ram, old DVD player, Thermaltake X-II case, good fans, etc. Runs pretty well with XP Pro. Exactly what would I need to add to make it a viable recorder and playback for DVD's & Blu Rays to my new Samsung LN40A550. Currently no DVI, Component, Composite out on 'puter, just S-Video!

Tuner and type? Or can I use tuner in Samsung?

Larger DVD/BluRay player/recorder?

Larger HDD?

Wireless router (nearest ethernet is about 40' to 50'; Cable company jack is right there. I have 2 other 'puters that are hard ethernet wired to router, and they work great. Where should an additional wireless router go exactly?

Software needed or desired?

I built my last 'puter (E8400 w/ Xeon cpu, Xigmatech S-1234 cooler, gigabyte P35 mobo, 4gb Ram, etc, and all went smoothly, otherwise I quess I'm a noobie with fat aging hands! Any help or references would be great. Not a gamer, online or not. Maily record and play movies, tv shows, photo albums, etc. Thanks, Rick

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Wolfshadw

November 14, 2008 11:29:18 AM

Does your old system have SATAII connection ports? You'll need one for a Blu-Ray Drive unless you want to go with an external drive.

Aside from that, I'd recommend getting a Hauppage WinTV-HVR 1600 (PCI connection/ATSC-ClearQam-NTSC tuners) and an AMD/ATI HD 3650 (AGP) to replace your old Radeon All-In-WOnder 7500.

-Wolf sends

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rickkipp

November 14, 2008 1:18:56 PM

Thanks for the ideas. Good ones, too! Can't I also get an IDE to SATAII adapter for the blue ray drive, or are they only like external I/O Ports?

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Wolfshadw

November 14, 2008 6:33:37 PM

I don't know if you'll get smooth playback running through an IDE port. I just don't know.

One last thing. Check your power supply to see if it's enough for the graphics card I mentioned.

-Wolf sends

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rexter

November 15, 2008 1:01:43 AM

Maximum banwith with IDE is 100 MB/s to 133 MB/s. Lite-ON Bluray player uses USB 2.0. where USB 2.0 is max @ 480 Mb/s and that is bits not bytes.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?A...

As Wolfshadw siad the ATI HD 3650 or higher is good upgrade. I'm not sure if your CPU can handle High Definition.

Toms have a review on what hardware is good enough for playing High Deff. Read this one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-blu-ray-vi...

Good Hardware for Playing HD:

Gigabyte’s GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD Athlon X2 4850E
2 Gig or Ram
LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H10N - Bluray ReWritable or LG GGC-H20L - Bluray Read only
TV Wonder HD 650 PCI , PCIe or USB

Software:

Cyberlink Power DVD Ultra or Corel WinDVD 9 Plus - I think is better for viewing DVD as it has upscalling called All2HD

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