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[coderego]

Hi I'm new to the JRiver community!

Thus far, I've stored all of my media on a single PC containing 4 - 2TB drives in a Raid 5 array. This gives me about 6TB of storage space. I've then been using PS3MediaServer to stream content to my PS3. Lately, I've been running into more and more issues that just frustrate me. Example: I can't be arsed dealing with disks so I rip all my blurays to my HDDs. PS3 stops me from watching my legally owned media due to DRM. (is this a problem im likely to have with JRiver?)

So a few questions to start:

1) I just purchased a new PC and am "demoting" my current one to be my HTPC and replace the ps3. Should I keep the storage local? What is the advantage of building a third box, one just for storage? Is it only noise? Cuz these drives are pretty quiet and my speakers are quite loud!!

2) The video card I have planned for this is an HD4350. Is that sufficent for 1080P output and audio over HDMI? A follow up question: I have a Denon 2112CI reciever, does the card's audio output support HD codecs? Is it advanced enough for this receiver?

3) I planned to take the SSD out of my HTPC and place it in the new pc. I have a WD Cavier Black I was going to use as the boot drive for the htpc. Is it worth buying a second SSD?

Thanks!!

[user38]

Hi
   I have just built a new PC which is mainly used as a media PC.  I opted for an AMD video card.  Initially I tried running the HDMI output through my Denon AVR-2309 to my Samsung LCD LA52A650.  It wasn't a happy combination but that was mainly on the video side.  The AMD Catalyst software had difficulty recognising my monitor with that set up.  There were also problems on the audio side.  If I changed the input on the amp Windows 7 would disconnect from the AMD HDMI audio device and would only reconnect if I switched the amp off and then on.  I  so I ended up connecting the video card directly to a HDMI input on the TV and using the optical output on my mother board to connect to my amp.  I don't know if this issue is isolated to my amp (you may have better luck with yours). 

From my research prior to building my PC it seemed that the video processing is not critical for HTPCs (may people use the on board video chip).  I did a google search on your card.  Apparently it will does have HDMI audio. See:   

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/message.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=33&post=299735&numrep=2303330&ref=11&page=1&p=1&subcat=210&sondage=0&owntopic=0&new=0#formulaire

http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/2630?cPage=2&all=False&sort=0&page=2

Regarding your DRM question, I have ripped blu rays and DVDs.  I use ANYDVD and I have had no problems.

Stephen

[dean70]

Hi I'm new to the JRiver community!

Thus far, I've stored all of my media on a single PC containing 4 - 2TB drives in a Raid 5 array. This gives me about 6TB of storage space. I've then been using PS3MediaServer to stream content to my PS3. Lately, I've been running into more and more issues that just frustrate me. Example: I can't be arsed dealing with disks so I rip all my blurays to my HDDs. PS3 stops me from watching my legally owned media due to DRM. (is this a problem im likely to have with JRiver?)

So a few questions to start:

1) I just purchased a new PC and am "demoting" my current one to be my HTPC and replace the ps3. Should I keep the storage local? What is the advantage of building a third box, one just for storage? Is it only noise? Cuz these drives are pretty quiet and my speakers are quite loud!!

2) The video card I have planned for this is an HD4350. Is that sufficent for 1080P output and audio over HDMI? A follow up question: I have a Denon 2112CI reciever, does the card's audio output support HD codecs? Is it advanced enough for this receiver?

3) I planned to take the SSD out of my HTPC and place it in the new pc. I have a WD Cavier Black I was going to use as the boot drive for the htpc. Is it worth buying a second SSD?

Thanks!!

I would definately go with an SSD for the system drive. The WD Blacks are quite noisy (I have on in my main PC). I use WD Greens in the HTPC for data storage.

[hEdly]

coderego,
While you do have a 4000's series card with an HDMI, realize that the HDMI out is only a version 1.2 I think.  That means it won't support some of the high definition audio because it does not have a protected audio path.  In fact, some of the cards wouldn't stream any audio through the HDMI I think, so you would have to use the audio from the motherboard or secondary audio card.  I think the cards that had the audio pass through could only do 5.1.  No TrueDTS or DolbyHD.  But this really only pertains to movies.

Basically, I believe that the 6000 series cards were the first to have a protected audio path (by placing a audio card on the video card) and support 3D.  I.e., it is a HDMI v1.4

It really comes down to what you need/want.  If you don't mind not having some of the higher end audio formats for DVD's and blue-ray discs, than the 4000 series card will work (although there were some instances where I think the onkyo receivers uses as HDMI switches would not recognize ATI cards).  You might take a trip over to avsforum and ask your question because it's kind of beyond just a JRiver thing.

Good luck,

Ed

[coderego]

Ed, thank you for your response. I will upgrade my video card.