Video Card Setup Recommendations

[iamsafetygeek]

Let me first start by saying, I feel really dumb asking this question and hope you will forgive my ignorance...

Just yesterday I got my cable tv installed and everything connected up to my pc so I can begin my journey into the wonderful HTPC universe...

What is the best way to set up the video to be used when you are going to be using your computer for both regular computer stuff (ie - gaming, surfing the net, banking, etc) and a HTPC??? You see, I have the computer all set up in the den and have connected to the TV in the living room (with really long cables) and that part works fine, but I would like to make sure that I set up the video card to work in the best possible way...Right now I have it set up to extend my screen on to the TV and that seems to work okay...

By the way, here is my setup:

Asus P5AD2-E Premium Motherboard w/ C-Media 7.1 built in sound (has both coax & S/PDIF)
Intel 3.4 Ghz LGA775
2Gig Corsair DDR2 Ram
Saphire X700 PCI-E 16 Video Card w/ TV Out (S-Video)
Liteon Dual Layer DVD Writer
Plextor Dual Layer DVD Writer
2 WD 250 Gig HD
1 WD 74 Gig Raptor
SageTV
Hauppage PVR-500

Thanks,

Dave

[JUC]

just a question---how do you plan on using the remote in the living room when the computer and (i am guessing here) the remotes receiver will be in the den?
JUC

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by iamsafetygeek

You see, I have the computer all set up in the den and have connected to the TV in the living room (with really long cables) and that part works fine, but I would like to make sure that I set up the video card to work in the best possible way...Right now I have it set up to extend my screen on to the TV and that seems to work okay...

That's how I have mine set up. No problems beyond issues with old applications that pop up their dialog boxes on the wrong screen.

I've been struggling with that problem for a while now, and Hydravision got me 95% of the way there, but I've got this one program that is almost unusable because it freaks out with two monitors. If you're just using IE and other basic, new applications it should be fine. You will probably need to make the TV the primary monitor if you plan to use overlay, though. Otherwise you may not get video.


-JK

[iamsafetygeek]

Originally Posted by JUC

just a question---how do you plan on using the remote in the living room when the computer and (i am guessing here) the remotes receiver will be in the den?
JUC

JUC - To answer your question - I am going to use a UIRT and use powermids to transmit across the house...Very easy to set up...The powermids convert the ir to rf transmit to another receiver in the house then covert the rf back to ir and your done...