Min Spec PC for playing HD content on LCD

[zeroboo]

Having just got myself a 42" LCD TV I now intend to get a PC to permanently hook to the TV.

Thing is i want it to be able to play HD content eg 1080i/p content etc(eg stuff from wmvhd.com etc).
What is the minimum spec i should buy? Also, should i go with component connection as offered by some radeon cards or should i stick with DVI?

linkage would be highly appreciated for barebones of any sort
what sort of price she i be expectin to pay?
thanks!

ps. sorry for not doing my own research but i just popped over to ebuyer and saw a whole new bunch of 5,6,800 series of intel processors, seriously have not a clue with all this....

[mid]

You'll need a reasonably serious machine I'd have thought, but the big difference I'd recommend is to look at the current range of NVidia chips (it's perfectly possible that ATi do this as well, but I've not looked) and make sure you get one that can hardware accellerate WMV decoding. The basic 6800 can, but not the GT if memory serves.

As an example on the CPU decoding front, my AMD 2600+ singularly fails to keep up with the various 720p WMV files I've tried it with, as my little GeForce Ti4200 can't help out.

[AlwaysAce]

the gt can, mine does!

[kazurm]

Having just got myself a 42" LCD TV I now intend to get a PC to permanently hook to the TV.

Thing is i want it to be able to play HD content eg 1080i/p content etc(eg stuff from wmvhd.com etc).
What is the minimum spec i should buy? Also, should i go with component connection as offered by some radeon cards or should i stick with DVI?

Might I ask which telly you got, I'm looking for one myself, which can display 1080p.

[mid]

the gt can, mine does!

It's probably the Ultra I'm thinking of then; it was the first version of the chip that had the problem, anyway.

edit - oh, and the only devices I know currently that can show 1080p at full resolution are PC monitors, projectors, or one or two very expensive LCD screens.

[andrewfee]

You'll need a pretty fast system for it. I can't say for sure what spec you'll need, but 1080p Quicktime H.264 content from Apple is the most straining there is if someone wants to see if their system can handle it. (make sure you have the info window open to be sure it's running full framerate)

[EvilBoris]

This is what Microsoft quotes for their showcase videos

Minimum Configuration
(to play 720p video)

Windows XP
Windows Media Player 9 Series
2.4 GHz processor or equivalent
384 MB of RAM
64 MB video card
1024 x 768 screen resolution
16-bit sound card
Speakers
Optimum Configuration
(to play 1080p video with 5.1 surround sound)

Windows XP
Windows Media Player 10
DirectX 9.0
3.0 GHz processor or equivalent
512 MB of RAM
128 MB video card
1920 x 1440 screen resolution
24-bit 96 kHz multichannel sound card
5.1 surround sound speaker system

[sj33]

You'll need a reasonably serious machine I'd have thought, but the big difference I'd recommend is to look at the current range of NVidia chips (it's perfectly possible that ATi do this as well, but I've not looked) and make sure you get one that can hardware accellerate WMV decoding. The basic 6800 can, but not the GT if memory serves.

As an example on the CPU decoding front, my AMD 2600+ singularly fails to keep up with the various 720p WMV files I've tried it with, as my little GeForce Ti4200 can't help out.

Whereas I have an Athlon XP2600+ and my machine plays them perfectly. Then again, I'm using a Radeon 9800 Pro with WMV Acceleration enabled.