My dad finally bought a new tv...so he finally has 1080p. He wants BluRay also which means I need to update his HTPC....

First, would upgrading his 3870 to a 5750 provide any better pic quality (or anything along that line)?

Second, he uses a Yamaha receiver that can do all that BluRay sound stuff (TrueHD sound or whatnot)... how can he watch BluRay movies via HTPC and get the best sound? Would he still need to get a 5750 video card to do that and or sound card? This is in regards to playing recorded BluRay movies off HD and actual discs...or is that only if he wants to use just a hdmi cable (vs hdmi + coax/opt)

I'm thinking the sound card is ONLY for those that don't have a receiver that can do the specific sound decoding (like for bluray)...? Would he just continue to use his spdif (?) out from the MB to receiver? ...Or? (using Asus P5Q Deluxe motherboard)

If he does need to get a sound card, is one better than the other (Asus vs Auzentech ones mentioned)?

Third, any reason for going with TMT vs PDWD9?

Skie, you throw out lots of acronyms and numbers. What's a 3870? Is this an ATI video card? Why do you need to replace it? What problems are you having?

Whats a TMT?

Have you hooked his current HTPC up to the new TV?

To get solid advice, you need to explain the specific issues you are having using what software and tell us what you are trying to achieve.

3870 = ati 3870 video card....
5750 = ati 5750 video card....

PDVD 9 = Power DVD 9....
TMT3 = Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3...


If you're running BluRay on an HTPC, you should know about PowerDVD, TMT3 and WinDVD... 3 major players right now... with TMT3 the only one not yet supporting bit streaming HD audio.

I thought if referring to both a 3870 and a 5750 people would know i'm talking about video cards...

He's upgraded to latest ATI Catalyst driver, but i don't know if there is any difference in pic quality. I'm wondering if upgrading to a newer 5750 would make pic quality better or not...?


There are no issues... he had a 7 year old tv and just bought the Panasonic 65v10 - which now gives him 1080p resolution. He wants to add BluRay capability and since we're also upgrading his Vista to Win 7, i thought whether or not upgrading his video card would improve pic quality ...?

I haven't kept up on the latest for BD playback but I believe you would need a 5XXX series card to pass HD audio over HDMI.

Either that or one of the newer motherboards that support is as part of the IGP.

As far as picture quality is concerned there shouldn't be any difference unless the driver settings get messed up between generations. This has always been a problem with both ATI and Nvidia.

I always had to recalibrate the display after every driver change.