PC to HT set up,help needed

[uchamp]

I am an absolute new member here,although one of the reasons I became a member here was, all the posts of haisaikat ! :signthankspin:

I have been reading all his posts for the last 3 months,and he is one of the reasons I have a decent ( I think !) HT set up now.
I also am from Kolkata and from a medical background,so not a very technical guy,for a member in a forum like this.

Now the things which I needed to know are something like this :

I have a set up comprising of Panny Viera Plasma,a Yammy RX-V671 and a Samsung BD player,attached together with HDMI and hooked to a Mordaunt Short 5.1 setup.
I am a movie buff and have loads of movies on my PC (desktop) in different formats like winamp media file,VLC media file (.mkv) etc, some are 2.63 gb,some are 4.6 gb and some are 8.1 gb like that.

Now my main question is, how do I play all those movies and other vdo files on my computer through my HT ? Question 1

At present what I am doing is copying smaller movie files on my 8gb pen drive and playing it through the TVs in-built media player,but then copying files which are more than 4 gb are impossible,because while copying anything more than 4gb (single file that is,and NOT multiple files which are possible) on that 8 gb pendrive is impossible,if I do manage to at all copy anything that large,the TVs in built media player refuses to play saying 'format unknown'.

My friends have suggested getting a media player ( now obviously which one? anything available from any store in Kolkata ? chandni ? ) and a external HDD set up .

Question 2
what is the use of Optical cable? It attaches what to what? would it be any use to me,since Hi Def movie watching would be my only criteria and NOT listening to music ?

 

[jpmlore]

if your pendrive does not allow copying more than 4gb file, that means it is in FAT32 file system. reformat the pendrive (after taking backup of any files in it if required) in NTFS file system. this will solve the 4gb limit.
connect the dive to usb port. right click on the pendrive. select format. in the window that apprears, under file system select NTFS. select format. apply.

else there is another way to convert without formatting: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

refer the manual that came with the tv for compatible video and audio formats. .mkv files have video and audio in them (it is a container for different A/V codecs), audio can be stereo or 5.1 with different codecs. i think panny supports AC3 and mp3. so this might be one of the reason some files do not play.

optical out will connect to your yammy's optical in. will help you immensely.
your yammy is DLNA and win 7 certified. why not use the DLNA to access the files in you PC (XMBC ??) and play it through yammy?
media players are numerous. do any ebay.in search for media player if u are the risk taker type, else go with asus o play kind.

 

[baijuxavior]

1. Buy a HD media player. These are available for as low as 2.5K. For aound 3.5K, Asus Oplay Mini is a good buy. Other models are from WD, Himedia etc.

2. Use your PC to play the movies. For this you will need a Graphics card with HDMI like nvidia GT440. Connect the GPU HDMI to your AVR and enjoy surround soud.

3. Use TV for playback. You will need to format the pendrive in NTFS to support files larger than 4GB. But TV may not be able to play all type of media files.

An optical cable is used to transmit digital audio signal. It can support upto 5.1 audio like DTS and Dolby Digital. But if you HDMI then there is no need of optical, because HDMI supports 7.1 HD audio like DTS HDMA, Dolby TruHD in addition to normal DTS and Dolby. You need an optical cable only if you want to use the TV as player. Connect TV's optical out to AVR using optical cable to get 5.1 sound.

 

[aakashr]

I am an absolute new member here,although one of the reasons I became a member here was, all the posts of haisaikat ! :signthankspin:

I have been reading all his posts for the last 3 months,and he is one of the reasons I have a decent ( I think !) HT set up now.
I also am from Kolkata and from a medical background,so not a very technical guy,for a member in a forum like this.

Now the things which I needed to know are something like this :

I have a set up comprising of Panny Viera Plasma,a Yammy RX-V671 and a Samsung BD player,attached together with HDMI and hooked to a Mordaunt Short 5.1 setup.
I am a movie buff and have loads of movies on my PC (desktop) in different formats like winamp media file,VLC media file (.mkv) etc, some are 2.63 gb,some are 4.6 gb and some are 8.1 gb like that.

Now my main question is, how do I play all those movies and other vdo files on my computer through my HT ? Question 1

At present what I am doing is copying smaller movie files on my 8gb pen drive and playing it through the TVs in-built media player,but then copying files which are more than 4 gb are impossible,because while copying anything more than 4gb (single file that is,and NOT multiple files which are possible) on that 8 gb pendrive is impossible,if I do manage to at all copy anything that large,the TVs in built media player refuses to play saying 'format unknown'.

My friends have suggested getting a media player ( now obviously which one? anything available from any store in Kolkata ? chandni ? ) and a external HDD set up .

Question 2
what is the use of Optical cable? It attaches what to what? would it be any use to me,since Hi Def movie watching would be my only criteria and NOT listening to music ?

Hi, Im glad you now want to talk about HTPC, which would be perfect for your setup. The problem with playing video content on a USB drive on the tv is that you are dependent on the tv's built in media player which is not the best. It might only support a few formats which is the the best thing for a media player. Also you will not enjoy full 5.1 audio which is exactly what you have the HT system for, unless you again hook up the tv to AVR via optical cable.

If you do hook up your laptop to the tv via AVR, you can play any content in full 1080p and enjoy 5.1 audio.

LAPTOP WITH HDMI
laptop > AVR > TV : HDMI cable (audio/video)
you need to select HDMI in audio properties on the laptop
This will output 5.1 digital audio from laptop to the AVR giving you 5.1 audio.

LAPTOP WITHOUT HDMI
laptop > TV : VGA cable for video
laptop > AVR : Optical cable 5.1 for audio

MEDIA PLAYER
Media players work great for people who do not have the convenience or availability of a HTPC. They are small, cheap and play almost anything you throw at it. There are many available in the market depending on your budget. The simplest way to hook them up:

media player > AVR : HDMI cable (audio/video)