Cable tuner?

[mbryant]

So I'm building my dad an HTPC for Christmas. They have a very nice surround sound system that the TV, Cable, and Bluray player go into and yet my parents can't grasp the concept of changing inputs on both the TV and surround sound so my solution to solve this issue is have everything go through a single source. However this only works if I get a good cable card. I want the quality to be indistinguishable from what they get through their cable box and I feel that cable cards are pretty obscure as I've not really seen much on YouTube.  Thanks in advance for the help

 

Here's the parts I've picked so far. The HD7770 is from my old system.    http://pcpartpicker.com/user/marshallbryant/saved/fPq4D3

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, mbryant said:

rasp the concept of changing inputs on both the TV and surround sound

Most tv's have optical audio out that you could use. You can also use the hdmi switcher in most audio recivers.

[bgibbz]

4 minutes ago, mbryant said:

So I'm building my dad an HTPC for Christmas. They have a very nice surround sound system that the TV, Cable, and Bluray player go into and yet my parents can't grasp the concept of changing inputs on both the TV and surround sound so my solution to solve this issue is have everything go through a single source. However this only works if I get a good cable card. I want the quality to be indistinguishable from what they get through their cable box and I feel that cable cards are pretty obscure as I've not really seen much on YouTube.  Thanks in advance for the help

 

Here's the parts I've picked so far. The HD7770 is from my old system.    http://pcpartpicker.com/user/marshallbryant/saved/fPq4D3

You can get one of those onkyo receivers to handle all of the inputs. 

[mbryant]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Most tv's have optical audio out that you could use. You can also use the hdmi switcher in most audio recivers.

well that's not really the question here, I also want my dad to have a computer again so the addition of bluray and cable is just a bonus.

[bgibbz]

1 minute ago, mbryant said:

well that's not really the question here, I also want my dad to have a computer again so the addition of bluray and cable is just a bonus.

Imo, media pcs are obsolete. There are so many cheap options to do the same bring, you are better of getting a laptop and something like a chrome cast.