To some extent during this DIY adventure, we found ourselves teetering over, if not struggling outright, with the bleeding edge of technology. We found a few driver problems that took repeated attempts to resolve, particularly when getting the HD-DVD player to work properly. We also quickly learned to appreciate the Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra software as the only program available as we wrote this story that could deal with conventional DVDs, HD-DVD and Blu-ray media. The WinDVD Website still indicates that add-ons will be available "soon" as we put this story to bed, despite having said the same thing six weeks earlier as we began our odyssey.

We also came to understand that because HDMI integrates audio and video signals in a single-feed, you must bring those signals together inside your PC to make this technology work as promised. This means either plugging a cable into an S/PDIF header on your motherboard and into another header on the sound card, or using optical or coax digital audio cables to come out of the motherboard (or sound card) audio outputs and into a similar input on the graphics card. We hear that AMD/ATI will release a card soon that includes both a graphics processor and sound circuitry on a single board, but as things currently stand, if you want to use HDMI for audio and video, you also have to take the steps necessary to route your PC's audio output into the graphics card so it can output a complete HDMI data stream.

This is where those who can settle for onboard graphics from their motherboard of choice will benefit most by buying a motherboard with an HDMI output, such as the Asus M2A-VM motherboard we tested in this story. It's too bad we didn't have time to benchmark the onboard graphics it delivers as well as the 7600 graphics card we tested. Because modern motherboards inevitably support at least 5.1 if not 8 channel audio as well, they can easily combine picture and sound without requiring any additional effort from their users.

Note also that without an entertainment system that supports 5.1 surround sound or better, you really can't appreciate the audio that high-definition media and conventional DVDs can deliver. Our advice is that unless you plan to use a media PC along with a good multi-channel surround sound system, there's simply no point in building a high-end media PC like those systems we explore in this story. Listening to soundtracks through built-in speakers, even on a good HDTV like the Sony we tried, doesn't cut it.

Sidebar: HDMI, HDCP Gotchas And Workarounds

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, a completely digital interface for audio and video that is able to handle uncompressed data streams. HDMI offers considerable convenience, in that it handles just about any conceivable kind of video and audio through a single cable with a compact connector (it looks something like a stretched USB Type B plug and receptacle) or through a DVI-I interface. On the video side, it handles everything up to the 1080p that the latest Blu-ray and HD-DVD players can output, along with all the latest multi-channel surround sound formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (assuming you can find a receiver or preamp/preprocessor to handle these formats for proper output).

HDMI comes in numerous versions, which may be summarized as follows:

HDMI 1.0 (released December, 2002): supports maximum 4.9 Gbps bit rate, with up to 165 Megapixels/sec (Mps) and 8-channel/192kHz/24-bit audio. HDMI 1.1 (released May, 2004): adds support for DVD Audio to existing capabilities. HDMI 1.2 (released August, 2005): adds support for Super Audio CDs (SACDs) up to 8 channels, with support for HDMI Type A connector available for PC sources, among other capabilities. HDMI 1.3 (released June, 2006) increased single link bandwidth to 10.2 Gbps, with optional support for 30-, 36- and 48-bit video with Deep Colour, up from 24-bit RGB or YCbCr found in previous versions. Supports output of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for external decoding in an A/V receiver (used on HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs).

There are also 1.2a and 1.3a versions of HDMI, but they don't add anything of substantial interest to HDMI PCs, so we don't address them here. A planned future dual-link version of HDMI (as yet unbuilt) should increase total link bandwidth to over 20 GB, and explains why the underlying specification supports resolutions higher than the current 1920 x 1080 maximum, and up to 16 audio channels at 192 KHz each.