G-Stress Posted May 21, 2011 Posted May 21, 2011 I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 I'm wanting to turn into my media server. The issue I'm running into is I can't seem to find a video card with HDMI out that will work. This server has: 3 PCI-X 64-bit/133Mhz. I have quite a few PowerEdge server's actually and since I decided to make this one the media server I actually just now noticed not one server has any audio outputs at all. If it's possible to find an video card with HDMI out that should take care of the audio as well right? Thanks. PowerEdge 2850: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/2850_specs.pdf Quote
Infiltrator Posted May 21, 2011 Posted May 21, 2011 (edited) I've never seen PCI-X based graphics card before, generally all graphics card out in the market to date are PCI-express based, unless some company are in the process of producing one or have marketed under a name that I am not familiar with. Edited May 21, 2011 by Infiltrator Quote
digip Posted May 21, 2011 Posted May 21, 2011 PCI-X cards are generally used for SATA cards and video capture cards, but I guess they could be used for HDMI out as well and do the audio portion if no sound card since they both capture and stream video, I imagine they would be capable of audio too, but only if its true HDMI port, and not DVI to HDMI adapters for displays only. This is about all I could find: http://www.ems-imaging.com/online/products/XtremeRGB%252dII-PCI%252dX,-HDMI-DVI-or-VGA-Dual-Channel-Capture-%26-Streaming-Card.html but I don't think it has any audio capabilities. Quote
G-Stress Posted May 21, 2011 Author Posted May 21, 2011 Damn. Thanks guys. @ digip, yes I saw that link, that was about all I could find also. I guess my only option is to use VGA and throw a pci audio card in it seems. Sucks, because that's more work with less quality. I currently am using a HDMI over cat5 extender that works great. Quote
Infiltrator Posted May 22, 2011 Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) Your other option would be to build a desktop computer, if you haven't got a standard desktop computer with a spare PCI-express slot. Edited May 22, 2011 by Infiltrator Quote
digip Posted May 22, 2011 Posted May 22, 2011 Damn. Thanks guys. @ digip, yes I saw that link, that was about all I could find also. I guess my only option is to use VGA and throw a pci audio card in it seems. Sucks, because that's more work with less quality. I currently am using a HDMI over cat5 extender that works great. I would say check your other machines and see if they have PCI-e. Seems they make this server with both, but I guess its either one or the other, and you have the older PCI-x, which is outdated and not common standard. It was nice in its day, but PCI-e is as fast(er) in a smaller package with less interference. Best bet just get a mini-atx with HDMI and Sound built into the board, similar to what Jason built for his Boxee machine. Quote
G-Stress Posted May 23, 2011 Author Posted May 23, 2011 My guy actually found I believe a 32-bit HDMI card from newegg.com that should work just fine. I have a 32-bit sata raid card in there now to add sata support. I already have a desktop with hdmi that is the current media server, but I'm wanting to switch to the 2850. Quote
G-Stress Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 Just figured I'd post back as I found a compatiable HDMI video card. Went to my local electronic's store and they JUST got these in today. It's a NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS PCI Card. 512MB DDR3. I installed it, but haven't booted the machine just yet as the heat is still a bit to hott. Now if this works, being that the server had no audio at all prior, this should pass audio and video directly from the card itself? Quote
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