Meh, I’d say more of a grey area than a derail, as he already has his PC setup as he likes it, but it is relevant to playback quality in general. I will say, I didn’t realize how prevalent that nvidia 23.976 issue is; I’m increasingly glad I’ve gone with a minimalist approach to my HTPCs with efficient Intel powered setups like the ECS LIVA for the short run, and will probably only upgrade later on to something similar that can support HEVC when that becomes more common.

Still, the most important thing right now would probably be the sound system he’ll connect his A/V sources to, as the computer and other inputs would hopefully change more often than his sound system.

Harmy, I may be in a similar boat right now (ignoring speakers) as an Onkyo receiver I’ve had for over half a decade has been slowly starting to crap out, if soldering in new capacitors doesn’t fix it (and it’ll be my first solder job, so I won’t say I’m confident with the fix) I’ll need to start seriously considering a receiver purchase (but definitely staying with the quality AVR route, I’m never going back to “normal” speaker setups). But I do stand to get 3D BD support and a few other features which I’ve had to do without for a while if I upgrade/replace…