8500-- How's the TV-out?

[Ryukumu]

I plan on making my next video card purchase a Radeon 8500 (though it'll be a while before I actually BUY the card), but I do have a couple of questions. I watch a lot of movies on my computer, and I have an external TV-out scan converter plugged in. The external convertor works okay, but it does have some flaws (ie: not a smooth video frame rate, knocks the computer monitor image a little out of focus [hardly noticeable... hardly]). I'm curious about the TV-out on the Radeon.

1) Does the outputted image have a 'border' around it?
2) Can the display be outputted to the TV and the computer monitor at the same time? A lot of TV-outs toggle between the two and won't output to both at once.
3) What kind of output plug is it? Composite or S-video?
4) Is the image quality good?

 

[stevens]

Well first off all there are controll to make the screen size bigger if you want or dont want a border. I play alot of games on my tv through my 8500 and they look great. It goes through s video, but has an adapter to composite if you dont have s video. You can out put at the same time and do different things on different monitors at the same time. I havent watched any moives on it yet but i imagine that thye woold look good. i love this card alot and would definately recomend it.

 

[Ryukumu]

Can anyone else comment on the TV-out?

 

[Yoshi]

ATI video cards have very nice TV out. Currently I'm using a PNY GF3 200 Ti with TV out, and let me tell ya...I miss my Radeon TV out. The Radeon had much better color and it had size and position justability. Games and movies looked sweet.

 

[Auric]

I have a Radeon with Rage Theatre chip and TVO is great. As you prolly know the 7500 and 8500 have the RT integrated with the graphics chip plus have Hydravision for dual output. I would like to know if under W2K an overlay can be viewed on the TV at a different resolution than the PC. Or failing that, if the desktop can remain at least at 1024x768.

Right now I primarily use 1024x768 90Hz for desktop and up to 1280x960 75Hz for games. The TVO requires switching the desktop to 800x600 60Hz. The switching back and forth can be done with hotkeys which is nice. But I would like to be able to work on the PC as normal while having a movie/visualization/aquarium on the TV. I have heard vague things about the 7500/8500 being able to stay at 1024x768 but also that only the primary display can display an overlay and that W2K acts differently than XP and such.

Can anyone clear this up?

 

[AA0]

1. Unlike nVidia cards, ATI cards don't have a border around their tv out.

2. You can display both the tv and the monitor at the same time.

3. Output is the same as every other tv out I've used. I think its s video, but ati says its capable of composite.

4. my DVD shows great quality, really haven't used it for much else.

 

[Ryukumu]

Okay, I'm convinced. ^_^ Great, thanks!