A few question concerning TV OUT

[Hippak]

Hi everyone.. First time posting..
I just have a few questions concerning TV out...
I am thinking of buying a new video card to replace my old ati rage. I was thinking of getting something with a TV OUT... Question i had is
with a TV out will games look good on my television and more importanly if i play a movie off my computer will it look okay on television? or is it really blurry or anything like that?

Also I was considering getting an ATI RADEON.. a low end one.. maybe a 7200.. are these good for TV outs???.. A comp guy i know told me that he can get a Radeon 64MB DDR with TV OUT for 140 CANADIAN with taxes and everything.. but he said that the chipset is ATI but it it by some other company. Is it wise to get this type of card?

Keeping in mind that i dont need a card too much for games (I'm not a hardcore gamer) i just want to be able to connect for movies and have nice picture with my 21 inch Sony monitor..

Thanks so much in advance for all your help

 

[Theslowone]

First off welcome to AT.

Ok it will not be perfect but yes all of my tv out cards looked pretty good for movies and games, for other stuff it varies. The rage theater that is on the ati cards is very good and will be high quality. Nvidia isn't bad by any means but I think Ati has them beat. Any of the lower end ati cards should be fine for what you are talking about.

Dvds and divx files look fine on tv, they are crisp and better then tape, but slightly lower quality then dvd, imho.

 

[Hippak]

Thanks alot for you help
i'm gonna get the card
The one thing i am wondering about is if i should get a ATI or if i can get the one my friend is selling..
the ATI CHIPSET? he said it comes with ATI drivers and i completely trust him but could there be anything else that would be wrong with it?

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

The Radeon 7200 is the lowest ATI card you will want to buy if you care for Gaming. But all Radeons (from 7000 - 8500) have very good TV-OUT)

As for your friends ATI card, ask him what GPU is it as in is it a Radeon or a Rage II. Rage II is quite old.. may not be good for gaming and the TV-out may not be good (note: i said MAY).

 

[AA0]

you can buy a 7500 for 199 canadian in places like future shop, which is much better than a 7200 for 140.

 

[Theslowone]

As for your friends ATI card, ask him what GPU is it as in is it a Radeon or a Rage II. Rage II is quite old.. may not be good for gaming and the TV-out may not be good (note: i said MAY).

He said his friend had a radeon 64mb ddr tv out , so the options is only the original 64 mb ddr, 7000, 7500, 8500(hopefully it is not a 7000). But really if you want a little bit of gaming but mainly tvout any of the newer cards should work fine, even a rage2 would be ok.

All ati cards with the rage theater is going to be about the same tv out.
Your best bet is with a newer card, but it its all up to how much you have to spend on it.

I would make sure what you are buying before you put that much in it. If it is a 7000 then you are spending to much on that card.

 

[Zlash]

Anyone tried the new g4 mx cards TV-out? I was thinking of getting a g4mx 440 to play movies on my TV, i have a g2 mx at the moment that does well in anything i've played game wise so the g4 would just be an improvement there for me. Considering the g4 card because it has the higher resolution output i think.

 

[Zlash]

actually looking at a AIW 7500 now for the extra features

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Since casual gaming is all your into, and you want excellent TV out/DVD capabilties I suggest you price the SiS315 cards Available in Canada as they cost less than ATI or Nvidia(atleast here in the states) and provide very good 2d IQ, have 375mhzRAMDAC for the TV out(composite and S-video connectors) and hardware DVD decoding. I just sold a Rig with the ECS AG315T in it and it will out perform your MX200 in games. Here's a good evaluation of the chipset Link

 

[TheBlindMan]

If your priority for the card is to watch DVD's or movies you'll appreciate the ATI Rage Theater chipset, it is the industries best video output. Others will suffice though, it's a matter of how particular you are. As for gaming on your TV, any ATI Radeon Graphics Chipset (except the VE) will have more than enough power, and if you're looking at 64 Mb you're set.

Movies on your TV with a Rage Theate chipset will look better than a VCR but not as good as a set top DVD Player. Gaming graphics cannot be beat on a good computer monitor, and since a TV hasn't got the resolution that a monitor has, it leaves something to be desired. But the plus side of gaming on a TV is the setting... on the couch, with a couple of friends cheering or jeering you, and there's even room for the snacks!

I have a modest ATI Radeon LE w/TV out (32Mb) which I use to show movies and DVD's on TV. It's more than capable and the results have been quite good. But as for gaming, strictly on the monitor for me (besides, I'm almost always alone). The one feature I wish I had though is a true dual video output. Many times I've started a movie for the kids (on the TV) and wished I could use the monitor for something else other than seeing the kids' show. In order to get that (if you're intrested) you'll want any 8500.

 

[Zlash]

Ok i was looking at the AIW 7500 to be able to record stuff off TV and things, but when you are outputing video to the TV....can you play your sound off the computer instead of running the sound to the TV too(which i could)? Since my computer stereo is better than the TV's atm.

 

[Theslowone]

Yes you can, but then depending on your setup your sound is going to be off, direction wise. Or you can run sound to your tv and still use your computer. Just get a splitter.

 

[Zlash]

Computer is only about 5 feet off to the side of the TV.

 

[Theslowone]

If you are sitting at your computer then it should be fine, but if you are sitting elsewhere then it will sound different.

 

[Zlash]

Yea, i sit in a recliner =p.

 

[gregor7777]

You could pick up an Nvidia card and use tvtool and you'll be happy with the picture. I put mine into a 2.4ghz wireless transmitter and send it across the house and the PQ is still great.

Ati is the best IMHO, but with tvtool, nvidia comes pretty damn close.

 

[rbV5]

I use my AIW radeon for my TV-out quite a bit.

I use the Rage3D tweaker for my card, you can enable the overscan option, which works great for full screen movies on the tv, for gaming I don't use overscan and have small bars top and bottom (didn't have them on my older 27", but do on my new 32") I have them adjusted almost out, so no big deal. The picture quality is excellent, not as crisp as my monitor, but many divx files look better on the TV because the macroblocking is far less pronounced, and I'm not watching it from16 inches away. I game on the TV at 800x600, which gives great framerates and the NTSC conversion gives a bit of a FSAA effect so the reduced resolution isn't so bad, crank the color saturation up a little to adjust for the more washed out colors and its plenty acceptable. I just use my computer sound for my DVD's and Divx files. My speakers are arranged for sitting on the couch, if I'm playing games/movies on my computer monitor, I just use my headphones, on the couch, its the z560's.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I just wanted tio chime in and tell you to be leary of cards that are OEM ati cards. With these cards the only drives you can use is the refference drivers, the drivers that ATI releases for it's cards will not work with the OEM cards. The driver setup program looks for the type of card you have and it won't install on the OEM cards.

I have a AIW 7500, but haven't used the tv out yet, but the capture part and the 2d and 3d is great. If I could have afforded an aiw 8500 I would have gotten one, but it was out of my price range.


Good luck with it.

Will

 

[Theslowone]

I just wanted tio chime in and tell you to be leary of cards that are OEM ati cards. With these cards the only drives you can use is the refference drivers, the drivers that ATI releases for it's cards will not work with the OEM cards. The driver setup program looks for the type of card you have and it won't install on the OEM cards.

This is at least most of the way incorrect, don't know if all the way. I have an oem ati card runs fine with the drivers out, so does everyone else I know that has ati boards.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Cool a fellow Canadian! Where are ya, I'm in Toronto myself!

I agree with most posts - the Radeon 7200 is pretty slow for games, get a 7500 they're much better.

I've read that tv-out is the best on the Radeon 7500, even the 8500's tv-out doesn't compare. I have a GeForce3Ti ... Great card, very fast but the tv-out quality is horrendous. Well, that's exaggerating a bit, but its pretty bad.

The places with the best prices on everything in the Toronto Area (hope you're there) are:

Premier Computer Canada www.pccanada.com
Canada Computers www.canadacomputers.com

both have excellent prices. The guys @ PCCanada have no personality whatsoever, but their prices are great, and they sell only the best components!

Hope this helps!

 

[rbV5]

<< just wanted tio chime in and tell you to be leary of cards that are OEM ati cards. With these cards the only drives you can use is the refference drivers, the drivers that ATI releases for it's cards will not work with the OEM cards. >>



This is NOT true. The only possible time this may be correct, would be a card manufactured by a third party and then only if the card bios doesn't identify it as an ATI graphics chip, very extremely rare.

I own retail and OEM ATI cards, they all work fine with the ati drivers.

 

[wurmyhi]

I'm pretty happy with my Matrox G450eTV, which lets you use one monitor & one TV.

The TV CAN be used as an additional monitor, but the image quality in this mode is pretty bad. It looks VN when doing media playback or when displaying live NTSC.

One thing the board does have is 2 RAMDACs, one for the monitor and one for the TV out. So, I can playback something on the TV and still have my monitor doing other things or mirroring the TV output. Also, the monitor resolution and bit depth are independent of the TV-out.

If you're going to use the board for capture, it's mJPEG and you'll need at least a 1GHz PC to do full NTSC at 29.97/30 frames a sec.

3D performance w/this card is pretty bad though, but 2D image quality is VN. Since I have other PCs I can game, with, the 3D performance doesn't matter for me. If it did, then I'd probably opt for one of the AIW Radeons.

I was split over this board and one of the ATI All-In-Wonder boards, but the dealer I picked up the card from had it driving two Sony monitors at the same time and I was impressed by the image quality.

 

[acidvoodoo]

what does a TV out look like, i mean the little connecter, and can it be connected to an old tv with a little
(o) type connector?

 

[acidvoodoo]

bump

 

[rbV5]

<< what does a TV out look like, i mean the little connecter, and can it be connected to an old tv with a little >>



On my AIW it has an s-video (round 4 pin, video signal only) , and composite (rca type) connector. If your old TV only has coax input, you'll need an rf adaptor(I got one for my old TV from radio shack for $20).