Best TV out solution?

[nadthomas]

I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on what the best TV out solution is. Ok, here is what i am doing, I want to build a computer system to watch DVD, play old Sega games via emulators of course( you gotta love the classics), play new computer games (which means I would need decent 3d grafix), and possible do some internet browsing, and I want to do this all in my living room off my TV set. By the way this is my secondary computer so i do not really need it to do any thing but this.

I know the resolution will be lower than my monitor, but I am still hoping the quality of the DVD to be better than the VHS. I have heard that Nividia TV out sucks but i have heard good things about ATI. It does not have to be an actually vid card it could also be an add on card or external device what ever you know works well.

One other thing my TV only has RCA (no S-video). I know I should have spent the extra $30 on the TV to get one that did have s-video, but this was long before I came up with this idea.

And finally I would like to keep it well under $200, under $100 would be even better.

 

[Peter]

ATi chip based cards that use the ATi Rage Theater chip for TV-out have excellent TV quality in all situations. $100 might just so buy you a Radeon-7200 card with VGA, DVI and TV outputs ... that's not a multi-head card though, so while the TV is running, you'll get the same display on the monitor. Radeon 7500LE w/ multi display capability (HydraVision in ATi speak) is slightly more expensive, then there's 7500 and 8500LE on your upper price limit.

regards, Peter

 

[Workin']

Focus TView Gold external scan converter is well worth the $179 it costs.

It supports high resolutions and refresh rates, and has excellent video quality, easily as good as or better than ATI. I've used both (plus nvidia, yuck).

Since you are limited to using composite video (RCA), your quality will be only slightly better than VHS, regardless of your source. Shoulda got s-video. But you already know that.

An external scan converter obviously will have no effect on your 3d gaming performance, you'll need a decent graphics card for that. but at least the graphics card won't need to have tv-out.

 

[stephpar]

Hey there Workin' ... have you tried any gaming with that Tv out solution at those higher resolutions? I'd be curious to hear what 1280*1024 or 1600*1200 is like on a television set. Is it small? Clear enough? What about text...is it readable? Thx for the insight. I haven't heard anything about this product so a good user review would be great. <wink>

Steph

 

[Workin']

<< have you tried any gaming with that Tv out solution at those higher resolutions? >>

No, we use it at work for Powerpoint presentations and stuff like that.

<< I'd be curious to hear what 1280*1024 or 1600*1200 is like on a television set. Is it small? >>

It's small, and we use 1024x768. On our 32" Sony WEGA TV it looks as good as on a 17" monitor at that resoluton.

<< Clear enough? What about text...is it readable? >>

Text is very readable - that's why we got the TView device, since our ATI Radeon's TV-out just wasn't cutting it. We didn't want to have to do 2 versions of every presentation, one with big text so you could read it on a TV and another that looked good on the monitor or using a projector.

 

[stephpar]

Thanks for the reply workin. I'd love to hear what the story is for this product for gaming. When using the higher resolutions do you have to scroll or mouse move to get to use all the space of 1280*1024/1600*1200 ....or is everthing just smaller?

If there are any gamers out there that have used this product please post a comment so we can hear what it's like.

Steph

 

[Nintari]

Dont use an external scan converter I have learned this first hand!! I have tried several and all of them had things that really stunk. Most had problems with displaying the colors properly (odd color banding worse than using 16bit color) Watching DVD Movies sucks when everything looks like a adavance high resolution paint by number. Also 3d games seem to have a problem syncing... framerates become jerky a lot of the time. I have tried these on several different systems and TVs and all have same result. An not its not my hardware so dont even bother asking what I have (or had when I was testing). For presentations and web surfing they are great but when going to use them for dvd or games forget them.

the best cards I have use for TV out (I have the same setup that you are looking to build) are the Kyro II from herculee, ati 7500 and 8500. The 8500 has a bug on the tv out though at 800x600 where the images on screen lok washed out and has some odd filter over it but it doesnt seem the 7500 has this problem. and this has been confirmed with manyother people and ATI on the 8500 problem. however on my 8500 I run the desktop at 720x576 and games at 640x480, 720x576 and 1024x768. Depending on the game I also use smoothvision at quality settings and everything looks great. I am using s-video though so text is clear for me. RCA You can read but it is hard to do so depending on the text size.

ATI cards also give a lot more play with resizing the image on screen to fit better.

Nvidia cards are ok if using s-video and TVTool

I'd say hold on and wait for a good deal on a 7500 or if you do the setup I have a 8500. I picked my 8500 up from gateway for around 132.00 shipped full retail (cant remember exact it was 169-$50 off coupon plus shipping)

 

[Workin']

<< or is everthing just smaller? >>

It's just smaller. No scrolling required. Regarding Nintari's comments, I haven't played games using the scan converter, nor played DVD's - however, .avi files look just fine. OTHER scan converters we tried looked like crap in comparison. Another AT Forum member, RobsTV, uses the TView Gold at his house and I know he is extremely pleased with it for gaming, watching DVD's, etc. Maybe you could try sending him a PM for some feedback.