best vid card for watching dvds?

[vonplyr]

im looking on getting a new video card to replace my old kyroii, and was wondering which video card offerred best picture quality for watching dvds? or are all vid cards about the same? im looking specially for tv-out quality as i will be hooking it up to my tv. and will the quality be as good/better/worse than a regular dvd player hooked up to a tv? only composite on tv as well, no s-vid or component.

thanks!

 

[HardWareXpert]

I have a GF2 MX at the moment and the DVD playback is very good indeed, ATI suppose to have the best quality but there's really not that much difference.

GF4 MX line is the worst for DVD image quality as a artical was comparing them, forget were it was though.

 

[Rand]

Definitely ATi, even an old Rage 128 still has extremely good DVD playback capabilities.
Slightly better image quality, but nothing dramatic. Clearly lower processor utilization though.

I have to say it... but the old S3/SonicBlue Savage3D/Savage4/Savage2000 cards were also surprisingly good.

nVidia is decent enough, but they certainly fall distinctly below ATi, and IMHO can't quite match up to S3/SonicBlue either.
Matrox is slightly below nVidia, and the old 3dfx cards are last. 3dfx never seemed to put much effort into DVD capabilities.

 

[thornc]

A Radeon 7500, or a Radeon 8500 if you have the money!!

 

[Killrose]

I built my girlfriend a computer several years ago using an Ati Rage Fury 32mb. The DVD playback has always been outstanding, and it was used alot untill I bought her a DVD player for x-mas this last year.

 

[Workin']

The best choice of graphics cards for TV-out would be a Radeon 8500 64MB or better. With the ATI cards, what you need to look for is a model that uses their "Rage Theater" TV chip - the only current model with that is the Radeon 8500 64MB, ATI's web site doesn't say for any other current model. I know the old Radeon 64MB VIVO had it, as did the All-in-Wonder Pro, the Rage Fury Pro, and the 32MB All-in-Wonder.

You might also consider the Focus TView Gold external scan converter. You can use it with ANY video card and then you don't have to worry about the TV-out quality of the card you get. Or you could even keep the Kyro II if it is otherwise good enough for you. The TV quality of the TView is better than any graphics card's built-in TV-out, including ATI. It costs about $180 and is worth every penny.

 

[BFG10K]

ATi edges nVidia in DVD quality but having said that the DVD playback on my GF3 Ti500 is outstanding.

 

[Roxxor]

Has anyone tried the DVD playback on the Gainward Geforce4 Ti-4600?

 

[snidy]

I have on the visiontek and it's great.

 

[saimike]

i think an ati radeon, for eg, would work pretty well. since u only have composite video on ur tv, i'd think that would be ur biggest bottle neck. it worked pretty well at home for my family. personally, i dont think there's much to it, and cpu power might be a bigger concern, my c366@555 is at 90% when i full screen dvd rips.

 

[Confused]

I decided to hook my new Leadtek GF2MX400 MAX with TV out into my computer (it was going into an Abit KT7 and Duron 700 purely for DVDs, but the Duron was dead when i tried it ), and watching Saving Private Ryan on a JVC 24" Widescreen, through both Composite on front and S-Video (through scart adapter) it was excellent quality. The desktop wasn't too great (but text never is on a TV), but the movies, and also MOH:AA and Counter-Strike were brilliant on it! I could just about read the chat text when i was dead in CS (which was quite often )!

But i have heard everyone go on here about the TV out on the ATI cards, but at the computer fair on Sunday the only half decent card for games was this GF2, the Radeon VE was the only other one in my price range, which is great TV-Out but poor game performance.

If you're looking at the TV from a distance for DVDs, i doubt I could tell the difference between my GF2MX and another one.

ConfusedBW

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Your "old" Kyro II?

That's a 2001 card, isn't it? I mean, you're not running a Voodoo, a TNT2, or a Rage Pro.

Image quality-wise, I doubt you'll get significant improvements over Kyro with any of the newer cards, except *perhaps* the expensive Radeon 8500.

Of course, if you spend that kind of money on a card, you'd better see some improvement, even if it's not really there...

 

[MaxDSP]

I get pretty good playback on my 4-5 year old CB RivaTNT 16MB using PowerDVD.

Lookin to upgrade that dying vid card to play GTA3 in a couple of months though

 

[spanky]

my asus v6800 is horrible for dvd playback. so cross that off ur list. but my 8500 is very nice indeed.

 

[rbV5]

Edited, see my post below.

 

[Workin']

<< Actually, ALL Radeon cards with TV-out use the Rage Theater Chip, the Ve/7500/8500 have enhanced TV-out that supports up to 1024 X 768, the others up to 800 X 600, but all use the same Rage Theater Chip and quality is the same on all the Radeon cards. >>

Are you sure? I only ask because my Radeon 64MB VIVO has a chip on it clearly labeled "Rage Theater" while my Radeon VE with TV-out has no such chip. Also, on ATI's web site the only card where the description specifically states the Rage Theater is used is the 64MB Radeon 8500 (which of course doesn't mean the others don't have it but how the heck is anyone supposed to know?)

 

[rbV5]

<< while my Radeon VE with TV-out has no such chip >>



EDITED and UPDATED, I'll be durned, you are absolutely correct sir. I had to take my case apart and look...no Rage Theater Chip! With my AIW 7500! wow, 8500 uses the seperate Rage Theater chip, but the 7xxx cards have an integrated VIVO functions on the GPU. The Rage Theater Components are listed just the same in device manager, but no seperate chip. I stand corrected...however, the video IQ though is still every bit as good as my AIW Radeon and VIVO(do have the seperate chip) and supports higher resolutions. I believe they just incorporated the same Rage Theater components onto the GPU as the drivers and software I use recognise the VIVO components as "Rage Theater Video Capture device"

 

[Workin']

<< I believe they just incorporated the same Rage Theater components onto the GPU >>

That's what I was thinking but I don't have one of the newer cards to check. ATI's line-up is confusing enough, well, I guess now it's on par with nvidia for massive confusion...

 

[rbV5]

<< ATI's line-up is confusing enough, well, I guess now it's on par with nvidia for massive confusion... >>



I do like the 7xxx, 8xxx scheme though and the relative performance with the 70xx, 72xx and 75xx however, but check this baby out for "why do they make that?" Powercolor 7200 DDR Dual display!, you click on the picture, it shows a regular 7200 USA (no-tv out model) but look closely at the card in front of the box, looks like a dual head 7500, but it isn't, that is a 7200 "Evil Guardian" DDR dual head!