Best video card for playing videos

[wraith3k]

I'm turning an old system into a media pc and need a cheap AGP video card. It won't be used for any 3d apps, just playing videos over the lan. It doesn't need to be a tuner card as it won't be used for recording. Do you all recommend nvidia or ati, as far as features go and ease of use with hooking it up to a tv? I will be using s-video or component video for now and switching to DVI later.

 

[angry hampster]

The cheapest one you can find.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

any video card can play videos...

 

[nemesismk2]

Yeah any video card can play videos...

 

[wraith3k]

Ok thanks all, but I was just wondering whether to go nvidia or ati. Are they pretty much the same in tv-out features? (for instance, controlling overscan/underscan, and resizing the picture so it fits properly, etc)

 

[VirtualLarry]

A little birdy told me that NVidia removed the option to use the TV-out as a secondary display that was fixed to full-screen output for the overlay.

IOW, watch video playing in a window on the primary display, and the overlay output would be scaled to full-screen and output on the TV-out. Very useful for watching movies on the TV-out.

 

[wolf2009]

ya , cheapest one . if you are looking to play HD stuff thats another matter