Well if you want good quality tv out then I'd probably recommend the ATI card of Nvidia. Don't get me wrong, Nvidia is improving their vid out capabilities with each card, but in a side by side comparison I generally prefer the ATI's.
As for handling of 3d, the Radeon 8500 is a pretty good card(you'll hear arguments one way or the other over which is better). The new Geforce 4 ti 4200/4400/4600 cards will be able to produce some more horsepower over the current iterations of the 8500 and in some areas the GF3 ti 500 bests the 8500(but not all areas). The GF4 cards will be out in March for the 44/4600 models and April for the 4200. They will be priced roughly $200,$300, and $400 respectively. ATI also has 128mb versions of their cards coming out around Aprilish as well which should add a little horsepower to the cards but probably not as powerful as the GF4ti cards.
I lean towards Nvidia myself and plan on picking up a GF4Ti card to replace my good old Voodoo5 next month. But I lean towards the gaming side of things. In your area, I can't say for sure myself which would be the better choice. You might be able to churn a little more 3d with the Nvidia cards, but if high quality tv out is a must for you the ATI Radeon is in my opinion the clear winner. While the GF3ti500 and GF4ti's have video out, the GF3ti was ok and I havn't seen GF4 vid out to give valid feedback on it.
I'd suggest the Radeon to you in your situation but you really can't go wrong either way.
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