Cheap TV Out

[TheKid]

I am currently building a MP3 server for my Home Theater set-up. I have a 300 mhz PII and will probably get a gametheater GXP since sound is the most important thing. I will be using the TV for a monitor which will really just be used set up playlists and such. Since I won't be playing any games, what is the best solution for getting TV out. Would a 8 MB ATi XPERT PLAY 98 be the best route? I want the text to be readable, but it doesn't have to be utter eye candy. Thanks for your help,

G

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I used to have a Diamond Viper II Z200 when I first built my computer the beginning of the year and used the TV-Out on that for the first... week or 2? I got sick of it because you could only run 640x480 and well... on a 19" TV, that's pretty blurry to my eyes. That's just my two cents worth.

 

[lotust]

or a MX200 thre aroung 40$ the most i think

the only problem is that on a cheap TV out card the text on a TV screen is so dam blured.

 

[vss1980]

Got to remember that on a normal TV the resolution of the TV is only really up to the challenge of displaying 640x480 with any level of detail. Text should just about be readable at that resolution.

In 800x600 I would have to say to forget it about text being readable. The dot pitch of pretty much any normal (non HDTV) TV is not sufficient to pull it off.

TV-out is really only for large screen presentations where the font size of most writing is large enough for these issues not to arise or large screen games.

 

[HJB417]

don't crap out on a nvidia, sis etc, get radeon or matrox g4xx =)

 

[SpeedTester]

I'd have to say go with a Matrox or ATI card. Matrox had very decent tv out on the G200 Mystique , I'd say almost as good as
my ATI Rage fury. The Rage fury is still the best I've seen up to today.

 

[Ryukumu]

I use an 'Ultimate 2000 PC to TV scan converter' so I could watch DVDs on TV while using my DVD-ROM drive and for downloading Anime DivX fansubs (aka 'digisubs'). For the most part, this device is excellent. The sweet spot seems to be 800x600 @ 70hz (32-bit color), which is good, as I normally use the computer at similar settings except 100hz refresh rate. Although there was a bit of an issue with the TV-out image being way too blue (as in the color blue), but that seemed to fix itself as the unit was used more. I guess you could say the TV-out had to be 'broken in'. Video quality is pretty good using composite cables. It has multiple output types; s-video out, composite/RCA out, and a 3rd output whose function I don't know. It was pretty easy to set up, though there is a semi-mess of cables involved...

There are only three downsides to this TV-out:
1) While you can have the image be sent to your monitor and TV at the same time, the image on the monitor is just a teeeeeeeeeny bit blurred. It's barely noticeable, and you get used to it pretty quickly, but if you lok carefully you can see that the monitor image is just barely out of focus.

2) This gizmo was pretty hard to find. I could only find it at CompUSA, and I don't know if they still carry it.

3) Price. This gizmo was a little on the pricey side at $100. At the time I got it, it was cheaper then buying a new video card. Now, it may be a little too pricey in comparison to just getting a new video card.


Hope that helps.