Cheapest DVD and TV out solution?

[CapnKiII]

I'd like to use my computer as a DVD player, and also use my TV as a monitor? I understand that the TV won't serve as the best monitor, but humor me

What's the cheapest acceptable solution?

I'm looking for video card suggestiions, and also DVD drive suggestions.
Does anyone have anything nice or mean to say about this drive?

TOSHIBA CD-RW/DVD-ROM -COMBO

I appologise for asking that question in the video section, but it is related .. a bit

 

[mrzed]

you probably won't get much better or cheaper than ATI.

A clarification: do you already have a video card you want to use or are you upgrading the whole thing?
How much of a gamer are you?

Either way ATI is the way to go. If you play a lot of games get an 8500. A few games get a 7500. If you don't care about games at all you can get by with a 7000, but I think (not completely sure) that the DVD playback may not be as robust on this one. The 7500 is not too expensive anyhow.

As far as choice of optical drives goes, it depends on what you use it for. Most any decent brand should be fine for DVD playback and general CD burning. If you doa lot of audio work, some rip audio better than others.

Using your TV as a monitor it will look like crap for text, but it's your choice. If you have an Svideo capable TV that is supposed to improve the quality a bit (assuming you use the Svideo out on the card).

 

[Angus]

Radeon7000(Radeon Ve) and Radeon7500 will be a good choice.
and for Radeon8500, it has a improved filter over Radeon7000/7500.

 

[Peter]

ATi Radeons have the best TV-out.

The absolute cheapest ones are those ancient SiS 6326DVD cards that are still floating around for $19 or so new. These have TV-out and hardware DVD motion compensation and iDCT.

regards, Peter