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How good a video card?

B

BoycottValvoline

Member
Wondering how good of a video card I should get for DVI to HDTV (Through an HDMI converter) playback of DVD's and downloaded video (which are obviously compressed and not HDTV quality, so I'm not sure how much a difference it will make.) I bought a 6600GT already, but I need to buy another card because i run 3 mons and my tv. So I wouldn't mind paying something under $300 instead of picking up a secong 6600GT. (I'm not going to be running in SLI)

Also if the difference is negligible for downloaded video, would it be cheaper just to buy a progressive scan DVD player rather than a better video card? If I bought a DVD player I'd prolly have to drop extra for high quality, or switch the cable from my HDTV Box to it which I'd much rather not. But a stand alone DVD player might make up for that in convenience gained.

Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 
well if you ask me, i'd go with whatever saves you the most money... because downloaded videos (divx and xvid i'd assume?) are going to look like garbage on a big HDTV regardless.
 
You want a decent card as advanced functions (shaders, etc) do affect DVD playback, assuming you do HTPC.

For DVD playback check this out:
http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1

You'll get better playback than any except the very high end players (ca $3000), but it requires some love of tweaking. Do not buy the Cinemaster program as they suggest, instead download DScaler5. Also, do not perform any Chroma features, stick to Luna and sharpen until you're content with the picture. Resize is the main parameter, go as far as your PC will allow. Also, VMR9 rendering with a YV12 color space.
 
Originally posted by: slugg
well if you ask me, i'd go with whatever saves you the most money... because downloaded videos (divx and xvid i'd assume?) are going to look like garbage on a big HDTV regardless.
Click to expand...

Not really...if the video is a good source and it's not totally compressed, you'd be surprised how good it looks. I missed an episode of LOST a few months back so I got a 400MB DiVx version, and it looked superb on my 50" 720p DLP.

Regarding the OP, get any cheap card with DVI. Since playing back DVD's and DiVx files really does not tax the video card at all, it doesn't matter. I'm using a 9200 with DVI, but I used to have a 9800 Pro. There's no difference between the two.

But, if you're using MCE, make sure whatever card you get is DX9 compliant.
 
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