How good is Tv-out?

[Spix]

I´ve been thinking of buying aa video card with Tv-out to be able to watch some DivX movies on my 32" Tv instead of my 14" monitor. Now what I need to know is, how good is the Tv-out quality on most AGP-cards. I´m expecting some loss of picure quality, but will it be a lot? Worse or better than VHS?

 

[Workin']

Oh boy, this has been covered many times, but I'll be the first to get my opinion noted (again).

ATI cards with the Rage Theater TV-out chip are best (Radeons, AIW Pro, Rage Fury Pro)

Matrox is also good. GeForce (any brand or flavor) TV-out is the worst. Hollywood+ DVD decoder cards won't output Divx or your desktop, ONLY DVD's.

An external scan converter might be a good bet if you already have a decent graphics card. Search the forums for "scan converter", there are several current threads on that topic. Also, RobsTV usually weighs in on these threads with some good advice.

 

[CoMmAnDoMoE2001]

yea ATI is asome for Homevideo stuff
What I do is download Divx movies and put them to VHS lol for my freinds to borrow them
on my New Vid (Listed below) has a S-Video Out
do not GET TV out get S-VIDEO out
S-VIDEO is higher quality.
if you do not have S-Video ATI supplys a cable that switches to S-Video to Compsite wires
I hate a ATI All-In-Wounder pro 32mb and it was ASOME for hooking it up to the TV!!
when playing games on the TV it seems like playing a game in a HIGH RES!! like over 1600x1200
it was asome when the game was even running on 800x600 at 120FPS @32bit
Get the ATI All win wounder Radon good for games and asome for homevideo

 

[CoMmAnDoMoE2001]

Working I have a Geforce and I output Divx to the TV?
or are you talking about something else?

 

[dragonballgtz]

so you can play DVDs on your computer and watch them on your T.V.?

 

[CoMmAnDoMoE2001]

yes

 

[Riverside]

you can also edit some video stuff from a camcorder or put still shots from a camcorder onto your computer right? Is this with the video in option?
The elsa card I'm considering buying has no tv out, does that mean there is no possibility to do the things I mentioned above?

thanks

 

[Workin']

Spix - forgot to mention quality re: VHS - S-video out from an ATI card CAN be better quality than VHS - as good as a set-top DVD player. But Divx quality is about like or slightly worse than VHS, and the output can't look better than the source, so...

 

[Workin']

<< you can also edit some video stuff from a camcorder or put still shots from a camcorder onto your computer right? Is this with the video in option?
The elsa card I'm considering buying has no tv out, does that mean there is no possibility to do the things I mentioned above? >>

You must have video in to get analog video into your computer. If you have a digital camcorder then you don't need video in to edit your home videos. So I guess the answer to your question depends on the camcorder you want to use.

 

[alluu]

My Experience

Just tested out my Radeon LE w/ TVO on a 25 inch Sharp tv. Quality is by far the best. I had a voodoo3 3000 and the Radeon is just so much better. I had heard that the Rage Theatre Chip is the best and it is. For me, I was deciding between a MX or Radeon and chose this casue of the quality. With the Geforce, quality is dependent on the card marker but it is still far behind ATI.

In terms of Divx outputed to a tv. It is comparable to VHS. Some of DIVX are higher quality than others and they look really good. Almost DVD like but some are worse than VHS. Nothing beats a standalone DVD player though. Even using my DVD-ROM and outputing it to the tv, there is a little image brightness/contrast difference. Things just aren't as sharp. I don't know about DVD decoders though