Is TV out a feasible alternative to DVD players

[blahsome]

Hi, anybody use their video card's TV Out to watch DVDs on a normal TV? Is the quality comparable to that of normal DVD players? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy a video card with S-video TV Out.

Thanks.

 

[joinT]

I definitely recommend an ATI card - their hardware decoding is awesome.

 

[Vic]

On this subject, I recently built a lower-end machine for this purpose, in addition to play mp3's, divx, avi's, etc. It works great, but I need to upgrade the old vid card I put in it (a V3-3000 AGP I had lying around). Which low-to-mid range ATi card is best for DVD playback plus provides a good (unshimmering) desktop to TV-out only?
Also, which is better, S-video or component/RCA?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bish]

Component video is better than SVideo but I don't think you'll find many cards with component video tv out.

 

[blahsome]

In theory, component > S-video > composite. I've only seen S-video out cards.

 

[Workin']

I use a PC with an ATI Rage Fury Pro to watch DVD's on my 35" TV. I also have a Toshiba set-top DVD player connected to the same TV. Both using S-video connection. The output from the PC is not quite as good of quality as the Toshiba, but it is plenty good enough - certainly much better than VHS.

On the other hand, the TV out from my Geforce3 card (w/Chrontel TV-chip) is stinky in comparison to the ATI.

But the set-top Toshiba is by far easiest to use - however the one I have is a first-generation player, and it sometimes won't play certain DVD's, that's why I have the PC connected, too.

 

[Byte]

I hear the Asus output DVD without macrovision, so you can go through VCR. I also tryed Hollywood Plus with the X10 DVD anywhere. I must say that it look pretty awsome. The quality was almost on par with my standalone. Only thing is sound is less than spectacular and if somone walks by you can get interference. Svideo out is pretty common now on most video cards, but to me, it's too much of a hasstle to play DVDs on the comp to a TV.