Playing DVD from computer to TV

[SigFawn]

The best solution I found (price wise) and was this

http://cgi.ebay.com/25-Ft-S-Video-3-5-m...categoryZ14968QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

25 Ft S-Video & 3.5 mm Audio PC/DVD to 3 RCA TV Cable

My video card has s-video out. So this should work right? How will the quality be?

If anyone has done anything similiar, please post your setup.

Thanks.

 

[thescreensavers]

I use my own speakers and have an s video cable to my tv good quality.

 

[Thetech]

I'm going to get some cables in next week so I can hook my t.v up to my comp, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Auric]

A viddy card with S-Video output also likely has composite output -often via the same mini-DIN jack with an adapter. So, for the best quality and avoidance of problems, use an S-Video cable direct to TV where possible, otherwise a composite RCA cable direct, rather than such a convertor cable. On the audio side, such a cable would be fine in lieu of digital.

 

[SigFawn]

Originally posted by: Auric
A viddy card with S-Video output also likely has composite output -often via the same mini-DIN jack with an adapter. So, for the best quality and avoidance of problems, use an S-Video cable direct to TV where possible, otherwise a composite RCA cable direct, rather than such a convertor cable. On the audio side, such a cable would be fine in lieu of digital.

Good point. My TVs s-video is a little messed up, that's why I found an RCA output.

 

[0roo0roo]

iew
vid cards tend to have yucky tv out. it goes through conversion and stuff and will be soft, progressive to interlace and all that good stuff. it will look worse than a cheap dvd player. last i checked you can get a magnavox dvd+divx player from wallyworld for 30 bucks. so forget about the computer, or a cable so long you'd degrade the bad signal even further. last week the philips dvd was ons ale for 20 bucks, u might check if it still is.

and yes i've tried, i have a radeon 9000 pro hooked up to a 27" sdtv for kicks, it looks like sh*t, and thats an improvement over the total sh*t of the old geforce that just looked like garbage. you have to adjust the overscan so it fits the tv without black banding, and its still hideous and distorted the controls are bad, either overscan for hideous distortion, or adjust manually and have black bands and yes svhs connection.

egads i just checked your link, it would cost the same for a dvd player + cables included as your cables lol the only time its worth the bother at all is if you have a high res hd tv and use dvi or something. or a vga connector for a projector and use playback software witha ll sorts of hardcore filtering

 

[SigFawn]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
iew
vid cards tend to have yucky tv out. it goes through conversion and stuff and will be soft, progressive to interlace and all that good stuff. it will look worse than a cheap dvd player. last i checked you can get a magnavox dvd+divx player from wallyworld for 30 bucks. so forget about the computer, or a cable so long you'd degrade the bad signal even further. last week the philips dvd was ons ale for 20 bucks, u might check if it still is.

and yes i've tried, i have a radeon 9000 pro hooked up to a 27" sdtv for kicks, it looks like sh*t, and thats an improvement over the total sh*t of the old geforce that just looked like garbage. you have to adjust the overscan so it fits the tv without black banding, and its still hideous and distorted the controls are bad, either overscan for hideous distortion, or adjust manually and have black bands and yes svhs connection.

egads i just checked your link, it would cost the same for a dvd player + cables included as your cables lol the only time its worth the bother at all is if you have a high res hd tv and use dvi or something. or a vga connector for a projector and use playback software witha ll sorts of hardcore filtering

But the idea is not to use DVDs. I have a DVD collection of about 120 movies (90-100 backups of originals) and I was going to use a wireless mouse. Then I just switch the tv input, use the mouse to find the DVD, fire it up, and it's playing. A lot easier then stacks of DVDs. Not to mention I can play TV shows I DL. Basically giving me 200-300 gigs of DVD/TV shows I can fire up just with my remote and a wireless mouse.

I'm not so much worried about quality. As long as it's decent.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
iew
vid cards tend to have yucky tv out. it goes through conversion and stuff and will be soft, progressive to interlace and all that good stuff. it will look worse than a cheap dvd player. last i checked you can get a magnavox dvd+divx player from wallyworld for 30 bucks. so forget about the computer, or a cable so long you'd degrade the bad signal even further. last week the philips dvd was ons ale for 20 bucks, u might check if it still is.

and yes i've tried, i have a radeon 9000 pro hooked up to a 27" sdtv for kicks, it looks like sh*t, and thats an improvement over the total sh*t of the old geforce that just looked like garbage. you have to adjust the overscan so it fits the tv without black banding, and its still hideous and distorted the controls are bad, either overscan for hideous distortion, or adjust manually and have black bands and yes svhs connection.

egads i just checked your link, it would cost the same for a dvd player + cables included as your cables lol the only time its worth the bother at all is if you have a high res hd tv and use dvi or something. or a vga connector for a projector and use playback software witha ll sorts of hardcore filtering

Your opinion is dependent upon your configuration (no offense) this could all vary depending on everyone's config, I'm using a Geforce7800GT and I also know about the Nvidia decoder software that's supposed to improve the image of video files, the quality of record video also depends on whether or not you have a capture card and which card it is(see the bottom of my post). I've used an ATI Radeon9200 card hooked up to a VCR via composite cables then from the VCR to a T.V via coax not exactly fancy nor "High Quality" connections but the video looked pretty good and I didn't have to mess with the settings much either.I'd have to guess that any modern card will look just as good or better. So the bottom line is it will be decent or better.





(Nvidia's new dual tuner and Ati's capture card based on the Theater Pro550 chip are both top cards for SD)

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: Auric
A viddy card with S-Video output also likely has composite output -often via the same mini-DIN jack with an adapter. So, for the best quality and avoidance of problems, use an S-Video cable direct to TV where possible, otherwise a composite RCA cable direct, rather than such a convertor cable. On the audio side, such a cable would be fine in lieu of digital.

Composite is a lower-quality signal than S-Video. Do you mean component?

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Thetech

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
iew
vid cards tend to have yucky tv out. it goes through conversion and stuff and will be soft, progressive to interlace and all that good stuff. it will look worse than a cheap dvd player. last i checked you can get a magnavox dvd+divx player from wallyworld for 30 bucks. so forget about the computer, or a cable so long you'd degrade the bad signal even further. last week the philips dvd was ons ale for 20 bucks, u might check if it still is.

and yes i've tried, i have a radeon 9000 pro hooked up to a 27" sdtv for kicks, it looks like sh*t, and thats an improvement over the total sh*t of the old geforce that just looked like garbage. you have to adjust the overscan so it fits the tv without black banding, and its still hideous and distorted the controls are bad, either overscan for hideous distortion, or adjust manually and have black bands and yes svhs connection.

egads i just checked your link, it would cost the same for a dvd player + cables included as your cables lol the only time its worth the bother at all is if you have a high res hd tv and use dvi or something. or a vga connector for a projector and use playback software witha ll sorts of hardcore filtering

Your opinion is dependent upon your configuration (no offense) this could all vary depending on everyone's config, I'm using a Geforce7800GT and I also know about the Nvidia decoder software that's supposed to improve the image of video files, the quality of record video also depends on whether or not you have a capture card and which card it is(see the bottom of my post). I've used an ATI Radeon9200 card hooked up to a VCR via composite cables then from the VCR to a T.V via coax not exactly fancy nor "High Quality" connections but the video looked pretty good and I didn't have to mess with the settings much either.I'd have to guess that any modern card will look just as good or better. So the bottom line is it will be decent or better.





(Nvidia's new dual tuner and Ati's capture card based on the Theater Pro550 chip are both top cards for SD)

no, i checked some radeon boards and such for info on the tv out, it seems even the newest ones have garbage tv out with svhs/composite. only with component out or dvi/vga can you get decent output. i doubt nvidia has something better, they call their stuff purevideo but thats just marketing, ati's been beating them in the video quality test reviews i've seen recently. and well ati had the tv out lead for quite sometime.

Composite is a lower-quality signal than S-Video. Do you mean component?

he means composite. older cards has svhs plugs in the back and a composite converter if required. its inferior of course. my 6600gt has svhs/component.

But the idea is not to use DVDs. I have a DVD collection of about 120 movies (90-100 backups of originals) and I was going to use a wireless mouse. Then I just switch the tv input, use the mouse to find the DVD, fire it up, and it's playing. A lot easier then stacks of DVDs. Not to mention I can play TV shows I DL. Basically giving me 200-300 gigs of DVD/TV shows I can fire up just with my remote and a wireless mouse.

I'm not so much worried about quality. As long as it's decent.

i was just fiddling with divx on the tv too. i just don't see how the "convenience" is really worth the loss of quality or ease of use of a stand alone player. we aren't talking music jukebox where songs change every 3 minutes, but movies that last 2-3hours. and tv, i have some too, but look at the resolution, its 350mb per 45~ minutes for most releases. thats low resolution. once it goes through conversion for interlacing it looks a big like garbage on a standard tv. even hrhd releases don't look much better. how big is your tv? looking at text on a standard tv using svhs 800x600 is not all that fun, its actually a bit blurry. i did this on a 27" flat screen crt rca.

 

[SigFawn]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i was just fiddling with divx on the tv too. i just don't see how the "convenience" is really worth the loss of quality or ease of use of a stand alone player. we aren't talking music jukebox where songs change every 3 minutes, but movies that last 2-3hours. and tv, i have some too, but look at the resolution, its 350mb per 45~ minutes for most releases. thats low resolution. once it goes through conversion for interlacing it looks a big like garbage on a standard tv. even hrhd releases don't look much better. how big is your tv? looking at text on a standard tv using svhs 800x600 is not all that fun, its actually a bit blurry. i did this on a 27" flat screen crt rca.

There is no "ease of use". I'd have to buy a DVD burner. Buy DVD player. Buy DVDs. I have 100+ gigs of TV shows. Now I have to keep track of 30+ DVDs?

I like having a computer based system, because I don't have to burn DVDs, buy DVDs, store DVDs, pop DVDs in and out. I can jump from episode 2 season 1 of Seinfeld, to episode 12 season 8 in about 2 seconds.

I'm just wondering if there's a TV tuner card that will drastically improve the quality (or another cable setup). I know lots of people are moving to computer based home entertainment centers, I just didn't find much info about types of hardware that will improve the look/quality. Which isn't my main concern anyway. I just thought I'd ask. =)

 

[Xorp]

You can get the cable your looking for a lot cheaper at monoprice.com

On second thought, forget it. There's no real way to get good quality out of S-Video. It's just not going to happen.

The only option if you want good quality is to buy a TV with a VGA connection. Alot of new flat panels and DLPs have PC inputs. You can also adapt a DVI connection to HDMI on the TV. With this setup you can have 1:1 pixel mapping from the computer to the TV. It will look just as good or better than it looks on your monitor.

 

[0roo0roo]

oh i wasn't suggesting playing tv shows through a dvd player, that would be wasted effort . just films.

i think tv tuners are just for tv in. i use a hauppauge. don't think i can send tv out through it.

if you really want to do this i think you need to get an hdtv that takes component in/dvi/or vga and can display progressive output so it doesn't turn into something hideous. i'm sure someone at avsforum has done this. look there.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

If possible, I would use component or DVI/HDMI for higher resolution (if you have a HDTV). Otherwise, this SVIDEO conection should do the trick. I did this for a long time with my TV and the picture quality was quite good (output from an old GeForce card back in the day). You might also run into some overscan issues with the screen chopping off sides so you could download a copy of Powerstrip to play with resolutions. Also, you should note that if you playing legit DVDs, Windows will only allow you to play on one screen at a time because of Macrovision (I believe) so you have to make sure only one display is active.

I also second a vote from monoprice.com for all your cable needs.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: SigFawn

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i was just fiddling with divx on the tv too. i just don't see how the "convenience" is really worth the loss of quality or ease of use of a stand alone player. we aren't talking music jukebox where songs change every 3 minutes, but movies that last 2-3hours. and tv, i have some too, but look at the resolution, its 350mb per 45~ minutes for most releases. thats low resolution. once it goes through conversion for interlacing it looks a big like garbage on a standard tv. even hrhd releases don't look much better. how big is your tv? looking at text on a standard tv using svhs 800x600 is not all that fun, its actually a bit blurry. i did this on a 27" flat screen crt rca.

There is no "ease of use". I'd have to buy a DVD burner. Buy DVD player. Buy DVDs. I have 100+ gigs of TV shows. Now I have to keep track of 30+ DVDs?

I like having a computer based system, because I don't have to burn DVDs, buy DVDs, store DVDs, pop DVDs in and out. I can jump from episode 2 season 1 of Seinfeld, to episode 12 season 8 in about 2 seconds.

I'm just wondering if there's a TV tuner card that will drastically improve the quality (or another cable setup). I know lots of people are moving to computer based home entertainment centers, I just didn't find much info about types of hardware that will improve the look/quality. Which isn't my main concern anyway. I just thought I'd ask. =)

Just check out HTPCnews it's an excellent resource.

As far as improve the quality I can't say but the aforementioned T.V tuner cards like for example the Nvidia card has a 3D comb filter etc. the card accepts input though(s-video, composite, coaxial(cable only) to get the video out to your T.V your video card needs an output(s-video etc) most of the people I've talked to (who are into HTPCs) say that my Geforce7800GT should get me decent video output to my T.V .

Those cables I mentioned... I ordered them from monoprice.com, it's my first order i've made with them so I'll let everyone know how it works out.

 

[Iron Woode]

for anyone who might be interested:

I built my own budget HTPC.

motherboard is a ECS 741GX-M
cpu is an XP2500+
Tuner is a Sapphire Theatrix (ATI 550 Pro)
Video card is a MSI FX5200 TD128LF
Sound Card is a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
ram is 768 megs
HDD is a 160 gig Maxtor
LG 16x dvd player
Logitech Z640 speakers
case is an Antec 630 style case

some of this stuff I had kicking around, so I put it to use.

combined with MCE2005 it is pretty darn impressive and quiet too because I bought a quiet HSF (arctic Cooling copper silent 3) and a quiet Enermax PSU and a quiet 80 mm case fan.

 

[pkme2]

Sorry to put a damper on these proceedings. But why would you want to play DVD movies from your computer to TV. You're paying almost $35 for a cable connector.

Wouldn't a DVD player give you a better picture than just satisfactory? http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4529480

 

[Raduque]

pkme, read the thread. His DVDs are all legal backups of his original disks ( ) stored on his HD.

My advice: get a new TV. I use a DVI connection into my big screen HDTV and it's great.

However, if you insist on using the s-video connection (best way to go for a small non-HD tv), do a little research and buy a card (used if need be) that's known for good s-video out. My old 9700Pro, for example, has good s-video out. I'm betting a cheap 9600 would too, same GPU. Get that, use a high-quality s-video cable (one of the more expensive, Phillips i think) from wal-mart or something, and set your output resolution to 640x480 or 800x600, whichever fits your TV best. Then get a front end like MCE or BeyondTV, because trust me on this, trying to use a desktop is very painful on a screen like that. Hell, it's painful on my big screen. Or, you could always just use a remote login tool like VNC. I really do stand by the option of a TV with component or DVI inputs for connecting a computer. Buy something with a VGA connector, if you want to get really fancy.

For tuner cards, in my opinion, anything with ATIs Theater550Pro is a great card, with the Hauppage WinTVPVR150/500 coming in second. The nVTune cards have pretty much fallen by the wayside, as far as I know, nV isn't doing anything with them anymore.

Hey, IronWood, couple questions: How well does that thing do with HD video? My HTPC (similar to yours, XP2500, 9700Pro, 1gb DDR333, soyo dragon kt600) sucks at HD videos. Also, what kind of TV are you driving with that machine?

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Raduque
pkme, read the thread. His DVDs are all legal backups of his original disks ( ) stored on his HD.

My advice: get a new TV. I use a DVI connection into my big screen HDTV and it's great.

However, if you insist on using the s-video connection (best way to go for a small non-HD tv), do a little research and buy a card (used if need be) that's known for good s-video out. My old 9700Pro, for example, has good s-video out. I'm betting a cheap 9600 would too, same GPU. Get that, use a high-quality s-video cable (one of the more expensive, Phillips i think) from wal-mart or something, and set your output resolution to 640x480 or 800x600, whichever fits your TV best. Then get a front end like MCE or BeyondTV, because trust me on this, trying to use a desktop is very painful on a screen like that. Hell, it's painful on my big screen. Or, you could always just use a remote login tool like VNC. I really do stand by the option of a TV with component or DVI inputs for connecting a computer. Buy something with a VGA connector, if you want to get really fancy.

For tuner cards, in my opinion, anything with ATIs Theater550Pro is a great card, with the Hauppage WinTVPVR150/500 coming in second. The nVTune cards have pretty much fallen by the wayside, as far as I know, nV isn't doing anything with them anymore.

Hey, IronWood, couple questions: How well does that thing do with HD video? My HTPC (similar to yours, XP2500, 9700Pro, 1gb DDR333, soyo dragon kt600) sucks at HD videos. Also, what kind of TV are you driving with that machine?

no HD for me.

As for TV; in keeping with the budget theme I am using a Toshiba 27A50 crt. Its for a fairly small room.

 

[AlexV]

Just to share my experience...

I've got a T30 that has S-Video out, however, my 20" TV has only component inputs. So I bought this S-Video to RCA adapter. For getting the sound on TV, I got this audio splitter.

I was able to stream TV shows I recorded and DVDs off my NAS box through T30 to the TV fine. The quality is about the same as if I was watching TV. Of course, my TV is just a regular 20" Panasonic, so I cannot expect great IQ.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

-- Alex

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: Raduque
The nVTune cards have pretty much fallen by the wayside, as far as I know, nV isn't doing anything with them anymore.

Not true anymore, Nvidia has a new dual tuner card availble at their website, it's gotten good reviews and the image quaity is from what I've heard about the same to a little bit better then ATI's 550 pro, the Nvidia dual tuner is more usefull if your using MCE though.

 

[piasabird]

I dont think you can use a dual tuner card without Win MCE (latest Version). E-VGA use to make a Dual tuner Card, but I have not seen many people claiming they are using it.

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: piasabird
I dont think you can use a dual tuner card without Win MCE (latest Version). E-VGA use to make a Dual tuner Card, but I have not seen many people claiming they are using it.

Yes you can, you have to use a PVR or other recording software of course but ATM you can't access the advanced picture controls(comb filter, etc) unless your using Win MCE.

 

[imported_goku]

The picture quality may be fine, but what I'd worry about is your DVD player software/drivers preventing you from doing playback. I remember when I installed power DVD on my laptop with S-video out saying that you're not allowed to play the DVD over the S-video so one solution would be to play back the DVDs via VLC player. You'll be doing a lot of fiddling around to get the video play back to work on the TV but I'm definately sure it's possible to do. Might take you a few hours so it may or may not be worth it to you, I can't exactly remember the rights steps at the moment.

 

[Thetech]

I understand goku, I'm having some trouble myself, I'm trying to get the T.V out adjusted to look right on the t.v right now stuff is displaying split screen.