TV out from ATi HD3000 MB chipset?

[mikeford]

I have a Biostar TA760GM2+ motherboard with onboard ATi HD3000 graphics chips, and SVGA and DVI ports on the back. My current old TV only supports composite and S-video, and "maybe" my receiver will accept component and convert. I've googled everything I can think of, searched AMD, ATi, and Biostar web sites, and found ZERO specific info on supporting TV out.

760G chipset is the ATi Radeon HD3000, and it appears to support TV out in all the usual formats, but details of what are left to Biostar, and nether have any info on adapters or how to connect.

Plenty of places sell SVGA to S-video adapters, but at least some warn about using them with ATi. Many places sell the ATi DVI to component adapter with dip switches to set resolution, but they say only for use with older 8500dv to 9800 cards.

Eventually I will use DVI, but for at least six months or so I want to keep using my old TV, and I would really like to keep the expense down, and not buy some short term low end card. Win7 seems to have a handy mode, projector, for adding a second display. Looking around in the display properties it will only list resolutions supported by my LCD monitor, so no clues from that.

Any suggestions?

Pretty good info in this link, but references either a 7 or 9 pin connection supported on some cards, not my motherboard.
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/737-22077HowtoEnableTVOutonRadeonX1000SeriesProducts.aspx

 

[Rifter]

I would try a VGA to Svideo adaptor, that should work.

 

[NoQuarter]

I don't believe any modern boards will output the Y/C S-video signal or the composite signal (RCA) over an adapter. Course the adapter is only a few bucks on monoprice so you could test it out if you want but everything I've read says it doesn't work on newer cards especially IGPs (cost cutting measure). They do have active VGA->S-Video converters for about $26 that would definitely work though.

If your receiver has Component in and S-Video out I'd imagine it does the conversion like you suspect, so you may just want to get a VGA->Compenent adapter and go through the receiver. That would be cheaper than the $26 adapter, and fairly likely to work. If you have an Xbox 360 or something you should be able to test it pretty easily though before you order anything.

Another option would be to get a cheap All-In-Wonder or tv capture card, or an older used video card that does handle S-Video over VGA or has an S-Video port..

 

[mikeford]

Same situation with component as S-video adapters, ATi has nothing for current chips that connect to SVGA or DVI, only to special 7 or 9 pin connectors found on some cards. For the older cards there are two different incompatible component adapters.

I'm still looking, thinking I may just use some older PCI video card with S-video out for now.

 

[ViRGE]

I'm still looking, thinking I may just use some older PCI video card with S-video out for now.

At this point, that's your best option. HD3000 series mobos don't have a TV encoder chip on their package, so they have absolutely no way to encode composite/S-Video/component (and in turn many of these cheap adapters are meant for devices that have a chip and pass those signals over extra VGA pins). Your options boil down to either using an active adapter that does VGA/DVI to S-Video/Composite/Component, or using an external card. An external card is a safer bet since active adapters can be picky (even if in principle they're sound).

 

[mikeford]

Found some new Radeon X1300 PCI cards on ebay, $11 shipped. Support under Win7 looks a little dodgy, but apparently vista 64 drivers with latest Catalyst software works. Not what I want long term, noisy fan, uses up a slot, makes heat, etc, but with a touch of postal luck I will have this box working this weekend.