tv out problems

[yg17]

I saw this thingy at Walmart that connects to your TV and lets you switch between different input sources. so if you have multiple video game sources you could switch between them. I saw it could take svideo as a source, so I bought it thinking I could plug in my computer as a source (it has tv out using svideo) and connect the switcher to my tv using RCA jacks and use my TV as a monitor, since my TV doesnt have svideo in.

I went into the display control panel to enable TV Out, but the little button to turn it on was disabled and I couldnt click on it. The card is a Radeon 7500. Any ideas? Thanx

 

[Workin']

If the switcher you bought doesn't convert the s-video signal to a composite signal then it will not work as you expect. And switches that also do the conversion are not too common, but they are available. Which is what I suspect the problem is, since when the TV-out stuff is disabled that usually means the video card doesn't think there's a TV connected.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Another thing to consider is the precise TVout implimentation used. If your card is not a true ATI (true ATI are 'built' not 'powered by ATI') there may be a possibility that it uses an implimentation which doesn't work with all drivers, particularly the standard chipset drivers from ATI, you may have to check the manu of your card's website and install their latest drivers for your card. Worth a try in any case. I don't know if this is the case for Radeon cards, non-ATI builds certainly have complicated matters, but this is true for some GF3 cards where you need the manu not nVidia drivers installed if you want to use the TVout. HTH!

 

[rbV5]

TV-out is embedded in the core of the 7500 GPU, the implementation is the same whether its "built by" or "powered by", if the driver works, so should tv-out.

Workin' is right, You might try just hooking straight to a TV or VCR first just to verify that TV out indeed works, but I suspect it just may not work with that particular device. I have used a regular RF adaptor from radio shack that worked fine.

 

[Doh!]

Agree w/ Workin' & rbV5. Watching a divx on a 32'' flatscreen Samsung is really great (much better than any svcd or vcd movies).

On a side note, it appears that using a monitor cable if the TV has a 15-pin monitor plug (which my TV has) gives much better picture than using a s-video cable.

 

[yg17]

nope, all my TV has is coaxil fo cable TV and AV inputs.

Now whats this RF thingy you're talking about?

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'm sure it has other terms, particularly outside the UK, but RF is just the standard TV lead which comes from your aerial and goes from your VCR to TV etc.