TVout quality?

[Acanthus]

Simple question, whats the best PCI TVout card? I need the highest possible OUTPUT quality, My FX5600 VIVO and Ti4200 VIVO just cant get solid quality on the tvout lines, everything is blurry and looks washed out on captures. The challenge is i must be able to capture WHILE playing a title, i have 2 pcs at my disposal and the method i use now is running dual displays (monitor and TV) while capturing with the 2nd PC. Id like to use this same method but i need far better tvout quality (using Svideo and tried VGA, no discernable difference).

However, captures from other sources (like my xbox on my tv passthrough) look great and come out nearly exactly like the original. So im surmising that TVout is the issue.

 

[IeraseU]

That's an interesting question you pose there. Most of the HTPC guys that I have spoken to prefer ATI cards for video out. Matrox is another name that comes to mind for video/tv out. Being that you specifically stated you wanted something in a PCI interface, your choices may be somewhat limited.

 

[Matthias99]

The challenge is i must be able to capture WHILE playing a title

Is there something wrong with using FRAPS? That's probably your best choice if you want to capture video of on-screen action. No sense in piping it out over a crummy TV-out first...

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

The challenge is i must be able to capture WHILE playing a title

Is there something wrong with using FRAPS? That's probably your best choice if you want to capture video of on-screen action. No sense in piping it out over a crummy TV-out first...

Yep. Long as you've got the horsepower, use FRAPS.

But if you have to use TV-output, Matrox G400.

- M4H

 

[monzie]

How can your TV-out be the problem if you are capturing images from 'other sourcse' which look OK on the TV via the pc's TV-OUT?

100% confused by your question.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: monzie
How can your TV-out be the problem if you are capturing images from 'other sourcse' which look OK on the TV via the pc's TV-OUT?

100% confused by your question.

While his question was not all that clear, I think what he's trying to do is to run the TV-out of one system into the video-in of another system (so he can record the desktop/applications running on the first system as a video file). If he plugs other things (like his XBox) into the video capture card on the second system, the output looks OK, but the quality is not good when he's trying to record from the first system's video out.

At least, I *think* that's what his problem is. If so, he should use FRAPS to record the video directly on the first computer. You won't get a good quality TV-out of anything over 640x480, or maybe 800x600 (which still gets scaled to 480i resolution).

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: monzie
How can your TV-out be the problem if you are capturing images from 'other sourcse' which look OK on the TV via the pc's TV-OUT?

100% confused by your question.

While his question was not all that clear, I think what he's trying to do is to run the TV-out of one system into the video-in of another system (so he can record the desktop/applications running on the first system as a video file). If he plugs other things (like his XBox) into the video capture card on the second system, the output looks OK, but the quality is not good when he's trying to record from the first system's video out.

At least, I *think* that's what his problem is. If so, he should use FRAPS to record the video directly on the first computer. You won't get a good quality TV-out of anything over 640x480, or maybe 800x600 (which still gets scaled to 480i resolution).

Thats exactly what the problem is, the TVout quality of my FX5600 is trash. I can tell its not the recording device because things on the passthrough from the TV look great.

If i get a G400 for TVout, can i render with the FX5600 and still output to TV (as in cloning displays, one TV and one CRT)? Will i still get FX5600 speeds?

Fraps totally tanks the performance of almost all modern games (as in 75% loss in fps or more) on this system.

Rig:
Pentium 4 2.6C @ 3.46ghz
1024MB OCZ PC4200 gold @ PC4200 3-4-4-8
Asus Geforce FX5600 VIVO 128MB
Asus P4C800-E
Antec 550w PSU
Turtle Beach Riviera sound

 

[Acanthus]

bump

 

[Acanthus]

bump again.

 

[Peter]

No you can't mirror 3D rendering to a completely separate 2nd card. If you want better (and adjustable) TV-out, then you'll have to get an ATI card.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Peter
No you can't mirror 3D rendering to a completely separate 2nd card. If you want better (and adjustable) TV-out, then you'll have to get an ATI card.

Better as in, comparable to console output? or better as in pixel 356791 doesnt look as washed out.

 

[Acanthus]

ok lets take another route, what would reduce the enormous performance hit in fraps?

 

[Acanthus]

and bump again?