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Video Card Suggestion for multimedia PC

H

hevnsnt

Lifer
Hey all, just wondering what is the cheapest/best bang video card I should be looking for, for a Multimedia (tv) computer

1. Want High resolutions (not a hdtv)
2. No games, email, inet, dvd, divx, mp3 etc..
3. Needs svideo out

etc..

Thinking like a Geforce2 or 3, but I am not positive.. gimme some suggestions..
 
Actually, Matrox sounds like they'd be the best bet. They do high resolutions very well, handle TV out very well (clones, seperate displays, or full screened video). Thier dualhead cards come w/ a VGA-Svid+composite cable that handles the connection. ATI would be my second choice, but a bit distant.
 
GeForce3 or higher (NO MX cards) or a Radeon 8500 or higher. The 9100 and 9000 are pretty cheap and get a lot of bang for the buck.
 
I don't know what it takes, but my experiences with TV-Out on GF2 MX and GF3 were very disappointing (once on an older TV set and recently on a new set). Mainly, the image is blurry and color requires a lot of correction. For the record, I used TVTool, which supposedly optimizes TV out for GeForce cards.

Word is that GF4 TV-Out is much improved, but Radeon is still going to have better TV output. Choosing GF2 or GF3 for a HTPC is a risky bet at best.

I don't think high resolutions will matter since TV resolution is so low.
 
Radeon 9000PRO AIW? Has the power of the 9000 (not too bad), and TV capture and all that sort of stuff.
 
you can get an old radeon AIW for less than 100$. I have one, and it does fine, even for light gaming. If you have cable near the computer, you can keep up with baseball games, etc.....🙂
 
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Radeon 9000PRO AIW? Has the power of the 9000 (not too bad), and TV capture and all that sort of stuff.
Click to expand...


AIW9000 and AIW8500 are the same cards. (I've never heard of an AIW9000 though... just an AIW9700.) I believe that ATI went back to the analog tuners for the 9000 series AIWs. (THe 8500 has a chip tuner.)

 
If your not going to play games on it and want good image quality @ high res... don't waste your money on Geforce cards. They have the worst 2D compared to Matrox and ATI.

Matrox sounds like your best bet IMO. They have a card with S-video out (G450 eTV), but I dont know if its cheap for you or not. ATI is ok, but some people dont like their driver support (the RF remote is fscking awesome though).

Youcan get a cheap Geforce MX card with tv out and what not but it wont be as good as the Matrox when it comes to highres image quality. Most cards have DVD support these days, so I wouldnt worry about it.


I miss my G400 image quality. 🙁

JMHO.
 
Originally posted by: hevnsnt
Thanks guys.... Ati of Matrox.. hmm
Click to expand...

If you can return it, try the Radeon AIW 7500. I think its cheaper then the Matrox and have good 2d quality. If you dont have a problem with the drivers etc... then it'd be a good card.

I was going to buy this card, but some people said they had problems with getting TV out and drivers to work. Plus some had bad experience with drivers for other radeon cards. Just search around and you might find it here.
 
Matrox has excellent 2d quality, but its better suited for a 2d workstation. Nvidia isn't known to pair up with high quality ramdacs...

For your needs, I'd strongly suggest a Radeon 9000 or 9500...
 
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