whats the best tv out for home theater

[denpgeorge]

i have a geforce2mx with twinview in a dual celeron system setup in the living room. its used for playing dvd's right now. but we want to be able to surf the web painlessly from the couch, and have tivo functionality out of it also. basically a great home theater system. the tv out quality and color when watching dvd's sucks, and the picture is all squished in widescreen format... it really hurts, ive tried so much to get it right. its running winxp right now, and somehow i could swear it was better under both 2000 and 98. im not sure if its something im doing wrong, or its just that bad. its making use of the twinview feature, and connected straight to the tv with an svideo cable.

everything ive read about the 8500dv makes my mouth water, but its so much to pay. it seems like its the undisputed best card for tv out there is, but surely there has to be some competition for it. the remote seems very cool as well, but surely there has to be something similiar that can be had seperately. my roommates are talking all crazy about just giving in and buying a tivo and an actual dvd player, but its seems like such a sin. and even then we wont be able to browse the web, or get recorded shows over the network, etc... of course it would be a lot quiter in the living room without the constant hum of the dual fans... how cool would it be to build a customized embedded system that turns on instantly with all those features.... is that even doable? does anyone have the ultimate home theater setup? please give me some suggestions.

 

[masterc]

I know there is a program called TVTool, which may help you adjust your MX card a bit better.
Do a google search, you should be able to find it.

 

[Workin']

<< we want to be able to surf the web painlessly from the couch >>

NO tv-out solutin will give you that. Regular TV's just don't have the resolution to render text without fuzz.

 

[denpgeorge]

<< NO tv-out solutin will give you that. Regular TV's just don't have the resolution to render text without fuzz. >>



i know that cant be true, it must at least be possible or else how would television, movies, things we watch on tv everyday display text so clearly. it was my understanding that this was one of the big features in the radeon 8500 as well. text can actually look really really good out of my geforce2mx when you set a few settings and put the resolution down, so websurfing with respect to that isnt so bad really. the only pain is the control... a nice wireless keyboard, or a remote like the one that comes with the radeon would be perfect. the resolution changes whenever a dvd or anything media player plays. and it gets all squished after that.

i know somebody surely has to have the ultimate setup, id like to hear about it.

 

[Workin']

<< things we watch on tv everyday display text so clearly >>

Small text is often NOT readable on broadcast TV, etc. Most of the text you read on TV is absoultely huge compared to what your computer puts out. Also, that stuff was natively created as NTSC video or converted from film in a multimillion dollar studio - the (comparatively) pitiful scan converters in any graphics card just don't cut it. I've tried every TV-out there is, ATI is pretty good (the best, actually) but I would not want to surf the web using it's tv-out except in an emergency. But I guess some people are less picky than others. For playing DVD's or watching AVI's or playing MP3's or looking at pictures, it works quite well.

A manufacturer can say their product will make your dreams come true, but if you buy every marketing claim you must have just fallen off the turnip truck.

Remote control is easier - I use the X10 Mouse Remote and maX10 software for it, it works great.