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I need a video card with a good TV-out

Allnatural

Allnatural

New member
Moderator
I want to build a second PC, an "emulation box" for my entertainment center.:colgate: I need a video card that has a high quality TV-out and is emulation-friendly of course. I tried using the the TV-out on my Visiontek GF3 recently, but the quality was absolutely terrible. I don't know if it was the Conexant tv chip on the card, or the fact that I was using an S-video to composite adapter (old television). My desktop was a blurry, unreadable mess, and games were little better.:(

Any suggestions?
 
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Slougi

New member
Well, except Ati's Radeon line there is not much choice at the moment. I would wait a few months and see what Matrox' Parhelia card has to offer. Supposedly it will be very fast and feature packed, but also quite expensive. But image quality has always been best with Matrox cards.

Currently the best choices prolly would be Radeon 7500/8500, maybe the All-in-Wonder model. If you want to use it just for emulation the 7500 is more than enough, but the 8500 comes with a remote control :p Very handy to use from the coutch ;)

Edit: Made post slightly clearer.
 
OP
Allnatural

Allnatural

New member
Moderator
I had considered the All-in-Wonder, but I've used a Radeon before, and ATi's driver history frightens me.:eek:

Oh, have to correct you, the 7500 also includes a remote.:colgate:

Anyone use nVidia's Personal Cinema? How does it compare to the All-in-Wonder? I've read some reviews for both, but the reviewers never mention how the desktop and games look on a television.
 
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Slougi

New member
Forget TV-Out on all current nVidia cards, the quality plain sucks. This is due to bad driver implementation. There is a shareware program called TV-Tool that helps with this tho, it lets you at least resize the TV-Out picture output. It doesn't help with the blurryness unfotunately.
Ati's latest drivers for the Radeon are actually very good, and new drivers are released almost every week. The biggest problems have been solved. From what I hear the only big bug left is the broken DVD-player, but I guess you can always use PowerDVD or something.
 
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Slougi

New member
Allnatural said:
Oh, have to correct you, the 7500 also includes a remote.:colgate:
Click to expand...
Cool, I didn't realize this :) Thanks for pointing it out.

Edit: Does the remote that comes with the 7500 use radio waves also or is it an infrared unit? Radio waves are cool cause that way you can hide the pc somewhere ;)

Edit #2: The 8500 comes with a remote that uses radio waves.
 
OP
Allnatural

Allnatural

New member
Moderator
Slougi said:
Does the remote that comes with the 7500 use radio waves also or is it an infrared unit?
Click to expand...
The 7500 also has an RF remote.:)

No need for me to hide the PC though; I plan to use a small desktop case, a black one that will match the components of my entertainment center.:cool:
 
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Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
You can get a good Geforce of any flavour with good TV-Out. That one of the advatages that Nvidia gets from letting other comanies design the cards for their chipsets. But the quality of the TV out depends on the card's manufacturer. You need to find a manufacturer that modifies the detonator drivers themselves for their own cards. I know PNY does this, but thier TV out implementation isnt too good. If your willing to pay for it, Guillemot is the best.
 
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Slougi

New member
Eagle said:
You can get a good Geforce of any flavour with good TV-Out. That one of the advatages that Nvidia gets from letting other comanies design the cards for their chipsets. But the quality of the TV out depends on the card's manufacturer. You need to find a manufacturer that modifies the detonator drivers themselves for their own cards. I know PNY does this, but thier TV out implementation isnt too good. If your willing to pay for it, Guillemot is the best.
Click to expand...
Sorry to say this, but that info is wrong. There is no geforce with even decent TV-out. The tv-out drivers are flawed, and nvidia does not disclose the source to anyone, and as such the manufacturers can't do anything about it.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
Slougi said:

Sorry to say this, but that info is wrong. There is no geforce with even decent TV-out. The tv-out drivers are flawed, and nvidia does not disclose the source to anyone, and as such the manufacturers can't do anything about it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to say this, but that info is wrong. I'm using a specially modified driver based on the Nvidia Dets created specifically for my video card manufacturer. If you don't believe me, download them yourself at www.pny.com I use version 21.88 (which was never a normal Nvidia release) They are out of date compared to the current Nvidia drivers but the TV-Out works just fine with them, though I think it could still be better, it works better than with normal detonator drivers. Other manufacturers have drivers customized for their cards as well, I know they do Ive seen them.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
Well, now that I looked, it seems they have stopped offering them on the website, but heres a screenshot of them proving I have a version number other than those released by Nvidia. Unfortunately thats all the proof I can offer. I guess you'll just have to believe me. But like I said, with these drivers, the video out works fine.
 
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