Good budget card with good quality TV-out?

[Jimi Hullegård]

Hi

Can anyone recomend a good videocard with a good quality TV-out?
I'm gonna use the computer for simple stuff (like surf, email) and watch
DivX/DVD on the TV using a TV-out.

I'm not gonna play any games with the computer. But I want the TV-out to
have good quality. So if I'm watching a DVD thrue the tv-out I want it close
to the same quality as if I would watch on a DVD directly attached to the
TV.

Are there any cards like that in the budget price range? I'm talking about
$50-80.

Regards
/Jimi

 

[Graham]

I have one PC hooked up to my TV for use as a 'media center'. What you need
is an older card with a proper TV out chip like Brooktree or Chrontel or
Philips. The latest cards from Nvidia have an on-board chip that is not as
good.
So you would be looking at Geforce 2 or 3 in your price range- I use a 2MX
on my TV-PC.
Add to this TVtool from www.tvtool.de to manipulate the TV picture, and use
Nvidia drivers 40.72 or earlier as they do not have macrovision protection
(which stops watching DVD on TV) and you should have a perfect set-up for
what you want to do.

 

[Rick]

I would not get a Geforce 2 card for the TV-Out aspect. Many of them just
did not work, and some would only work with third party software like TV
Tool. My high end at the time Hercules Prophet II would not work TV Tool or
not! Second, you do not need a TV tuner unless you want to watch TV on your
computer, it has nothing to do with the TV-Out.

Any of the ATI cards that have TV-Out work great for what you want. I've had
about 12 different ones and they've all worked flawlessly. We use the
7000-7200's at work for our classrooms to display on 52" TV's. This is all
you need...
Connect3D Radeon 7000 Video Card / 64MB DDR / AGP / TV Out $29.99 after
rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6
12131&Sku=C261-6005&CatId=1088

Just cut and paste the url if it wraps. There are several other ATI chipset
versions at Tiger Direct for you to check out.

Bye, Rick

 

[Dave]

For what it's worth,i use a dedicated Creative Encore DXR3 decoder card,i
hook this up to my TV and the picture quality's great.

Just another option you could try...it saved me a lot of messing around..

 

[Jimi Hullegård]

I would not get a Geforce 2 card for the TV-Out aspect. Many of them
just did not work, and some would only work with third party software
like TV Tool. My high end at the time Hercules Prophet II would not
work TV Tool or not! Second, you do not need a TV tuner unless you
want to watch TV on your computer, it has nothing to do with the
TV-Out.

Any of the ATI cards that have TV-Out work great for what you want.
I've had about 12 different ones and they've all worked flawlessly.
We use the 7000-7200's at work for our classrooms to display on 52"
TV's. This is all you need...

Thanks for the tip.

Connect3D Radeon 7000 Video Card / 64MB DDR / AGP / TV Out $29.99
after rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6
12131&Sku=C261-6005&CatId=1088

Well, I live in Sweden, so I can't use the rebate. But I have found decent
prices (about $50) here.
So you think I should choose the 64MB DDR? Going down to 32MB DDR instead
isn't worth the $13 price difference?

Jimi

 

[J. Clarke]

For what it's worth,i use a dedicated Creative Encore DXR3 decoder card,i
hook this up to my TV and the picture quality's great.

Just another option you could try...it saved me a lot of messing around..

I thought the DXR3 was a DVD decoder board. Can it also display the Windows
desktop on the TV?

 

[Thomas]

For what it's worth,i use a dedicated Creative Encore DXR3 decoder
card,i hook this up to my TV and the picture quality's great.

<completely off topic, sorry>

I have one too, of the original manufacture (Hollywood something?). But; 30%
of my LEGAL DVD's won't play. They sometimes play the openic credits, but
crash when they enter the menu... Any experience with this, or an idea on
how to fix it?

Thomas

 

[nobody]

If you don't care about games but want a pristine 2D display with the
best and easiest to use TV out then get a Matrox G450 dual head either
PCI or AGP. Once installed go into dual head setup and enable DVD
MAX.. Once enabled any thing you watch, DVD, TV, mpg file will
automatically be outputed to your TV perfectly and it will look like
the best stand alone DVD player.

 

[Dave]

around..

I thought the DXR3 was a DVD decoder board. Can it also display the Windows
desktop on the TV?

Yep,it's a dedicated board.I don't think it can do the Windows desktop,but
for DVD quality TV it works ok.

 

[Jimi Hullegård]

If you don't care about games but want a pristine 2D display with the
best and easiest to use TV out then get a Matrox G450 dual head either
PCI or AGP. Once installed go into dual head setup and enable DVD
MAX.. Once enabled any thing you watch, DVD, TV, mpg file will
automatically be outputed to your TV perfectly and it will look like
the best stand alone DVD player.

hmm... twice the price as the Connect3D Radeon 7000 64MB DDR, atleast here
in Sweden.

Jimi

 

[Rick]

If you're sure you won't be playing any games on it, I can't see why the
32MB SDR or DDR version wouldn't be just as good for what you want. The
faster and larger quantity of memory on the 64MB DDR would only make texture
transfers faster.

bye, Rick

 

[Mike T]

I have tested these cards for TV out performance using TV test signals
played from a DVD disk. ATI AIW 8500DV, Nvidia TI4200 and a Matrox G450.

The Matrox is by FAR the best TV out, nearly perfect TV test signal
playback. It will also play full screen with small overscan which the other
cards will not.

The ATI has low resolution and some artifacts and will NOT fill the screen.

The Nvidia has better resolution than ATI and no artifacts and will also NOT
play full screen.

I did not try using PowerStrip or TVTools, as I wanted to test with the
supplied software of each card. In any case, the lower resolution of the
ATI and Nvidia would probably not be helped with this software.

Matrox has poor 3D game performance if this is a need.

I play the cards on a HDTV 50 inch DLP screen and the picture quality when
playing video files is clearly better using the Matrox G450, the G550 should
be similar in performance.

Mike T