Advice needed on new card for widescreen HDTV & DVD out

[McQualude]

I currently have a Geforce Ti4200 which I am mostly happy with but it
doesn't support widescreen tv out, only 4:3.

My priorities for the new card would be:
1: High Quality HDTV/DVD widescreen out, so component or DVI out
[I think ATI makes an adaptor for this]
2: Price
3: Gaming

My rig is a Dell Optiplex, P4 2.43 Ghz, 512MB RAM...

I currently have no problems playing HD, even 1080i plays smoothly, but it
only outputs at fullscreen which forces me to zoom it up on my HDTV which
doesn't look very good.

 

[J. Clarke]

I currently have a Geforce Ti4200 which I am mostly happy with but it
doesn't support widescreen tv out, only 4:3.

My priorities for the new card would be:
1: High Quality HDTV/DVD widescreen out, so component or DVI out
[I think ATI makes an adaptor for this]
2: Price
3: Gaming

My rig is a Dell Optiplex, P4 2.43 Ghz, 512MB RAM...

I currently have no problems playing HD, even 1080i plays smoothly, but it
only outputs at fullscreen which forces me to zoom it up on my HDTV which
doesn't look very good.

 

[McQualude]

Try Powerstrip on it--<http://www.entechtaiwan.net/ps.htm>.

The card doesn't support widescreen out, no software program is going to
change that.

 

[J. Clarke]

The card doesn't support widescreen out, no software program is going to
change that.

So you've tried setting it to 1920x1080 or whatever the particular display
is using?

 

[McQualude]

So you've tried setting it to 1920x1080 or whatever the particular
display is using?

Yes, it won't allow me to set it at that resolution because my monitor
doesn't support it. Once I switch to TV mode, it doesn't allow me to go
over 1024x768 @ 60hz. The drivers have no support for HDTV resolutions in
TV mode. It would be nice if there were options other than NTSC and PAL.

Every resolution I've tried, including derivatives of 1920x1080 & 1280x720
output in letterbox. If there is a way for Powerstrip to make it work, I'm
all ears [or eyes, as it were].

 

[J. Clarke]

So you've tried setting it to 1920x1080 or whatever the particular
display is using?

Yes, it won't allow me to set it at that resolution because my monitor
doesn't support it. Once I switch to TV mode, it doesn't allow me to go
over 1024x768 @ 60hz. The drivers have no support for HDTV resolutions in
TV mode. It would be nice if there were options other than NTSC and PAL.

Every resolution I've tried, including derivatives of 1920x1080 & 1280x720
output in letterbox. If there is a way for Powerstrip to make it work, I'm
all ears [or eyes, as it were].

Just to be sure we're on the same wavelength, are you using DVI, Component,
S-Video, or Composite video? If you're using DVI or Component you should
be able to get the wide screen modes--if you're using S-Video or Composite
there are no wide-screen modes defined in the standard--to get wide screen
displays via those connections you have to generate an anamorphic or
letterboxed image and then have the TV scale it to full screen if it can.
You may need a transcoder to get from VGA to component if your board
doesn't have DVI or your set won't take DVI from your board (some sets are
picky that way).

The only way that a new board is going to help you is if you get one that
can output component video with a cheap dongle instead of a transcoder--a
transcoder goes for $100-150, a board with the same performance as your
Ti4200 that also does component video with a dongle will cost about the
same plus another 30 bucks or so for the dongle.

 

[McQualude]

The only way that a new board is going to help you is if you get one
that can output component video with a cheap dongle instead of a
transcoder--a transcoder goes for $100-150, a board with the same
performance as your Ti4200 that also does component video with a
dongle will cost about the same plus another 30 bucks or so for the
dongle.

Which leaves us at my original question...

 

[J. Clarke]

Which leaves us at my original question...

And my original answer. Powerstrip doesn't cost anything except the
download time as long as you're willing to put up with about a 15 second
nag screen at bootup. Give it a try. If it doesn't work in your
particular circumstances, _then_ worry about a new board. Whatever board
you have you're probably going to end up using Powerstrip to set the
correct resolution, so you may as well try it with the board you have
first.

If you're bound and determined to get a new board specifically to support
HDTV then get a Radeon 9600 or 9800 and then send ATI the 30 bucks for the
component dongle. And download Powerstrip--you're still going to need it.

 

[McQualude]

And my original answer. Powerstrip doesn't cost anything except the
download time as long as you're willing to put up with about a 15
second nag screen at bootup. Give it a try. If it doesn't work in
your particular circumstances, _then_ worry about a new board.
Whatever board you have you're probably going to end up using
Powerstrip to set the correct resolution, so you may as well try it
with the board you have first.

I don't know how many ways to tell you, Powerstrip did nothing to solve
the problem and actually caused my TV output to be off center. It's what I
said in the beginning, no software can give a video card widescreen
support if the hardware doesn't support it.

If you're bound and determined to get a new board specifically to
support HDTV then get a Radeon 9600 or 9800 and then send ATI the 30
bucks for the component dongle. And download Powerstrip--you're
still going to need it.

If I still need Powerstrip, then those cards do not support HDTV output.
Basically, you don't know shit.

 

[J. Clarke]

I don't know how many ways to tell you, Powerstrip did nothing to solve
the problem and actually caused my TV output to be off center. It's what I
said in the beginning, no software can give a video card widescreen
support if the hardware doesn't support it.

Powerstrip has numerous adjustments--if your output was off-center then you
needed to make the appropriate adjustments. The learning curve for
Powerstrip is not low.

If I still need Powerstrip, then those cards do not support HDTV output.
Basically, you don't know shit.

Fine, figure it out for yourself. Mine's working, yours isn't, so I'm going
to go watch HDTV.