Recommendation on low profile video card

[ShiningDragon]

That makes me feel a little better. It's a Gateway with a Delta power supply. I got it for free so I can't complain, and it's been really good for GB-PVR. I was looking for S-Video out and then started looking at cards that support some sort of hardware MPEG (nVidia 5200's and up seem to support this fairly well with the reading I've done.)

The Question is: What is your primary?

The best TV-Out has the Matrox Cards.

The Ati-Cards do have a good S-Video out too

The NVIDIA Cards are known to be very stable. The FX were my last choose, better get an 6200 AGP, if your MoBo support's it.

The 6200 stay's cooler and need lesser Power, than the FX Generation.

[lond]

How high is the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150LP in mm?

//Marcus

[ShiningDragon]

How high is the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150LP in mm?

//Marcus

Good question, i found only this: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/...mcelp.html

[daphatty]

Unfortunately, I hit a bit of a snag - my low profile computer I'm using has only a 180W Power Supply. Just about any video card I've found requires at least a 250W - even some PCI cards. Ug. The only one I've found so far that will work in spec is a ATi Raedon 7000. Does anyone use that with GB-PVR? How is it? Any other suggestions?

Smajor - You've come to the right place!

For the past 12 months my HTPC was a Compaq Small Form Factor PC with a 175 watt PSU. I was able to safely run a GeForce 6200 and a WinTV PVR USB2 without a problem. It wasn't until I added the HD card that I started getting random reboots but only when I scheduled simulaneous recordings. I'd still be using that PC had it not been for the PVR-500's unusually large size (although I'm secretly aware that the PC would have started to reboot profusely with such a configuration).

As long as you don't overdo it, your free computer should be fine. Unfortunately, you will get addicted to this hobby and eventually end up upgrading your hardware like the rest of us have.

Oh, and don't buy the ATI 7000. It's a piece of crap. I know because that was the first card I purchased for the low profile case. MAJOR tearing and seaming occur on that card.

[smajor]

Oh, my system is full production - in the livingroom and, yes, I do want to upgrade. As for the question above of which is my primary video card, that would be the low profile one I'm looking to add. In fact, the sole output that would be in use would be the S-Video or RGB out (if I went with a card that offered that to my TV (just NTSC, no HD TV yet.)) VGA would NOT be attached to anything.

Reading, it sounds like I can make do with the 180W PowerSupply. The only thing it will be driving is the computer, a single HD, CD/DVD drive, and the video card. My tuner is a Hauppauge USB2, so that is external with it's own power supply.

[daphatty]

The only thing it will be driving is the computer, a single HD, CD/DVD drive, and the video card. My tuner is a Hauppauge USB2, so that is external with it's own power supply.

Ah, well then you can afford to splurge on your video card. Your eyes will thank you for it.

[Maelwys]

So I got my nVidia 6200 and installed it in my HTPC and it's humming along out in the living room. I have to say that it looks fantastic. Using S-Video out on the card to my SDTV the picture looks equally as good and in some cases better than my actual TV (I suspect that when I take the VCR out from between the cable and the TV my picture quality might improve there). Installation was easy, and the Leadtek card fit perfectly next to my PVR-250 in the Shuttle case. I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers from their site as well and they installed easily. The whole thing was damn near plug and play.

For GBPVR, I'm running the card using the VMR9 Custom Renderer with the nVidia decoder and ffdshow installed to play AVIs. AVI quality is superb (on well encoded AVIs that is), and the TV looks great, as do playbacks of recorded TV. My one complaint is that with a few channels the nVidia decoder seems to be sharpening the output a bit too far, so everything looks odd and seems to stutter a bit. It happens for example with programs on the Discovery Channel, but the commercials on Discovery are fine. Go figure.

The Leadtek card is passively cooled, so no extra noise, and runs very cool, about 40 C while watching TV/recordings. Also, the shuttle box I have has a 200 Watt PS and I'm running a P4 2 GHz and 2 Hard Drives on it, so the card doesn't seem to be drawing much. The only thing I haven't really tried yet is gaming on the card, and I probably won't... that's what the big office PC is for.

[nitrogen_widget]

Can someone in the know please explain to me how to use a Matrox with TV out?

From what I can gather, there are different 400 versions & you need a dual monitor version so you can plug a special VGA to S-video/component adaptor up to it.

but the adaptor only works with certain boards?

There are a lot of them on e-bay on the cheap.
I'm just confused on what to get.
I'm not worried about gaming, just a decent picture on my bedroom TV.
Right not i'm testing a radeon 7000.

but since its an old FIC SD-11 MB with a 750mhz CPU it took a bios upgrade to get it to boot with the radeon 7000.

Plus i'm concerned about AGP types & voltages.

The matrox are from the same generation as the SD-11 so I know it will work in that board.

[daphatty]

Can someone in the know please explain to me how to use a Matrox with TV out?

From what I can gather, there are different 400 versions & you need a dual monitor version so you can plug a special VGA to S-video/component adaptor up to it.

but the adaptor only works with certain boards?

There are a lot of them on e-bay on the cheap.
I'm just confused on what to get.
I'm not worried about gaming, just a decent picture on my bedroom TV.
Right not i'm testing a radeon 7000.

but since its an old FIC SD-11 MB with a 750mhz CPU it took a bios upgrade to get it to boot with the radeon 7000.

Plus i'm concerned about AGP types & voltages.

The matrox are from the same generation as the SD-11 so I know it will work in that board.

Might want to start your own thread on this one since your question is Manufacturer specific. It would help draw attention to your issue, especially since there may be few, if any, matrox users around here.