Need better video output quality

[Zod]

I'm not sure I am setting both these options correctly in my Nvidia drivers. Would you or anyone else happen to know what I need to set for this?

On the ATI Radeons, Video Mode can only be enabled at very low resolutions, specifically, 640x480 and 720x480. I would compare video mode to overlay mode on nVidia cards...it seems to pass the broadcast signal through to the display with the least processing done on it, and any processing done (saturation, brightness, etc.) is done directly on the video card (so it's fast). That said, I was still unable to get it working satisfactorily for Live TV on my Radeon 9250, it had some sort of interlacing synchronization problem that made fast moving scenes unwatchable. But it worked fine for recorded TV. I think the rough equivalent on an nVidia card would be to disable anti-flicker processing, set the resolution to 720x480 or 640x480, and set either "Full Screen" mode in TVTool or enable overscan. However, I never had any luck with the few nVidia cards I tried. It's all summarized in that thread I linked to before.

[Tiger11]

I don't know if this will be of help to you, but maybe you can go for something more basic, like the external VGA to TV adaptors? I used to have one of those for my old laptop, and I achieved great graphics; interlacing was no problem whatsoever, and fast scenes were watchable just like you are watching on your PC monitor.

I saw some on ebay and they were going for less than 30$. One of the annoying things about this solution is that you will have a bulky unit AND a bulcky adaptor, however, the newer ones are much smaller, and they use your PCs USB port for power. You can easily hide them behind the case.

[SLGF2A]

One workaround would be to use the DVD2MPEG plugin to make an MPEG of the movie and watch it through the 350. You lose the menus, surround sound, etc. but it is an option.

Personally, I don't think there is a substitute for a stand alone DVD player, especially with the prices on them these days.

Which reminds me, why is it you can get a DVD player (albeit a basic one) for $30 these days when the DVD movies themselves cost $20? Hmmmm....