Video card recommendation

[jmontana]

My current setup is a Dell Dimension 4600C (P4 2.4 GHz, with 512 MB RAM) running XP. I've got a PVR150 for capture, and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro All-in-Wonder. The AIW came with the PC, and is what I'm currently using for TV-OUT. I am running this into an ancient CRT TV that only has coax, so it's running from S-Video on the AIW to an RF modulator, and out to the TV.

I know this is a pretty ghastly setup.

I'm happy with the PVR150. My issue is with the video quality on the TV. I realize that the RF modulator is degrading the signal. I'm wondering if upgrading the video card would make any difference. 95% of the time, video is perfectly watchable. It's just sometimes things are blurry enough that we can't read things on-screen like a handwritten note or a newspaper, for example.

We don't have the budget to upgrade to a new TV, so that's out of the question. I'm perfectly okay hearing "you're SOL" but I'd like to know if anyone has any suggestions?

Thanks!

[mikeh49]

I'd be surprised if a different video card would help. The Radeon 9000 should be OK for analog TV (a Geforce 6200 worked fine for me). I think you're on the right track "blaming" the RF modulator. Without a composite or S-video input to the TV, you're almost certainly stuck with the modulator; I've never seen a video card with RF out. You could try adjusting the PVR150 settings for sharpness, contrast, etc to get a better picture. You can set a few things in GBPVR's direct.ini file. Change the value from AUTO to a number. You can also load the PVR150 capture filter in graphedit, open the properties, and adjust more settings from there. There was a recent post in the NPVR forum that provided some additional help on this. To access the properties, you'll need proppage.dll registered. You can google on this to find the file, it doesn't come with XP.

[jmontana]

This is what I was afraid of. It's not just the PVR150 recordings. It's anything I output from the PC to the TV, (DVD, AVis, etc.) so those instructions, while very helpful, are probably not relevant to me.

Is there such a thing as a higher-quality RF modulator? I'm currently using a Radio Shack model. Am I just grasping at straws at this point?

[mikeh49]

There probably is a decent quality modulator, the question is how many you have to buy to find it. It might be cheaper to get a later model analog CRT TV with s-video input. Craig's List is full of them around here. You probably could find something decent for $50.

[dwpoet]

I have 3 Channel Vision modulators, 2 model 1UB/UHF (1 channel) and 1 model 3UB/UHF (3 channel). I don't recall what they cost, but were reasonable on Ebay. The outputs are combined and feed an analog TV. The video from all sources is fine.

[nitrogen_widget]

How big is the TV?
I got a no-name brand convertor from Big lots! for $12 that works just fine on my little 20 inch TV.
If the picture is going it could just be the TV.

You can probably pick up an LCD computer monitor fairly cheap to use as a TV instead of dropping $50 for a better convertor.