Incredible difference: Nvidia versus ATI

[nitrogen_widget]

ubu - I think that was where I got my adaptor from.
I was actually looking for the place online for you while I was at work but couldn't remember.

I bought that & I put it on my sapphire 9550.
Latest catalyst driver's.
When you get it, do yourself a favor & either have a second monitor hooked up or something like tight vnc running from the start then just run the HDTV wizard & choose your res.

Also, the driver's are darn near impossible to adjust at that resolution.

To be honest I didn't even have to adjust the picture's position or overscan. I did have freq. problems & had to reboot a number of times till I got it right.


ON a side note, I've got an older 750mhz cpu pc i'm using for play back.
was getting tearing with a radeon 7000 & random crashes so I went to win 2000 & put in an asus v7100 all in one it's gf2 mx 400.
The playback was smooth with overlay but the card won't output to tv unless I use asus' 3 yr old driver's.

I put in my gf fx5200 & even though cpu was was %50 no matter what I did video would freez & start back up every few seconds.

I went back to the radeon 7000 & played around with different versions of chipset drivers & that seemed to get it going with tv out.

Any idea why the 5200 would stutter like that? Could it of been the slow agp speed?

[csy]

csy & nitrogen_widget - thanks for the feedback. I've just found a component dongle for $12 which makes it a no-brainer decision. Are you guys using the original one that came with your card or did you buy from an after-market vendor?

Actually I'm using component out on my Nvidia 6600GT which comes supplied with dongle. I have not tried component out on my ATI 9550 because ATI don't support PAL on their component output.

If you are going to purchase an ATI component adapter, make sure you get the correct type for your card.

[GoodGuys]

I have almost given up on the nVidia card too. I have an X850XT on the gaming rig, and will simply swap them around for a couple of days to see how the ATI works out...

GGF

[ubu]

If you are going to purchase an ATI component adapter, make sure you get the correct type for your card.

Looks like the ATI adapter (irrespective of vendor) supports all ATI 8500 thru 9800 series cards. So probably I just need to worry about setting it up right.

I've got an older 750mhz cpu pc i'm using for play back............
I went back to the radeon 7000 & played around with different versions of chipset drivers & that seemed to get it going with tv out.

I've got an old PIII laptop (700mhz I think) which I use as a remote web stream player for my UbuRemote application (see signature below). I've got it hooked up to a TV via the S-video on its on-board ATI video (Mobility Rage, I think) and it gives me a pretty decent picture and plays web video streams flawlessly without clocking too much CPU. My current PVR setup with P4 and Nvidia Ti4200 (see signature) clocks 80-100% CPU fairly regularly just watching live TV with GBPVR. Go figure!:confused:

So I'm switching to ATI to see if it uses less CPU as well as giving me a better picture. I was just about to order the 9550 when I saw a Sapphire 9600 128mb 128 bit passive card on sale at newegg. (It's a refurbished OEM model but, hey, it's cheap - $39). If nothing else it will certainly be quiet (and probably run so hot I'll have to add another case fan to make it noisy again ).

Any idea why the 5200 would stutter like that? Could it of been the slow agp speed?

One thing I've got out of this whole thread (and similar ones I've read) is that faster/newer/costlier cards don't always produce better results for HTPC apps. I wonder if the key here is balancing components - so an older mobo running a slower CPU with a slower AGP might handshake better with the 7000 than the higher tech 5200. Just a thought.

[csy]

Looks like the ATI adapter (irrespective of vendor) supports all ATI 8500 thru 9800 series cards. So probably I just need to worry about setting it up right.

Actually quoting ATI website:
Special VGA to YPrPb Adapter (black, P/N 151-V01094) is for use with Radeon® 8500 class graphics boards. This includes:
Radeon® 8500 (64MB)
Radeon® 8500 (128 MB)
Radeon® 8500LE (128MB)
All-in-Wonder® Radeon® 9600 Series
Special DVI-I to YPrPb Adapter (Purple, P/N 151-V01093) is for use with the following graphics boards:
Radeon® 9800 series
Radeon® 9700 series
Radeon® 9600 series
Radeon® 9500 series
All-in-Wonder® Radeon® 8500DV (64MB)
All-in-Wonder® Radeon® 8500 (128MB)
Special ATI YPrPb Cable (Red, P/N 6110012000W) is for use with the following graphics boards:
All-in-Wonder® Radeon® 9800 Series
All-in-Wonder® Radeon® 9700 Series

[SirJYK]

I used to run a Geforce4 mx-440 with no problems. However, the last software upgrade on GBPVR was too much for the Pentium II-550 overclocked to 850Mhz. I had to upgrade my hardware.

[nitrogen_widget]

I used to run a Geforce4 mx-440 with no problems. However, the last software upgrade on GBPVR was too much for the Pentium II-550 overclocked to 850Mhz. I had to upgrade my hardware.

That's strange.
I actually found the opposite.
The latest version of GBPVR seems to boot up quicker & has a more responsive menu on my 750mhz athlon.

I have rebuilt the PC between the last version & now so it's possible I had something installed incorrectly but I don't think so.

however, I only will be using this PC for playback of recorded media so my plug-in list is chopped down.

[jimmy_is_great]

I had problems with the TV output from my ATI 9600XT using an S video cable I was getting tearing vsync problems but I read a tip about changing the TV in the catalyst Control centre to be the primary display output and the monitor if you have one to be the secoundry output. A good test to see if this has worked is watch a video with rapid full screen black to white light changes ie firework explosions, if before you had horizontal banding of the picture it should be perfect after the change.

[Zato]

Hey Ubu,

I'm dying to hear how your changes worked out. I'm almost in the exact situation you were, and debating course of action. Running a 4200ti but trying to find a cheap alternative to give better framerate and picture quality on the TV out.

[ubu]

Hey Ubu,

I'm dying to hear how your changes worked out. I'm almost in the exact situation you were, and debating course of action. Running a 4200ti but trying to find a cheap alternative to give better framerate and picture quality on the TV out.

Check out this thread where I continue my endless saga in pursuit of the perfect picture. Long story short, I tried an ATI card to replace my 4200ti but it didn't play nice with my motherboard. So I ended up with a 6200 (one with a component adapter - cheap from newegg) and, thanks to all the advice I got from csy in that thread, I'm looking at a really sharp, clear picture on my SDTV. As good as my tv tuner.