VGA->tv converters

[stefan]

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of hardware? I have found an example:

http://www.grand.com.tw/en/product_form....lwk_page=1

What kind of trouble can I expect? =)

[betlit]

can't speak for this particular piece of hardware, but i saw two such products in action and the quality was equally bad as some graphics cards tv-out tend to deliver...

all blured 'n stuff.

[Clanky]

I've been thinking about making this cable which looks interesting

Another site with same/similar here

Diy converter box, if you are into or know someone whos into electronics

[stefan]

Just read up on it carefully before you make any cables of you your own. You will need a graphics crd that you can tweak the settings on in detail, so that you don't send your tv a feed that has potentially damaging resolution or refresh rate settings. Preferably you have a GC that is supported by Powerstrip. I don't, otherwise I would probably have tried something like that

[Clanky]

Preferably you have a GC that is supported by Powerstrip. I don't, otherwise I would probably have tried something like that

The cable sites specifically mention Radeon cards but the Powerstrip site says it supports a ''wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI X1800 and S3 Chrome 20. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP''

[stefan]

Ok, let me rephrase that... I do have an S3 on board card. Powerstrips supports it, but it cannot use all the power strip features. Specifically, Powerstrip cannot set custom refresh rates or timings on the S3 (if I remember correctly), which is what you need to be able to do in order not to get weird artefacts on your TV (or even destroy it...)

[jc8472]

Approx two weeks ago I purchased a grandtec pc to tv ez converter. The quality is pretty darn good, enough to rival my MediaMVP. It's best displaying video and HTPC PVR apps and the only real drawback is unpredictable "display tearing". Far better than any video card's tv-out port I've ever used. No more green tint problems as of now.

[folkboat]

OK.....you got me interested!!

Coupla questions:

- does the converter sharpen the PVR150's soft picture?
- are you outputing directly to the converter from your 5200 TV out?
- Grandtec site recommends 640X480 256 colors, is that what your using?
- refresh rates??
- underscan/overscan?

Been using a $20 ATI7000 card for TV out, tried a 5200 same result - soft picture overscans too big, underscans too small. We are talking old SD 27" TV's composite in..........all switching thru receivers (no S-Video).

Indeed the picture on our MVP's looks better (actually it looks like a standard old SD TV picture).

Finally you mentioned tearing........what exactly is that??

Thanks

[Remco]

...
Another site with same/similar here
...

I made a cable like this and it works great. It took me some time getting the right parameters in Powerstrip and first time connecting it to my TV gave me some sweaty hands. But video quality is great! Far more better than any Graphic-card-TV-Out i've ever seen.

[jc8472]

I believe the sharpness portion may depend on your video source and the pvr 150's inputs and your VGA out. It appears sharper than any other video cards i've used in my system, soft pictures are a pain. The connection order: vga cable from pc's vga port to the vga in to the converter, from there it is converted back to vga out in addition to svideo and composite (on most models). The tv out failed (crap crap crapulence) to function so this puppy picks up from where the unreliable 5200's tv out port took off. I use either 800x600 or 1024x768 32-bit mode, 60 hertz refresh rate. Using the 640x480 mode will yield underscan lines top and bottom.....annoying and yep it has the underscan/overscan feature to permit or dispel the underscan lines. I use a cheap $120 20" Durabrand Tv Set with the forward composite port input in conjunction with the pc to tv ez.

Display tearing basically appears as a thin rip in the picture, such as a bad refresh line that occasionally occurs in the MediaMVP after the OSD leaves the screen. Tearing also seems to be linked to HIGH ACTION SCENES (e.g Futurama, Appleseed,etc). Some pc to tv converters are prone to tearing except maybe the expensive ones.