S-video to RCA cable-radeon 9600pro

[postaldave]

i'm wanting to to be able to see my pc desktop on the TV. the pvr-350 card doesn't allow that. when i hook up the radeon up it does a great job of viewing liveTV. i've hooked it via a S-video to RCA cable. by doing this it allows me to go without a monitor so i can make this a dedicated box like you would a mythtv setup. the redeon has a Svideo output but my TV doesn't have that input.

the problem is the desktop computer stuff looks like crap.

1.would a vga to rca cable work better?

2.is there any other way, hardware or software to break the ties to the monitor so that i can have a real dedicated PVR box?

3.would buying a tv with Svideo input fix this problem?

[Zod]

the problem is the desktop computer stuff looks like crap.

1.would a vga to rca cable work better?

Probably not, especially since you'd still be shoving the signal through the lowest quality video connector (RCA). You're just seeing the standard picture degradation associated with viewing a computer desktop on a TV, compounded by viewing it through the composite connector. Here's more information than you would ever need about the details:
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circu...iques.html

2.is there any other way, hardware or software to break the ties to the monitor so that i can have a real dedicated PVR box?

You could use terminal services/remote desktop or VNC to access your system remotely from another computer...that would reduce your need for a computer display. To improve the desktop's display on a TV, you could try lowering the resolution of your desktop. You could also play with the video-related tweaks available in your video card drivers, like anti-flicker, overscan, etc. But the best (and most expensive) way to improve the TV picture would be to get a TV that accepts a higher-quality signal. S-video would be noticeably better than the composite RCA, but it'd still be quite blurry. Component video would be even better, but you'd need a special converter for that (I think one is available for the Radeon All-in-wonder cards?), and again, since it's converting the signal, it'd still be blurry. The best would be an HDTV that accepts a DVI input, which you could connect directly to a DVI output from any decent modern video card (perhaps including your own). Of course, then you're basically just connecting your computer to a monitor.

I'm personally using an S-Video connector to connect to a 55" Sony SDTV projection television. Even a regular VCR would probably produce a higher-quality playback image than the PVR does, but it's good enough for my needs.

3.would buying a tv with Svideo input fix this problem?

See above.