HDTV output through S-Video, Possible?

[CaptainVideo]

After going through some posts here it seems conventional wisdom that Stateside HDTV *IS* possible with GB-PVR but that you can only watch it on a PC monitor.

Is this because most VGA cards' S-Video output craps out above 480p? Won't it scale down to full screen? (my Matrox G550 may be different).

Will 720p programming work at 800x600? Or will the tops and bottoms be shaved off? Would fdshow work to scale HDTV down?

As a last-ditch effort to get HDTV through S-Video and GB-PVR, has anyone developed a way to convert HDTV program streams to standard NTSC-sized MPEG2 files automatically?

I realize I'm not going to get HDTV quality, but anything beats analog NTSC (Never Twice the Same Color).

Thanks for your help!

[sub]

After going through some posts here it seems conventional wisdom that Stateside HDTV *IS* possible with GB-PVR but that you can only watch it on a PC monitor.

You can also watch it on your TV, but you need to connect to your TV using either component video, DVI or VGA.

Is this because most VGA cards' S-Video output craps out above 480p? Won't it scale down to full screen? (my Matrox G550 may be different).

You cant use S-Video to pass HDTV signals, but still able to watch HDTV video...it obviously wont be HDTV when shown on your TV. It'll just be like watching regular NTSC on your TV out.

[CaptainVideo]

Excellent!! Thanks for the fast reply. Has anyone compiled a list of GB-PVR compatible HDTV cards? Some are quite cheap ($70) and I may want to buy one before our Congress gets back to demanding that copy protection flag.

[-stattik-]

The DVICO Fusion cards are supported. I don't have an HDTV but even downconverted HDTV looks better than regular NTSC programs on my RPTV.

[zed]

How do you do the down-conversion? And how is your TV connected?

[-stattik-]

My PC is connected to the TV via s-video from a GeforceMX400. The resolution on the PC is 800x600. This is what I believe happens when I play any source including HDTV. Perhaps Sub or someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

GBPVR starts and fills the screen at 800x600. Any program started will be stretched to 800x600 as well. The svideo output of the MX400 downconverts everything to NTSC resolution (roughly 480x440 viewable).

So that means a 1920x1080 ATSC program will be downconverted to 800x600 and then downconverted again to NTSC resolution. You can change the aspect ratio from there to get the appropriate 16:9 picture.

[sub]

The svideo output of the MX400 downconverts everything to NTSC resolution (roughly 480x440 viewable).

Thats correct.

[zed]

Thanks for the explanation...