Tv-out via graphics card supported?

[Mascot]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but none of the others seemed more appropriate.

I've currently got an oldish PC I want to put to some use. I also have an old graphics card with TV out (Nvidia GF3).

So I'm missing software, that's where GB-PVR comes into play, obviously. And also need a tv card.

My question is, do I need the PVR350 for tv-out support, or can I use my graphics card's tv-out and get the cheaper PVR250? I assume I can do that manually (activating tv-out via graphics setup, then full-screening the application), but the idea is to have the box setup with autologin etc. and getting output on the TV without any keyboard interaction at all.

[sub]

Yes, most people probably use the TV out on a regular video card.

The PVR350 decoder produces a much better picture, but suffers from a few driver bugs.

[Mascot]

Oy, didn't expect a reply that fast.

Are you referring to the OSD bug I read about elsewhere, or are there others as well?

Output quality is obviously a real issue so it might be worth the extra expenditure. My intent is to use it as my primary tuner in order to be able to pause live TV at will. The crap cable we got here is bad enough without adding needless quality loss.

[sub]

Yes, I was referring to the OSD lockup problem. I dont really see any end in sight for this bug, so the problem is serious.

A regular TV isnt quite as good as a PVR350 output,  but it does have the advantage of letting you watch other types of video - DVD / DivX / XVid etc. The PVR350 can only play MPEG1 or MPEG2 video, nothing else.

[sub]

You could always consider the XCard.

[Mascot]

From what I can see the XCard is a pure playback solution. I already have an Xbox for that. I'm building this box almost exclusively for the timeshift functionality. Though, of course, it will get used for timed recordings as well.

So, basically, if I want the best tv-out quality the PVR350 is the way to go. But there's a pretty good chance of it being horribly unstable on my machine. Nothing's ever easy, is it.

I guess what it boils down to then is how much better that output is. If it's anything like the Xbox compared to the GF3 tv-out it's quite significant (though admittedly I never really tweaked color settings etc to try and make the GF3 look better).

Guess I'll have to ponder and google some more. Thanks for the clarifications.

[dottore]

you can try to get an old matrox g400 32mb dualhead via ebay. i got it there for 30 euros or so. this card has the best tv-output i've ever seen. even the newer matrox-cards have nothing compareable.

the problem is, that this card has only 32mb video memory and poor 3d-capability. emulators work, but newer 3d-games won't display.

i use the pvr250 with the matrox card and gbpvr. works perfect and i have no restrictions or driverproblems.

[Guest]

Some basic questions re. graphics cards and TV out. Is there a difference from card to card in terms of how much CPU capacity they use when feeding the TV (my PC is relatively old), or is all processing done by the card?

Any recommendations for cheap new cards if all you care about is the TV-out quality, i.e. no use for games? I have the PVR-350, but have the famous TV-out problem.

Where is the Xcard being sold in the UK? Can it display the PC desktop on tv like a normal graphics card?

Thanks a lot, and thanks a lot Sub for this excellent piece of software!

[Mascot]

Quote[/b] ]the problem is, that this card has only 32mb video memory and poor 3d-capability. emulators work, but newer 3d-games won't display.

Not a problem in my case. I've got a nice gaming machine for,well, games. This is going to be a pure PVR solution. Its only task to timeshift/record. Everything else, including any editing or whatever, will be done on my main machine.

I've decided to go with the PVR250 + GF3 tv-out for now. I did a search on the ebay equivalent in my country and found a Matrox G400 Dualhead 16MB for about USD15. Maybe I should secure myself that one, just in case. The cost is nearly nothing anyways.

Edit: Turns out it's the 32MB version after all. Auction closes in 3 hrs. Keeping fingers crossed.

[dottore]

you MUST verify, that the tv-out-cables are included!!!! you can by them from matrox, but they cost a lot.