Video card considerations - opinions please?

[JonL]

Hello, I'm new to the HTPC realm, but have been working with PCs for nearly 15 years. I've gathered some parts from an old Dell 8200, purchased some others, and have some questions about graphics card choice.

Here is what I have so far, so to help with your suggestions:

Intel D850EMD2 mATX motherboard
P4 2.53GHz 533MHz CPU
512MB PC800 Rambus (I know, but it came from the Dell)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150MCE
Creative Audigy 2 NX USB
30GB (may use an 80GB) OS HDD and 2 x 200GB WD HDD (all PATA100)
16X Sony DVDRW
ThermalTake Mozart case
350W SPI PSU
MS MCE Remote

This will be running on GBPVR over XP Pro.

All of this goes out to a Sony 48" projection TV (not HDTV) via S-Video by way of a Sony 7.1 surround receiver/decoder. The TV does not have the greatest picture quality in the world, but I'll eventually be replacing it with some sort of HD-compatible TV (probably a DLP projection of some sort), so I need to be prepared for that.

I currently have the GF3 64MB video card from the Dell available, but since I've not received everything to try it out, I don't know how well it's going to do. It does have S-Video TV-Out, but I've never been a fan of how nVidia cards output looked on the TV (I have always used ATi for that). Anyway, if I decide to not use the GF3, I have been looking at two cards and am torn between them. The cards are a Radeon 9600 128MB AGP and a GF 6200 128MB AGP. The Radeon has a 128-bit memory path and the 6200 a 64-bit path. I do not plan on using the nVidia PureVideo decoder, regardless of card choice. Both support HD output from what I've read. I typically watch DVDs and DivX/XviD files with a little bit of TV thrown in there once in a while.

So, what would you suggest? If anymore info is needed, I'll be happy to provide it.

[herbs]

I think you will find both ATi and Nvidia tv output is alot better that gf3 days, if it was my money the geforce 6200 if you don't want to play games would be my choice. Just make sure you get a passive version without a fan.

[gEd]

like herbs said, the 6200 would be a better card, irrespective of memory path size.

I use a 9600pro 128MB passive and it is pretty good on my crt tv but it won't do hdtv according to this thread (and I suspect it is right)

http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11042

(thanks to ddrawley for that link)

So if you definately want HDTV, get a passive 6200 or better but if you are on an uber tight budget and want SDTV for now, a second hand 9600 pro will be fine.

why the objection the purevideo decoder, cost?

[bungle]

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

For AGP, the 6600 series adds some HDTV features, namely MPEG2 acceleration, that will improve performance, though you may have to use the PureVideo decoder or something else that supports the features for it to help. The 6600 also adds some SDTV enhancements. I think there are fanless 6600's but the reviews I read said they got pretty hot. I don't know of a similar page for ATI cards.

I know you got most things purchased, but for the best quality it's easiest to use a wimpy box as the backend somewhere else in the house and use a Hauppauge MediaMVP as the front end. No configuration for a perfect picture over s-video. There are some HDTV capable devices out that can play HDTV TS and HD AVIs, but they won't be integrated with GB-PVR. You'll probably have an easier time getting a good picture, though, and they are quiet. Something to think about.