Help me choose a Video Card

[shaurya]

Hello,

I am not a geek and very new in PVR/HTPC. I have a ASUS Motherboard with 8x AGP that I want to use for Video Output. It also has PCI slots. No PCI-x or PCIe is available. I need help in choosing the right video card for the following requirments. My intended use is primarily watching video etc rather than using it for Games. I am not into Games. To be honest, I have only played Solitaire and Prince of Persia (Yea have been living in Stone age so far)

1. To buy AGP 8X card or PCI card (I understand AGP is better than PCI).
2. Passive Cooled. Fan model is not desired (Planning to put 2-3 80mm/120mm fan in the case for intake/exhaust)
3. Compatble with standard NTSC/ATSC capturing card eg..using DVXA tech etc like FUSION HDTV Gold/ATI Theater 650 (comingout soon) etc...
4. Supports 4:3, 16:9, 16:10 ratios and any other custom ratios...
5. Supports all sorts of resolutions upto for HDTV 1080i (planning to use it now in a old Sony CRT TV with HDTV in next 1 yr )
6. Little Gaming capbility is good to have.
7. Supports all sorts of connectivty like composite, s-video, compoent, DVI etc..(more the merrier)
8. Reputable Brand with very good warranty.
9. Budget is more or less $200
10. Sill don't understand the full use of Dual Display, if its good to have for PVR/HTPC then it would be nice..

I spent nearly 2 weeks on ATI/Nvidia websites but got lost in Geforce/Readon jargon.

Regards,
Shaurya

[csy]

ATI and Nvidia are the 2 most common video card chipsets.

It is a good idea to plan ahead and buy something that is HDTV capable, but this means you need something better than entry-level.

AGP is superior to PCI, and AGP (or PCI-E) is necessary to obtain hardware acceleration (DXVA). However please note AGP is becoming legacy, and it appears video card drivers are now more "focused" on PCI-E support, at the expense of AGP support. This is most noticable on Nvidia drivers. Additionally AGP video cards are now more expensive than PCI-E video cards. AGP should work fine for you providing you don't run into any driver issues.

All ATI/Nvidia video cards (that i'm aware of) have native S-video out. Most manufactures include a dongle to adapt to composite, but can be purchased separately. With Nvidia cards, some manufactures include component-out dongle, but this is manufacturer specific and model specific, you need to look for "HDTV out". With ATI cards, component-out is limited to NTSC only (PAL is not officially supported but some users have managed to "fudge" it). ATI non-X1000 series don't include component-out and you have to buy a separate "VGA/DVI to component" adapter. I believe the ATI X1000 series have a component-out dongle, but only some manufacturers include this, otherwise you can buy it separately. I think all mid/high-end video cards include DVI (digital and analogue).

The key video card feature for good video picture quality is advanced (spatial/temporal) hardware de-interlacing. With Nvidia cards, this is available on models that support the Purevideo feature set http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html
With ATI cards, this is available with models that support DirectX9 and DXVA

My recommendation for HDTV support is:
ATI X1300 or higher
Nvidia 6600 (perhaps 6200 ?) or 7300, or higher
It is important to choose a card with 128-bit (or higher) memory interface.

Something else to consider, Nvidia cards are very prone to aspect ratio problems, so I advise caution with Nvidia cards.
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16198

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

It is going to be hard to find anything better than a 6600nvidia/1600ati with passive-cooling with out doing it your self, with that said.

I like this card and here is a review: Gigabyte GV-N66256DP

And with aspect ratio problems as noted above, not big of a deal with new drivers and Ntune and FFDshow.

[Koenie]

In order to get full 1080i HDTV support you will need one of the fastest cards available. ATI reports that the X1800 GTO is the minimum, lower versions do not fullysupport (aka are simply not powerfull enough) 1080i but do support 720p. I am not sure which types of Nvidia will fully support 1080i but this surely are only the top 2 or 3 for the time being.

Concerning pure video quality I prefer ATI. My experience with ATI is much better than with Nvidia in this respect, especially on a standard TV-set.

[csy]

It is going to be hard to find anything better than a 6600nvidia/1600ati with passive-cooling with out doing it your self

My new Albatron 7600GS is passive cooled (awaiting to be installed into my system)

[shaurya]

Hello All,

Thank you very much in giving me some direction. Special thanks to Mr CSY in giving me a brief overview of what I should be looking for as minimum.

I though have another question on Nvida, particulary to Mr CSY. Although you advised caution with Nvidia, however I noticed that your new card is a Nvidia one...Being a newbie, I am not really sure what I will be dealing with down the line if I go with Nvidia. I did read the entire thread on Nvidia issue but didn't understand a bid...Can some one put it in Dummies/Lay man's language.

Mr. doggyfromplanetwoof, I did review that Nvidia card but took the whole thing with a grain of salt considering the issue around Nvidia card.

Mr Koenin, any feedback you can provide on this ATI card, is it passive cooled or any input you may have on this one.

Regards,
Shaurya

[wannabepvr]

You may not have to spend heaps $$
Passive, low profile Asus 6200 (non-Turbo Cache 256Mb) AGP here.

Works well on digital SD, can do digital HD although at a moderatly high CPU load.

RCA composite output is OK for CRT

All this from a $50 card.


.......Although I would like a 7300 or a 7600 but they are only PCI-E

[stefan]

I have just ordered an Accent case http://www.tvpc.se/butik/images/arisetec...-400_1.jpg with a GeForce 7600GT 256Mb graphics card I hope that card will be sufficient =)

[csy]

There are generally 2 categories of video, that being Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD).

SD video originates from analogue TV which has 480 lines for NTSC and 576 lines for PAL (MPEG2 translates this to vertical pixels), and MPEG2 has a horizontal resolution of 720 pixels. So you end-up with 720x480 pixel resolution for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL, containing pan&scan (4x3) or widescreen (16x9) format video.

HD video is nominally 1440x1080i (interlaced) or 1280x720p (progressive) lines, containing widescreen (16x9) format video

When dealing with HTPC's there is another SD/HD aspect to consider, that being the resolution of the display. Normal CRT TV's are known as SDTV and have a viewable analogue resolution equivalent to digital 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL. New digital TV's/displays have much higher digital resolutions, eg 1280x720.

Now with respect to video cards, you need a card that can process the video content adequately (HD and/or SD) and at the same time adequately display that content at the chosen display resolution.

My personal experience is related to SD video displayed on SDTV's and HDTV's. I have no direct experience relating HD video, but have observed other users comments on this forum.

Based on my own experiences and what other users have commented:
ATI 9550 works ok with SD video on SDTV, but SD video is marginal on HDTV
Nvidia 6200 works ok with SD video on SDTV and HDTV, and also HD video works ok on SDTV

Based on that knowledge, I provided recommendations to you on my earlier post, that being:
ATI X1300 or higher
Nvidia 6600 (perhaps 6200 ?) or 7300, or higher
It is important to choose a card with 128-bit (or higher) memory interface.

I am surprised and interested by the comments made by Koenie. I would be interested to read those ATI recommendations that Koenie made reference to. The ATI website shows most of their mid-range models do support MPEG2 HD video, and the X1000 series additionally supports H.264 HD video (incl the X1300).

The aspect ratio problems on Nvidia cards are only experienced by some users (not all), and only appears if you get GBPVR to apply aspect ratio correction. I am one of those affected, but I have found a workaround for me by using the video decoder aspect ratio correction instead, which works correctly on my HDTV.

I personally like ATI video cards more than Nvidia because in my experience you simply plugin an ATI card and it goes, but Nvidia cards are prone to hardware conflicts and VERY FLAKEY drivers. I only chose the Nvidia card because it has an important feature to me, that being customisable gamma correction curve required to fix my LCD display.