Best tv-out video card?

[krypton_john]

Hi All,

I'm currently using an nVidia Fx5700LE video card and running tv off the tv-out. I've tweaked this thing up as well as I can but the picture quality is noticably poorer than the tv picture straight from the STB or the pc picture on a vga monitor.

Is this a limitation of nVidia tvout? Are ATi any better? I've heard the Matrox cards have great tvout quality but I want to use this PC for 3D games so the Matrox cards are kinda eliminated.

Your advice appreciated!

Cheers,
JohnO

[sub]

Try a different MPEG decoder, they all seem to perform quite differently. Lots of people swear by the Sonic or Nvidia decoders.

There is also hardware options like the XCard which will give a flawless picture.

[Remco]

You could try making a VGA-to-SCART cable. That is connecting your TV directly to the VGA-output. The picture quality is great. More info in this topic: http://gbpvr.com/cgi-bin....T-cable

[CaptainVideo]

Hi All,

I'm currently using an nVidia Fx5700LE video card and running tv off the tv-out. I've tweaked this thing up as well as I can but the picture quality is noticably poorer than the tv picture straight from the STB or the pc picture on a vga monitor.

Is this a limitation of nVidia tvout? Are ATi any better? I've heard the Matrox cards have great tvout quality but I want to use this PC for 3D games so the Matrox cards are kinda eliminated.

Your advice appreciated!

Cheers,
JohnO

I have an ATI AIW Radeon and am not very happy with the quality of the TV out. TEXT and the desktop look GREAT, but subtle changes in contrast and fine detail are lost.

[capone]

I had both an ATI and nVidia. The biggest advantages to the nVidia was the flicker, sharpness, and vivid sliders. Using those three, w/ the nVidia decoders (sold separately), zooming in the picture until there was just a thin letterbox at top/bottom, and w/o changing bright/contrast, I've gotten results that are almost indistinguishable from broadcast.

The ATI was washed out and not as sharp, and the sliders to improve came set maxed out. But, I think tipstir knows other drivers that may improve that.

[OldNick]

You could try making a VGA-to-SCART cable. That is connecting your TV directly to the VGA-output. The picture quality is great. More info in this topic: http://gbpvr.com/cgi-bin....T-cable

Sorry. PMFJI and all that. I am interested in the idea you have posted.

I tried to follow your link and was redirected....back to here, but logged out <G>. I searched for t-cable on all forums and only found this same thread again.

Do you know how else to get there?

Thanks

[CaptainVideo]

I had both an ATI and nVidia. The biggest advantages to the nVidia was the flicker, sharpness, and vivid sliders.

I may try the nVidia. I just tried a G550 and it is so much better I don't want to go back! However, I'm concerned. I THINK one of the reasons the G550 is so good is that its display resets on playback to match the source video. So the scanlines all match up and no deinterlacing is required. (no OSD, though, a BIG drawback)

Is it possible that I won't find ANY video display method short of this satisfactory? Is the nVidia SO good you can adjust it so it matches up perfectly so deinterlacing isn't required?

Thanks

[capone]

I don't think you'll get it better looking than the Matrox from what I heard.

The nVidia decoder has been taking care of deinterlacing fine for me.

[cameluk]

I may try the nVidia. I just tried a G550 and it is so much better I don't want to go back! However, I'm concerned. I THINK one of the reasons the G550 is so good is that its display resets on playback to match the source video. So the scanlines all match up and no deinterlacing is required. (no OSD, though, a BIG drawback)

Can you confirm that using a G550 with GB-PVR, you lose the OSD?

[CaptainVideo]

Can you confirm that using a G550 with GB-PVR, you lose the OSD?

I can confirm that when using "DVD Max" you don't get the OSD.

However, I'm not so sure about the regular "clone display" setting. This is where the primary RGB display is cloned at the S-Video output. It clones everything except video, apparently. If there is a way to get video AND the desktop cloned, you'd probably get the OSD.

But you'd also probably get worse picture quality than "DVD Max" gets you.