[Iron Monkey]

I'm quite comfortable (technically) with TV-in (TV-tuners, etc), but I'm having a real problem narrowing down TV-Out. The only refs I can find are to S-Video and HD cabling. Are there no other options, such as Composite?

I don't have (probably will in the next few years) HD-capability, but I'm looking at right now. Is S-Video good enough for DVD/media playback? I had a Shuttle XPC I was going to use as a HT-PC for DVD viewing (and put a 10-year old Sony DVD player to rest) and Netflix streaming.

[WIDOWMAKER99]

acually it on old systems depends on the vid card and drivers and connectors .. i can tell ya i was amazed with the performance of my vid card (well the same one i bought in my nephews system )

has an HDMI adapter that plugs right into his HDTV via an HDMI cable and use the adapter that came with the card ..

the TV out on my laptop has never worked .. only in black and white

and on my X800 card it worked perfect on my old sharp TV going thru an adapter tho

so that may be what your missing

http://www.radioshac...oductId=3502129

mine looks a lot different then this


but i got it @radio shack

has video out cable in /and audio /and S video in/out

was originally for use with a cheapo DVD player in case ya had an older tv .. like i did .. @ that time

hooked it up to my 16 yr old SHARP TV and had a 27 in monitor ..refresh rate kinda sucked locked @ 60 HZ and res only could go up to 1024X768

but i played games on it and ran internet vids thru it no problem ..just hadda engage the tv in the older ATI drivers ..

at that time i was not useing catylyst drivers either ..think it was cat 7.9 with the old control panel that worked the best


sorry wrong link

here is the link for old cat driver 7.9 with old control panel

http://www.ngohq.com...a...&dwn_id=508

[WIDOWMAKER99]

oh and yea you need to install winblows with a monitor .. then like i said after driver install plug in the tv as well as your monitor

then select the TV as the primary out put device

again i hadda use older drivers ..and have had ZERO LUCK with the s video out from my dell 1521 laptop and any of the new
ATI drivers (that has a radeon 1270 vid chip in it )

and the older drivers do not support that chip ...so why the fuck did dell include that port ?

well so they can sell you an accessory that has red /green and blue plugs for HDTV i guess ...and 4 different ways in the manual how to connect that .. or the other one they sell ... or the other one they sell ..in the end i gave up ...

bought an ASUS / Nvidia 9800GT ..and an HDMI cable and a new TV

[Iron Monkey]

Hmm...that's what I thought. I've got Composite (RGB) from the DVD player right now...hate to step back to S-Video for the convenience. Guess I'll just have to wait 'til I go LCD or whatever (still undecided...though I gotta do something soon...TV's just about dead).

Thanks hoss. I've gotta 8500 sitting in an old AMD box that has S-Video out...tempted to try that, but I don't get the sound (SPDIF). Picture's all great 'n all, but I'd be willing to take that step back with clear digital sound. I'm weird I guess.

[WIDOWMAKER99]

well to do that ya really need the new card i'm running (pci-e 9800gt).. has a connector(and cable ) on the vid card to plug from video to motherboard /soundcard SPDIF that would connect to spot on the mainboard or /soundcard and use an audio out put in the back of the board or soundcard


if your looking for a new TV on sale ...look at (and i dunno if ya have these places there )

ALDI

yep a freaking grocery store !

got a great deal on mine ..was only $179 on sale

my brother got a 32 inch TV from there for only $229

[Iron Monkey]

Oh yeah, I know all about Aldi...ICH BIN EINER DUETSCHER!!! Aldi's to German what Kroger/bleh is to the US.

The non-grocery stuff they sell are the same things they offer periodically in their German stores. Not top-of-the-line, mind you, but decent quality. I've heard very few complaints.

I've gotta 8-year-old Sony 27" tube. Wanna get away from the tube, get a larger screen. We only watch movies...plus I want the fun of watching my 3-year-old go nuts when Lightning Mcqueen's as big as he is!

OK OK OK, I'll admit it...I wanna see the Star Destroyer in Ep 4 coming across the screen again...*sigh*\

I did poke around, and have to spend about $80 to get SPDIF-out sound card. Only thing I have right now is the onboard in the ASUS Hell sold me a few years ago. Next year I'll retire it to HT with the X800XT (it has S-Vid out), and set it up as a HT/Media box.

[CallyWood]

I've used this feature multiple times over the last 5 years or so. The picture of the desktop on an s-video out feed is pretty blurry, but videos tend to play fairly well. The picture is black and white when I go through a vcr, but colour when I go direct to the TV. It's finicky that way.

I now have my media center pc which I love, and it has an hdmi out, which I use an hdmi to dvi converter on my projector. The picture is crystal clear, and only limited by my 480P projector.

Really depends on what you want to do. My media centre pc has both an s-video and hdmi. I think the hdmi is mainly a second monitor port, because it shows my projector as a monitor rather than a tv. The s-video works fine, but my tv is a little old and doesn't have an s-video input, so I have to use an s-video to RCA converter, and it always shows up black and white.

In summary, I just fooled around with settings until I finally got everything working the way I wanted. I used my IBM which had a GeForce 2 Pro, my laptop which has a mobility radeon 9000, and my new righ which has GeForce 9500GS with 512MB dedicated video memory, DVI and HDMI capabilities, and support for Blu-ray and Microsoft DirectX 10

[WIDOWMAKER99]

Iron Monkey, on Mar 16 2009, 01:49 PM, said:

Oh yeah, I know all about Aldi...ICH BIN EINER DUETSCHER!!! Aldi's to German what Kroger/bleh is to the US.

The non-grocery stuff they sell are the same things they offer periodically in their German stores. Not top-of-the-line, mind you, but decent quality. I've heard very few complaints.

I've gotta 8-year-old Sony 27" tube. Wanna get away from the tube, get a larger screen. We only watch movies...plus I want the fun of watching my 3-year-old go nuts when Lightning Mcqueen's as big as he is!

OK OK OK, I'll admit it...I wanna see the Star Destroyer in Ep 4 coming across the screen again...*sigh*\

I did poke around, and have to spend about $80 to get SPDIF-out sound card. Only thing I have right now is the onboard in the ASUS Hell sold me a few years ago. Next year I'll retire it to HT with the X800XT (it has S-Vid out), and set it up as a HT/Media box.

if ya want digital sound .. do ya have an open PCI slot .. if so buy and old SB audigy card

my SB live says it's digital .. you can probably find one now for about $14

heres an audigy card 29 bucks !

http://www.txmicro.c...ard-p-4101.html

says it supports HD sound too !

# Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy LS PCI Sound Card

# General Features:
# Creative CA0106-DAT chipset
# PCI interface
# EAX ADVANCED HD Audio Technology
# 24-bit digital audio
# 96 KHz sampling rate
# 100 dB(SNR) signal to noise ratio
# Patented Creative CMSS 3D Audio Technology
# Full-Featured Creative MediaSource Digital Player
# 5.1-channel surround sound

# Internal Connectors:
# TAD
# CD in
# AUX in
# SPDIF

# External Connectors:
# Digital out
# Line in and out 3
# Microphone
# Line out 1
# Line out 2
# 15-pin game/midi port

[WIDOWMAKER99]

and here is the vid card to make that system work .. has TV out ..without haveing to pull your X800

http://www.txmicro.c...Out-p-4166.html

$31

and yea i know TX micro is the bottom of the barrel .. but honestly and actually

everything i bought from them worked perfect

but that has your s video and audio right on the card .. you'd be set ... wouldn't ya ?

[Iron Monkey]

Hmm...thanks for the info, both of you. Wonder if that's what clobbered the card. Hasn't bothered the PS2 or GameCube yet. Hmm...

Wid: Yeah, but I'm expecting the XPS to die someday soon. Sad, but true. It's almost 5 years old, and was heavily used. I'd pull the X800XT, as it will probably outlast the XPS. In fact, one reason I invested/stayed with the X800 is that every write-up I've found from techs to users is that the R4250 chips seem to love the cold, moreso than any other GPU out there. And the fact the X1900s, while great, have been a bit flakey lately. But then I'm punishing them every time I play (1900x1680).

[Iron Monkey]

Well now, this is interesting: http://ati.amd.com/p...pter/faq.html#1

What led me to this was this VGA->Component cable at Monoprice. Digging around, I came across the above ATI site.

Guess the old 8500 ISN'T junk anymore! Guess what's in a spare AMD box right now? My old 8500 still has some use! I might try the Monoprice cable (BBJ recommended them, I think)...$5 for something that gives DVD quality on-screen? Yowza!

[The Jeep]

Question, semi-related. If you have a TVTuner card installed, and used Analog cable all along, and suddenly in June you are switched to Digital by Comcast, is your HTPC of any value at that point?

[Iron Monkey]

From everything I've seen/read, you don't have anything to worry about. Analog will still work regardless. I was under the impression it was the broadcast stations that were changing to digital, no cable/satellite. At least that's what the cable company has been spewing these last few years.

[CallyWood]

from what I gather, the new digital signal requires users to have a digital tuner box to watch tv. Every tuner box I have seen has an analog in and output. I'm using analog on my tv tuner and sometimes it's grainy, but seems to do the trick.

[The Jeep]

Comcast made me get 3 of there Digital-to-Analog boxes from them to install, because they are going to digital only in June. I argued with them saying they advertised I wouldn't need anything, and now they are making me upgrade my hardware. Granted it was free, but they still forced me to use it. At this time, my HTPC is broke, but I am reluctant to fix it if it can only record the channel that the set-top box is set to.

[WIDOWMAKER99]

The Jeep, on Mar 27 2009, 10:57 AM, said:

Comcast made me get 3 of there Digital-to-Analog boxes from them to install, because they are going to digital only in June. I argued with them saying they advertised I wouldn't need anything, and now they are making me upgrade my hardware. Granted it was free, but they still forced me to use it. At this time, my HTPC is broke, but I am reluctant to fix it if it can only record the channel that the set-top box is set to.

least yours were free .. they only offered me one box free ..the other two i'd have to pay rental on

and my HTPC is also down .. so i cant even try to connect it to see if i get the new channel line up . the memory for it is in ome asshole kids system that lives a block away from me (who still has not paid me ..never do a favor for a so called freind ) ..so i dont even know if the sony TV card in there will work anymore with comcast

they did the digital switch here already .. a few of my channels got moved up into the 120 to 200 channel numbers

and i totally lost weather scan local Doppler ..and my price went up 7 bucks ..

[Wayward]

I am running a media center rig on my standard sat connection.
I have had it hooked up S-video and it didn't look bad on my 73"
My videocard came with an s-video to composite convertor.
It also came with a DVI to HDMI convertor which is how I am running it now.
I didn't realize it was buried in the bottom of the box hehe.
The video is obviously of inferior quality since it is recording in 480.
But the computer part of it etc looks amazing in 1080p on my big screen.
But I only use it for overflow shows that I cannot record in HD yet in my area like Smallville etc.
Everything else I use my HD-DVR to record.

It was cool watching the trailer for DemiGod coming out next month on my 73"

[CallyWood]

Wayward, on Mar 27 2009, 05:48 PM, said:

It was cool watching the trailer for DemiGod coming out next month on my 73"

73"? what did that set you back? I saw a good deal on a 43" plasma 720P for $599 at walmart, but I expect to pay 1500 min for my next tv.

[The Jeep]

CallyWood, on Mar 27 2009, 04:43 PM, said:

Wayward, on Mar 27 2009, 05:48 PM, said:

It was cool watching the trailer for DemiGod coming out next month on my 73"

73"? what did that set you back? I saw a good deal on a 43" plasma 720P for $599 at walmart, but I expect to pay 1500 min for my next tv.

That's what I paid for my Suzuki Quadzilla when I bought it!

Also, in 1998 I bought my 32" Sony XBR with built-in woofer cabinet for $2000. Yeah, I still use it, I love it. looks as good as the day I brought it home. I wonder if I bought an LCD if it would be that long-lasting?

[Iron Monkey]

Nope, nothing lasts that long anymore. Especially in the computer realm. People are shocked that I always ask, first, "How long have you had it?". Four years is max for most nowadays, with regular/heavy usage (not talking home, business here).

Hell, servers don't even last that long. I've a Compaq Proliant 1600 here that's still cranking 10+ years later. I'm expecting our old CS server to become a collapsar sometime in the next year...and it's only 5 years old! Ahh...

[WIDOWMAKER99]

add a fourth option LT

COMCAST will move channels that you watch and enjoy up to a higher channel then your old cable box /tv tuner will support ...give you 30 days notice ...and yep your gonna need the new box on every connection


yea ya can keep the old connection ..it works... but you just lost 5 channels you pay for and enjoy ..

and in return ya get 5 more Spanish/ OR other non English channels ..as well as more infomercial channels

and connection to on demand .. and if ya dont watch what ya do (with the remote and box )...(by picking watching and deleteing on demand free programs )...you get billed for watching some thing that a month ago was FREE and now carries a charge to view the program

[Wayward]

Cally $2300 the day after Christmas when my 65\" died. Could have gotten it cheaper online.

With a $100 rebate, free delivery and they took out my 468lb old Toshiba 65. Plus they delivered it the next morning.

Plus they gave me an HDMI cable and the DVI-HDMI cable for my PC.
Course now I run everything HDMI except my Wii.

X-box, PS3, DVD Player, HD-DVR, PC all running 1080.

Btw best HDMI switch for the money HDMI Switch
Had one from Monoprice and it sucked, didn\'t work with my DVD and no audio on the PS3.
The little $30 one I got auto senses which component you want to use and switches, then switches back to the lower priority device when you power the other one off.
Works great!