New HDTV & Sage TV

[Jimbo]

I've been using Sage for over a year on a 32 inch TV. Like most, I've been using the S-Video out on my video card to output to the television which has worked great but not quite like the quality of the original recording.

I just purchased a Samsung HL-P5674W DLP and will have it delivered in about a week. The TV has a "PC In" VGA port to use your TV as a monitor. Has anyone used this type of input for Sage? If so, how is the picture quality? The TV also has a DVI input but my HD Satellite already has dibs on that.

Is HD support for Sage in the near future? I rarely watch live TV anymore because of Sage but now might have to if I don't want to miss the HD quality.

Are there any tricks to enhance Sage to loosely emulate HD and record in 16x9?

Sorry for all of the questions! Thanks for your help!

[kny3twalker]

the PC input on that TV works great (VGA input)
the picture is a tiny bit underscanned but looks good and works well

I helped a friend setup SageTV on his 51 Samsung DLP

I believe we choose like wide or wide pc on the screen displays

anyways it was very easy and pretty much like running on a PC monitor
with the highest resolution at 1280x720p
and if you use VMR9 for DVDs, you will need DVD43or anyDVD or DVD idle to get around the macrovision protection

[Jimbo]

Thanks, that's good news! I'm currently using an FX 5200 video card. Should I look to upgrade that? I'm reading a lot of good things about the 6600 and the 6800. The TV is a 56 inch HD DLP. What type of card matches up best with that application? I'm new to the HD world! Thanks!

[kny3twalker]

yeah my friend has a 5700 LE, and it performed like crap using VMR9

the 6600 GT should be the minimum

the 5200 will defintely not give that perfectly smooth playback but you can try

[aoehlke]

if 6600 gt is minimum... what are the mid and max cards recommended?

[stanger89]

The 6600 is really about the perfect card, it should do everything capably. Actaully I'd say min/mid/max would be:

Min = 5600/5700/5700Ultra (note that the 5700 LE/XT is much slower than a normal 5700)
Mid = 5900/6600/6600GT/6800
Max = 6800GT/6800Ultra

The 6600s are probably the best choice, they have all the features available on the 6 series without any real sacrifices. The 6800s are great but you give up Component output and WMV accelleration. The 5 series doesn't support all the features of the 6 series and is really about EOL at this point.

[kny3twalker]

well what else
if you pass the 5700 line of cards, the 6600 GT is next
if you have PCI express, you could get away will a 6600

a 9800 Pro or 9700 Pro are comparable to the 5900 Ultra and 6600 GT

all those cards are fine

just need something more than the base line 5200s and last years mid line of cards aka 5700 and 9600
do not have enough horsepower for VMR9

the X700 cards are fine as well but only PCI express
actually I would not really go much beyond a 6600 series unless you have an enormous screen with a really high resolution like 1080p or a hardcore gamer

remember that the 6600 GT is the same line of card as last years 5700 Ultra and 9600 XT

[Jimbo]

Excellent advice, thank you! I've noticed several versions of the 6600 card out there. Is there any one that I should be looking at with all of the features that I need. Does the manufacturer make a difference or are they all pretty much the same? One online retailer has over 20 versions of the card. Is any one better than the others? Thanks!

[kny3twalker]

buy a recognized name brand card

make sure the card comes with the component output dongle
not all do, XFX is one of them that does not include component output dongle

[Watter]

http://newegg.com

Pictures (for component out verification), good prices, and excellent service. What more could you need?

[Jimbo]

Went to NewEgg last night and ordered the MSI nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT. Thanks again for all of the help! I'm sure I'll be asking more questions once the TV arrives.

[Jimbo]

Kny, Even though the 6600 comes with the component out, would you still recommend using the VGA "PC IN" on the Samsung DLP? From your experience, which provides the better picture?

[kny3twalker]

should not really make a difference
you could try both and see which gives a better image
but both are analogue inputs and you will not find anything else that can use that VGA input so might as well use it

one thing you might be able to overscan some with component
my friend's TV with VGA did not fill the screen entirely on the sides
and had some bowing
it might be better to hide it
yet VGA is a breeze to setup

I am sure component will be too though

[Jimbo]

Thanks for your help! I'll let you know how I make out.

[ToxMox]

You made the right choice James with the 6600GT (that is what I'm running too) I'd say go with VGA first then try component. Nice TV btw !

[GbrNole]

i finally have a working msi 6600gt (agp) and it's a great card. good pic.

the only benefit to running dvi or component over vga is that with vga you lose the ability to tweak overscan. if your output is decent re: overscan from the vga port then i would stick with that as it will eliminate some of the problems you get from running dvi and not having renderless exclusive mode in sage.

also as pointed out earlier you will have to use dvd43 or anydvd to strip macrovision so that you can resize to 1280x720.

[ToxMox]

BTW I saw Jimbo's TV last night and it is incredible! We got him up and running at 1080p and the windows desktop with the bliss background never looked so amazing. I think I was drooling the whole way home.

[turak]

I have a Samsung HLP6163W DLP. I have it hooked up via a DVI to HDMI cable since my STB is using the DVI input. Right now it looks like crap because I'm using a Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4600, but I have a MSI 6600GT on order from newegg. I've read that the MSI is the quietest of the 6600GT's.

[abbott_m]

I've got a 6600GT (love the card) as an upgrade to my 5700 (a bit jumpy) card. I loaded up the 66.93 driver from Nvidia but was looking at the current Forceware driver 71.81. Is there any benefit to this if I'm using component out?

I'm also wondering about the Nvidia DVD codec. I tried it out and my CPU utilization went up as opposed to the Intervideo codec. Also when switching from live tv to a saved recording Sage just hangs with the Nvidia codec. Am I doing something wrong here?

Mike

[abbott_m]

bump