Video card (etc) help!

[tvmaster2]

A newbie here. I have been trying different video cards that I have lying about, and have narrowed it to three possibilities to base a cheap Sage system on. One, a Matrox G400. I am less likely to use this, even though it looks the best. Reason? The family factor...need this to be as friendly as a Tivo, and with no overlays the matrox is out.
Therefore, It comes down to a FX5200 and a Radeon 9250. the problem is that I must be doing something wrong, as I can't seem to get a stable system running with either of them. Can anyone suggest their settings using either one of these cards, both on the computer side and Sage side of software setup, so that I can be up and running.

There is only one important point to consider....
I will be using just ONE monitor, and it will be NTSC television, not a VGA computer display. It is possible I may be able to use the DVI output from either card it necessary, but my main focus is on the S-video out jack.
Thanks desperately.

[tvmaster2]

And one thing I forgot to mention to the ATI supporters....for some reason I cannot get the Theatre Mode to work with the Radeon 9250. I am using their Catalyst software, and imagine I am doing something incorrectly. I have read here that the Theatre mode is usefull for what I want to do, but for some reason cannot engage it.

[paulbeers]

Tvmaster -

My recommendation would be to use the FX5200. The reason is that it is a directx 9.0 compatible video card which *should* increase the speed of your GUI. I switched form using an ATI 7000 to an FX5200 and noticed this sped up considerably (partly also to my fx5200 having more memory etc). I am not completely sure what you mean by my settings, but I recommend downloading the newest drivers from nvidia and see if that helps. There should be an option to use the s-video output and using that should be setup fairly easy (unlike those who use component output which is a whole other beast in itself). Another thing to is you may want to make sure that all drivers from the previous card (the matrox) have been removed. If your old video cards are causing problems with the new, that could be the reason.