Tv-out

[blue2k1]

If I get a card that has tv-out and hook it up to the tv, will it look better on the tv?

[nielm]

better than what?

[mikejaner]

I'm guessing better than nothing ;-P

[blue2k1]

Better than it does on my $100 moniter and default video card.

[h8dk97]

In my opinion MVP is the best solution for SDTV. I've tried pvr350, xcard and MediaMVP and find MVP to be the most stable with acceptible pq.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by blue2k1

Better than it does on my $100 moniter and default video card.

yes and no...

TV-out is very limited resolution (640x480 (NTSC) and 720x576 (PAL)), very low refresh rate (25fps), interlaced (single-pixel lines will flicker), and low bandwidth (blurry), so windows' desktop will look terrible.

But, Sage uses big anti-aliased fonts and video is blurry anyway, so you are less likely to notice this in Sage, and if your TV is bigger than your $100 montor, you get a nice large-screen playback, so it will probably look slightly better just because it is bigger...

For high-quality tv-out, hardware decoders such as Xcards/PVR-350 or Media MVPs will always beat a video card's composite/S-video out (but they have their own disadvantages)

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by nielm

yes and no...

Exactly

Assuming we're talking SDTV, what Neilm said is absolutely correct, but to expound... SDTVs look horrible by display standards, low resolution, low refresh rate, low resolving power, flickery, etc. However people are used to it, and expect it.

Now SDTV itself is not that great, when displayed on a monitor, you see all the problems with SDTV, when displayed on an SDTV the inferiority of the display will mask many of the problems with the original source and it will often look "better".

In contrast, on a monitor or HDTV, people are used to, and expect sharp, clean, saturated images, and SDTV just isn't capable of that, so often SDTV looks "worse" on a nice monitor/HDTV.

Of course there are also other things going on, like comparing a 30" SDTV to a 19" monitor or to a 98" HD front projector . Lots of factors to consider. For example, while it could probably be argued that SDTV looks better on my 36" TV (HD but displays SD in native 480i) than on my 98" HD FP, I'd much rather watch almost anything on my FP than on my TV. Yes I can see all the artifacts, but I've watched enough upscaled SDTV to know what to expect, and now that my expectations match reality, I'm happy.

There's kind of that initial shock of finding out what SDTV really looks like that catches a lot of people when they start using a "good" display (monitor, HDTV, FP), I think it's mostly expectations.

[JasonJoel]

Very good summary Stanger!

A lot of people are quite dismayed on how SD content lokos on their new and expensive flat panel (or other digital technology) TV's...

But that is kind of par for the course... Some do it better than others, but still... Most of the time SD on a digital HDTV is noticeably worse (or at BEST noticeably DIFFERENT) than it is on a regular non-digital set (projection or CRT).

Jason

[Menehune]

I'm actually surprised sometimes by the output on my sage box. I'm running my sage box into a 19" LCD panel set to 800x600 (not the native res) and some imported mpg videos which are postage stamp sized and very blocky on my desktop machine's 19" LCD panel (1024x768 native res) look pretty darn good, full screen, viewed in sage. I don't notice much blockyness or artifacts.

Of course it could be that the sage monitor is 10 feet away from the desk and the desktop monitor is 1 foot away from me, so I'm seeing the garbage up close and personal on my desktop

[roofus]

Lower resolution also means less detail and less detail means less detailed distortion.