No TV-out port on HP Slimline: any workarounds?

[yaromir]

Hi, I was considering using SageTV on my HP HP Pavilion s7320n Slimline Media Center PC to record TV programs and then play them back on my TV. However, it seems it is not possible with the HP Slimline. I wanted to get your confirmation that it is so or get any piece of advice of how to work around this problem.

First of all, HP Slimline is a small factor PC with no available PCI slots. It has an integrated video card, but not TV-out ports on the back.

One solution I found is to get USB-based Hauppage TV-tuner card to record TV programs and to use MVP to get the recorded programs back to my TV's screen. However, MVP's limitation of playing back physical DVDs made to turn this solution down.

Is there any other possible solutions? I'd appreciate your word of advice. Thank you.

[JUC]

Hi and welcome to the forums! I tried going to the link in your post but couldn't find a pic of the back. What type of video outputs do you have? VGA, DVI? And--what type of inputs do you have on your TV? If you have either VGA or DVI out and do have either HDMI or DVI in--you can get a cable that goes from DVI to HDMI. I'm guessing though that you only have composite and S-video in on your TV. I'm not sure what to do if that is the case.

edit: i read the .pdf and it says it does have one PCI slot but it is occupied. what is it occupied with? If it has a NIC or modem you could maybe get a USB version one of those and get a PCI graphics card (if they still even make those??)....

JUC

[mike1961]

We've got a thread on this (client recommendations) and I just got a slimline. There are ways to get it to work.

First - I've ordered a cable from VGA to Svideo that I should get in the next day or two. I'm not sure if that's going to work but if it does, it's the best option.

Second - the HP slimline has one pci slimline slot with a modem in it. You can pull the modem out and find a graphics card with an SVideo out on it. That will definitely work.

Third - you could go the USB route but that just means more clutter.

I'm waiting for my cable but in the meantime the computer is in the box. Can you tell me if the fan on the computer is very quiet where you can not hear the computer when you are trying to fall asleep at night?

Here's a link to the HP computers:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....questid=135921

Mike

[bcjenkins]

I don't have any experience with these, but I found this while poking around.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...asp?CatId=1430

[yaromir]

2 JUC:
Thank you. I need to get home to make sure what video output on my PC: VGA or DVI (the pc is still in a box). As for the TV set, it has three Video Input options: 1) S-Video; 2) Composite; and 3) ColorSream (component video). I'll look if there any VGA-to-Composite/Component/S-Video cables on the market. The variant with taking modem PCI out and finding a compatible PCI graphic card will be my second priority. Thanks a lot for suggestions.

2 mike1961:
I'll try to find your thread and read it. Could you tell which VGA-to-Svideo cable did you order? Did you find any PCI graphic cards to fit the Slimline? I also have the Slimline still in the box, trying to figure out if it would work with SageTV. So, I am not sure how quiet it is. Could you please keep us updated on your progress with the VGA-to-Svideo cable? Thank you.

2 bcjenkins:
Thanks for the link. Looks like this cable should do the magic.

[mike1961]

Actually the one I ordered looks a bit different than that cable and it costs a buck plus around 5 for shipping is all over ebay or pc cables for a bit more. But, there are no electronic parts with it but after contacting a few places they seem to say it will work. I am skeptical but it should arrive in a day or two so I'll let you know. You can find it on ebay as well by doing a "vga to svideo" search. Scroll down to view the cable:

http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orde...les.com&rcode=

Oh - I don't think it will be a problem to find a graphics card to fit the slimline but why remove the modem and take up the only one potentially "free slot" if you don't have to along with the fact that it would cost more and be more troublesome?

Mike

[yaromir]

After reading some info, I'm afraid that the VGA-to-Svideo solution will provide a poor-quality video on the TV set. But I hope I'll be wrong.

Will the additon of a graphics card conflict with the graphics card already integrated into the mobo on the HP Slimline PC? Do we need to remove the integrated one (if it is possible) before putting one into the PCI slot?

[bcjenkins]

FAIK - VGA to TV will look okay with the SageTV interface. Where it looks bad is when you're trying to use it to surf the web, read documents, etc. Sage though is designed for TV viewing, and that makes a difference.

B

[mike1961]

Exactly - obviously any TV/Monitor with a DVI input will be better than SVideo or composite but it's pretty easy to find a VGA to DVI adapter just about anywhere.

A lot of people seem to be saying that the NVidia decoders also make a big difference but I'm not sure just how much. I'll tell you this, I think I'm having almost every problem one can have and once I resolve it some other thing challenges me. The first time I hooked up a tower to my TV the quality was just absolutely horrible and I finally figured out it was due to a bad sVideo cable. Once I changed out the svideo cable, the quality was pretty good with just about any decoder. I'm still awaiting my VGA to SVideo cable to test with my slimline pc. Once it arrives I'll let you know how it works and I can easily hook my multimeter up to it to figure out how to build one if one wants to.

Some have also said that changing the resolution on the graphics card (say from 1024x768 to a smaller resolution like 512x384) makes a difference but I'm not sure. Also, Sage seems to have some bugs in displaying the menus at that small of a resolution.

I'll know more about quality once my cable arrives. The quality is so/so on my computer monitor but some of that could be simply due to the analogue reception from the satellite company since I'm not sure just how sharp a picture I should be getting with resolution set at 1024x768. Clearly, the resolution will be limited by the original signal coming from the cable/satellite provider.

Mike

[blade]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Oh - I don't think it will be a problem to find a graphics card to fit the slimline but why remove the modem and take up the only one potentially "free slot" if you don't have to along with the fact that it would cost more and be more troublesome?
Mike

The onboard graphics aren't very good. The quality isn't just about the type of connection you're using, but also the video card itself. For example I have a 6600GT and an old GeForce3. Both use DVI, but of course the 6600GT gives a much better picture.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Some have also said that changing the resolution on the graphics card (say from 1024x768 to a smaller resolution like 512x384) makes a difference but I'm not sure. Also, Sage seems to have some bugs in displaying the menus at that small of a resolution.

Since you are using s-video and the TV doesn't support anything above 720 x 480 most users tend to use 800 x 600 and adjust the overscan for the best picture.


Gerry

[JUC]

FWIW--i tried one of those VGA to S-video cables a few years ago with a laptop and I was unable to get it working. It was an older laptop with no video out so i thought this would work but i just got a black video. BUT--this was a few years ago with an older machine so hopefully this could work for you all. That and a USB PVR card and you should be all set.
JUC

[Steerpike]

Originally Posted by blade

The onboard graphics aren't very good. The quality isn't just about the type of connection you're using, but also the video card itself. For example I have a 6600GT and an old GeForce3. Both use DVI, but of course the 6600GT gives a much better picture.

Obviously, the general thrust of your statement is correct, but ... it also depends upon the specific application, I believe. That is - if you are playing the latest game, with 3D "this" and shading "that", then obviously a better video card is going to help. But if you are viewing a web page in a browser, is there any difference (assuming the basics of color depth, resolution, and refresh rates are within limits)?

This is of particular interest to me now, because I just bought a motherboard with nVidia 6150 chipset on it, rather than going with a 6600GT separate card, because I assumed that for the particular needs of this system (a Sage viewing client ONLY), I would get absolutely no benefit from the 6600GT (for this one application), and have to deal with the added heat and 'slot' requirements of the card. I chose the 6150 because it supported nVidia's 'PureVideo' stuff, which specifically addresses MPEG viewing and HD content. Now, I have no idea if it will deliver (have not built it yet!) but that was the plan (I've also read since there are lots of issues with the 6150, but that's somewhat beside the point for this discussion).

Of course, one gets the added flexibility with a dedicated card, the ability to upgrade later, etc etc - but for me, this is a single-function computer I'm building; I have 4 other computers in house that are the 'flexible' guys.

[yaromir]

Steerpike, as you raised the issue with graphics cards, let me reinstate my question from my previous post:

Will the additon of a graphics card conflict with the graphics card already integrated into the mobo on the HP Slimline PC (or any PC)? Do we need to remove the integrated one (if it is possible) before putting one into the PCI slot?

Can anyone confirm on that?

[blade]

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Obviously, the general thrust of your statement is correct, but ... it also depends upon the specific application, I believe. That is - if you are playing the latest game, with 3D "this" and shading "that", then obviously a better video card is going to help. But if you are viewing a web page in a browser, is there any difference (assuming the basics of color depth, resolution, and refresh rates are within limits)?

We're talking about for HTPC use, which means watching Sage recordings. Video cards definetly make a difference for that. Different cards have different deinterlacing capabilities. I'm not too good with the technical aspect of how it all works so I'll leave that up to you to research. If the video cards didn't make a difference for mpeg playback then almost everyone here would be running onboard graphics.

This is of particular interest to me now, because I just bought a motherboard with nVidia 6150 chipset on it, rather than going with a 6600GT separate card, because I assumed that for the particular needs of this system (a Sage viewing client ONLY), I would get absolutely no benefit from the 6600GT (for this one application), and have to deal with the added heat and 'slot' requirements of the card. I chose the 6150 because it supported nVidia's 'PureVideo' stuff, which specifically addresses MPEG viewing and HD content. Now, I have no idea if it will deliver (have not built it yet!) but that was the plan (I've also read since there are lots of issues with the 6150, but that's somewhat beside the point for this discussion).

Of course, one gets the added flexibility with a dedicated card, the ability to upgrade later, etc etc - but for me, this is a single-function computer I'm building; I have 4 other computers in house that are the 'flexible' guys.

The 6150 is sort of the exception because it uses the Nvidia "Pure Video" technology and is supposedly comparable to something in the 6xxx line of video cards (I forget which one) when it comes to mpeg playback. I think people have had a lot of problems out of the boards though. They sound like a great choice for a client if they work as advertised. You have to remember that most onboard graphics aren't going to be using the "advanced" deinterlacing like the Nvidia boards.

[blade]

Originally Posted by yaromir

Steerpike, as you raised the issue with graphics cards, let me reinstate my question from my previous post:

Can anyone confirm on that?

You can't remove the integrated graphics, but you should be able to turn it off in the bios if you choose to add another video card.

[yaromir]

You can't remove the integrated graphics, but you should be able to turn it off in the bios if you choose to add another video card.

Good to know. I'll probably go this route, as I read in HP's manual that it was OK to replace the modem card, occupying the single PCI slot in the PC, with another kind of PCI card. The replacement card should be a low profile one though. Can anyone recommend a low profile graphics card (and it should be fanless given the small space inside the PC case, I guess), which will work with SateTV?.

2 mike1961: I read in another thread that you're returning your slimline? Did you have a chance to check if the VGA-2-Svideo cable worked for it?

I'm still evaluating whether to go with the VGA-to-Svideo solution or to find a low profile graphics card with Svideo Out port?