s-video on P-350 vs M550 vs n5200 vs ATI7500

[IVB]

Dang - every time I get close to buying a solution, I see another thread that makes me think I'm going to waste my $$. Heck - I haven't even bought a capture card yet, as the answer to this could potentially affect that decision.

My question, for those that are actually using or have used the S-video out on cards and simple basic 27-32" $600 TVs with only S-vid in [i.e., no component] and not the $2K+ HDTVs, projectors, :

Is there really much of a difference between the quality of s-video out on:
- PVR 350
- Matrox 550
- nVidia 5200
- ATI 7500 [my god - this is a supersize card; I only have room for 1 card this size, 1 smaller card in the box]

I'll probably won't get an HDTV in 2+ years, at which point I'll have well amortized the whopping $200 max investment I'll make in the above. However, there's no way spending more than that will achieve WAF.

FWIW - I have a dedicated A/V server which in retrospect was the wrong box but now I own it so well: VAIO, 2.6GHz P4, 512MB RAM, 2x60GB HD [but may be swapped out for bigger].

My plan is to send the output to a distribution panel for whole house distribution to 3 [cheap] TVs. I'll use OSD to make life simpler, although Sage2 will help the cause there.

[mikbro]

Go with the nvidia card I have a 5200 and an very satisfied with it, and you can get if for ~$65.

No matter what video card you get, expect to do a little tweaking to the settings of your video card and/or Sage to get the best possible quality. There are plenty of threads here to help you with that.

[mlbdude]

For outputting the best possible picture, you would want the 350. However it has the limitation of only being able to output video and soon SageTV. No windows desktop. Second would be the Matrox 550. It also outputs in a pure interlaced mode that a normal TV wants. After that it is kind of user choice. Any of the newer cards offer good TV out so go for cost. Just remember you will have to deal with deinterlacing using the TV out from a normal graphics card (other than the Matrox).