Any TV Out (TVOUT) Video Cards Anymore?

[SkierHiker]

I'm an old Sage user with a PVR 350 and a regular TV. I've upgraded to the latest SageTV version and would like to upgrade my video card as well. But I'm having a hard time finding a TV out card. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks - Mark.

[GKusnick]

Almost all graphics cards I've looked at lately have TV-out in some form or other. (See this page for instance.) In some cases the card might come with a dongle to convert a second DVI or D-sub output to component or S-Video.

You might get some more specific recommendations if you say a bit more about your requirements (e.g. HD v. SD, gaming v. media playback, Nvidia v. ATI, etc).

[paulbeers]

What type of connection? Video out can mean sooo many things. Technically any DVI is a video out because it can be converted to HDMI. I assume you are meaning Composite or Svideo, which in this case many video cards still have the component break out cable which can usually be used for composite only (my old Nvidia component break out cables stated to use the green component connector for composite only)

[SWKerr]

I use this device to convert my VGA signal to RCA. I then have another one that converts to Coax and runs to all the old analog sets. My Video card can run two monitors but the device also has a pass thru. It is limited to 1024x768 input.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

This setup has worked great. I can watch the HD-PVR recording just fine and HD recording still look better on those sets than the old analog stuff.

[gplasky]

Your HD4xxx ATI cards will have an Xilleon TV Encoder (HDTV, S-Video, Composite) with a s-video output jack on the card along with a component adapter and a composite adapter that works with the s-video type output on the card. These cards also have hardware accelration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, H.264. It is Dual-Link HDCP Capable and can have up to 7.1 Channel Surround Sound (through HDMI adapter). Depending upon the model some will have the DVI to HDMI adapter.

Gerry

[SkierHiker]

I connect my video card to a DVD player which has SVideo and Composite. I was just disheartened when I stop by Frys and didn't see anything obvious but the Egghead link definitely showed cards in my price range.

A couple of other things if you don't mind.

My PVR-350 will not allow me to watch SageTV Online content because it can't decode it. Will these newer cards work for both recorded shows and online content?

And my new computer is a Dual Core 1.8 ghz Intel Xeon with 2GB memory. It will be dedicated to SageTV. Will I need on-board encoding?

Thanks - Mark.

[GKusnick]

Back up a second. The cards people have been suggesting so far are graphics (i.e. video output) cards, not TV tuners or video capture cards. If you're looking to replace the 350 with a capture card that has TV-Out, then no, you probably won't find such a beast, because these days TV-Out is almost always done by the graphics card, not the capture card. The 350 is kind of an oddity in that respect.

If the tuner portion of your 350 still works, there's no reason you can't keep that for capture purposes, and get a new graphics card for the TV-Out function. That's a better setup anyway; the 350's TV-Out feature seems to be notoriously troublesome.

If you still want to upgrade your capture device, you might look at a hybrid digital/analog tuner card. Which card you get for that will likely depend on how you receive your TV (antenna, cable, or satellite).

[SkierHiker]

Ok, here's my plan.

I currently have an old Dell PC (1.8 ghz) running SageTV with my PVR-350. My new PC/Server (a prototype server box from a reputable company) has only one PCI-e x8 slot.

I would like to let the old Dell continue to capture and record using the PVR-350 and turn my new box into a playback machine. I got a new video card (EVDA 9500GT 1GB) for the single PCI slot and a USB sound card. I'll remove the end of the PCI-e x8 slot so the video PCI-e x16 will fit (I read this should work). And I'll connect the new video and sound card to my DVD player (and from there to my TV).

Now I have two SageTV boxes, one for recording and one for playback. I'm assuming this will work? Since this is a hardware forum, I won't ask how to get SageTV to work unless it's a simple answer. I have another thread in the Software forum where I'm playing around with Windows 2008 R2 server on my new PC/Server.

Another thought I had was to get a USB capture card (eg. ATI HD 650 Combo) and add that to the new PC/Server. I'll then be running entirely on the new, cool, and fast computer. Any thoughts about this idea?

And if all this doesn't work, or I just get tired of playing around and my wife and kids threaten to throw me out of the house, I'll just slide that new video card into the old Dell and run with that (boring ...). - Update, doesn't look like this is an option. The minimum power requirements for the card is 350w. My old Dell PC only has a 250w power supply. Reckon it will still work? Now my Server/PC has a 345w power supply. That should be close enough right?

Thanks by the way. This has been very enlightening.

Mark.

[SWKerr]

You could add a ATI 3450 to the Dell for only about $30 and power would not be an issue. It does TV out and would even drive HD if asked. There are several version out there with different connection options.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102724

[SkierHiker]

This is NOT fun. I went and bought a EVGA GeForce FX 5200 (PCI cheap) and installed it in my old Dell. But I was not getting any output from the S-Video. I opened up the CD and read the manual and lo-and-behold, there in black and white was a note saying it must be connected directly to a TV in order for it to work. I have it connected to by DVD/VCR Recorder, then to the TV so that's not going to work.

Before I go crazy trying every video card, does anyone know if I should be able to find an inexpensive TV-Out video card that will output to the S-Video without having to be connected to the TV? With the 5200, the nVidia drivers could not setup a secondary monitor until it actually detected the TV. I need something like the PVR-350 that will force the video out the S-Video regardless if it sees anything there or not. - SWKerr, reckon your VGA->S-Video converter would work? Maybe I should try that. I think Fry's carries them. Ummmm....

I'm also abandoning the two SageTV boxes in lieu of a Windows 7 Media Center project using my new Server/PC. For this I bought an ATI HD 4650 (expensive for me) for video playback and am planning on using a ATI HD 650 USB Combo for recording. Any ideas if the HD 4650 will output to the S-Video without being directly connected to the TV?

I'm getting a lot of flack from the wife on this so any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks - Mark.

[gplasky]

Look at the ATI HD3xxx series of cards. These can be found for about $40 (HD3450) and supports hardware acceleration of mpeg2 and h.264 files. (among others). In regards to needing a TV what you could do is set it up attached to a TV until you have the way you want and then plug into your DVD/VCR recorder and see if it works. (I wouldn't have recommended the FX5200 anyways. Too low end and very little hardware acceleration)

Gerry

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by SkierHiker

I'm also abandoning the two SageTV boxes in lieu of a Windows 7 Media Center project using my new Server/PC. For this I bought an ATI HD 4650 (expensive for me) for video playback and am planning on using a ATI HD 650 USB Combo for recording. Any ideas if the HD 4650 will output to the S-Video without being directly connected to the TV?

Thanks - Mark.

Last I knew the ATI HD 650 was not officially supported by Sage....

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by SkierHiker

This is NOT fun. I went and bought a EVGA GeForce FX 5200 (PCI cheap) and installed it in my old Dell. But I was not getting any output from the S-Video. I opened up the CD and read the manual and lo-and-behold, there in black and white was a note saying it must be connected directly to a TV in order for it to work. I have it connected to by DVD/VCR Recorder, then to the TV so that's not going to work.

Maybe I missed it but why is it connected to the DVD recorder?

Before I go crazy trying every video card, does anyone know if I should be able to find an inexpensive TV-Out video card that will output to the S-Video without having to be connected to the TV? With the 5200, the nVidia drivers could not setup a secondary monitor until it actually detected the TV. I need something like the PVR-350 that will force the video out the S-Video regardless if it sees anything there or not. - SWKerr, reckon your VGA->S-Video converter would work? Maybe I should try that. I think Fry's carries them. Ummmm....

Maybe a Hauppauge Media MVP (SD Extender) or HD200 extender?

[SkierHiker]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Maybe I missed it but why is it connected to the DVD recorder?

I had to setup my system to allow my wife and kids to use it very easily. So from the cable box I split the coax and run one directly to the TV. The other goes into the PVR-350 for recording. From the PVR-350 I send it to the VCR/DVD player and then from there to the TV composite video. This way their choices are simply TV or Video, and the Video is either SageTV, a VCR Tape, or a DVD, whichever is playing (with the DVD taking precedence).

Note, that even with this setup, my wife still can't figure it out

[SkierHiker]

And the saga continues...

After wasting an entire weekend (damn near all night Saturday), I went from trying to get W2K8 R2 to work with no success on the hardware, to evaluating Windows 7 Media Center, again with no luck with hardware, but I did learn that I didn't care too much for WMC. I abandoned WMC and decided to go for the SageTV Client/Server model. I'm going try to get a SageTV Server working with my PVR-350 on a W2K3 Server. If that works, I'll shoot for W2K8 and if that works, I'll jump to W2K8 R2. But in the meantime, I'm just going to turn my old Dell into a Server which works just fine right now.

My problem now is that I can't get my new Server/PC box running Windows 7 to output anything to the S-Video TV-Out of my ATI HD-4650. I have it plugged into the TV's S-Video and Catalyst does not see the TV as a monitor. SageTV Client works great on it so I'm keen to get this working. I have some other video cards (I bought 4 from Fry's) but I'm just wondering if there is some secret. I have used other ATI TV-Out cards in the past (many many years ago) and I recall the TV just showing up.

One thing I was wondering about is whether it's because the HD-4650 outputs TV in 720p. My TV is an old JVC (AV-2749S) that I'm using to test this configuration. My regular TV is just a couple of years old. Could it be that my test TV is too old for the HD-4650 to recognize and output to? I'm not sure if this makes sense but I thought I would ask.

Tomorrow I may blow away Windows 7 and go back to XP just to rule this out (or I may try my new Windows 7 Build 7057). I can also try connecting it to my regular TV but it just seems to me that this should all work with that old TV. I may try the other video cards but hate to open them up if I don't have to.

Arggg. I just want this to work so I can get more frustrated working on my W2K8 R2 SageTV Server project .

[SkierHiker]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Last I knew the ATI HD 650 was not officially supported by Sage....

Yeah, I gave up on that idea. I decided to try to build a Windows 7 Media Center box with the HD 650 and then compare WMC to SageTV. But I couldn't get any mpeg-2 recordings or videos to play, plus I wasn't all that impressed with WMC compared to SageTV so I abandoned it in lieu of using my PVR-350 for my SageTV Server recording.

[SkierHiker]

I hope I'm not putting up too many posts but my head's been spinning a lot lately and I can't sleep The most important one right now is a couple of posts before this one regarding my problems with the TV-Out so if you've haven't read it, please do.

So here is my next plan (and I hope I don't get lynched by my family). Please read and comment to help save my life

I want to move the cable box down to my server room to be next to my new W2Kx SageTV Server. Right now SageTV sits in my old Dell box next to the cable box in the living room. When I move the SageTV Server to my server room, my SageTV Client would then be up in the living room connected to the TV.

Now here's where it gets risky. I'm will be forcing my family to watch TV via SageTV. If anything goes wrong with SageTV Client or Server, they're out to lunch and it could be a hornets nest when I come home from work. Does anybody have experience with this type of setup at home with a family?

I don't see any other way to set up the TV connection other than to run the SageTV Client output to my VCR/DVD player, then to the TV. The TV only has coax and S-Video/Composite input. And the S-Video/Composite is an either/or type connections and decides based on the physical plug. It would be nice if it chose based on signal but it doesn't.

We do however watch more recorded shows than live tv, so on the positive side, the TV would always be on the right setting (video) and the family would only have to get use to SageTV channel guide rather than two (cable and Sage). The new SageTV Client will also be much faster than the old SageTV box. Not sure if this will be easier for the wife though. What does everyone think?

Mark.

[SkierHiker]

Originally Posted by gplasky

In regards to needing a TV what you could do is set it up attached to a TV until you have the way you want and then plug into your DVD/VCR recorder and see if it works.

Gerry

That was it. I plugged the video card into the TV, started up the computer, let my video software recognized the TV, then set the TV as the primary monitor. After a reboot to ensure it's all working, I plugged the video card into the DVD/VCR recorder and I'm back in the saddle.