TV out setup

[jphhughes]

TV out

What's the best way to configure a graphics card for good picture quality as well as being able to have all SageTV menus display on TV. I currently use an Nvidia 5200 graphics card. I had it set up in Dualview mode and was using the Nvidia Full Screen Video Setting, video mirror feature. This worked fine in that it provided full screen very good picture quality on my 53" Hitachi RPTV. However in this mode the guide would only show up on the PC monitor. IT was suggested (on this forum) that I try turning off the Full Screen Video mode and then drag the PC monitor Video image to the TV . I did this and resized the window to fit the screen at which point the guide would display on the TV as well. However the picture quality seems some what less sharp. I also tried just putting it in full screen mode but the picture seemed to zoom out to an incredible large size.

So what's the best configuration. How do you have your configured? I know you guys know the answers to this. Please help. Thanks.

[Scriber]

I ran across the same issue with my 8500dv before going to the H 350. IMO the best setup for PQ is to switch the TV to primary (you can setup a hotkey for the kybd or remote) when using Sage. IIRC per the Rage3d boards the reason the PQ and perf degrades on the secondary monitor is a limitation of directx or some such thing. Moreover, even using an app to force Sage to a secondary monitor like Hydravision doesn’t seem to make it workable either . HTH

[krutaw]

Originally posted by Scriber
I ran across the same issue with my 8500dv before going to the H 350. IMO the best setup for PQ is to switch the TV to primary (you can setup a hotkey for the kybd or remote) when using Sage. IIRC per the Rage3d boards the reason the PQ and perf degrades on the secondary monitor is a limitation of directx or some such thing. Moreover, even using an app to force Sage to a secondary monitor like Hydravision doesn’t seem to make it workable either . HTH

I too tried everything I could think of and bought video card after video card without getting anything close to what I got with the Hauppauge PVR-350 tvout. It's quite honestly the best decision I've made on my HTPC project.

[jphhughes]

Well I guess I am glad to here this, because I ordered a 350 today from COMPUPLUS.COM. By the way price was best I have seen $160. Thanks

[krutaw]

Originally posted by jphhughes
Well I guess I am glad to here this, because I ordered a 350 today from COMPUPLUS.COM. By the way price was best I have seen $160. Thanks

Wow, good price.

[heckheck]

I'm quite happy with my current setup. I don't have an HDTV yet, but I do have a 7 year old Sony XBR TV with component video input. I'm doing direct VGA to component. I'm using a modified ATI 7500 (modified to allow low pixel clock) in 640x480 interlaced mode. I have this going through a Key Digital color space converter to go from RGBCs (the Cs is + composite sync, don't know why but this is the only mode that gives a good picture) to Y Cr Cb.

The result is astounding when I compare it to SVideo. It truly is a beautiful picture, and I have everything I need, Sage menu, MAME, Media Player Classic.

[rbrodka]

Originally posted by heckheck
I'm quite happy with my current setup. I don't have an HDTV yet, but I do have a 7 year old Sony XBR TV with component video input. I'm doing direct VGA to component. I'm using a modified ATI 7500 (modified to allow low pixel clock) in 640x480 interlaced mode. I have this going through a Key Digital color space converter to go from RGBCs (the Cs is + composite sync, don't know why but this is the only mode that gives a good picture) to Y Cr Cb.

The result is astounding when I compare it to SVideo. It truly is a beautiful picture, and I have everything I need, Sage menu, MAME, Media Player Classic.

Hi heckheck,

I too have a seven year old Sony XBR TV. Its a Sony KP-53XBR45 (53" RPTV), but it only has S-Video and composite inputs (in addition to the coax). This set has a pretty good picture for a SDTV, although I would like to upgrade to a HDTV set.

Should I be getting a better picture using S-Video rather than composite? I thought S-Video was susposed to be better, but my experience was just the opposite. Maybe I was using a really crappy S-Video cable?

Thanks,

Randall

[audiohead]

Hi, I'm in the process of putting together a dedicated A/V PC and it looks potentially that I'll be going with SageTV. As for the TV out issue I have the choice of an ATI 9x00 series card, a Matrox G550, or a GeForce4 MX440 card, what's your experience out theree in PC TV lan? wan? anyone try SageClient on a WAN? heh