TV Out Cards - Can't Decide

[slightly]

So after reading & posting & reading some more, I decided to try my luck with the Sapphire Radeon 9600 AGP.

Now, before I get into my troubles with this card, let me explain what my goals are. I want to use SageTV thru my TV (Sony WEGA XBR450 36") and occasionally use the TV as another monitor - which means I can't use the PVR 350 or XCard.

So I installed the 9600, and enabled TV Out mode. The image bowes at the top & bottom a little, as well as cuts off short on each side of the screen. I've tried numerous things to adjust it with no luck, including messing with setttings in Sage.

Seems like the most popular TV Out cards are the 9600 & the GeForce nVidia 5700. So I am considering ordering the 5700 to give it a try (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...170-049&depa=0)

I've heard video quality is better with the 9600. Is this true, and if so, how significant is the difference. If I'm not mistaken, I will be able to view the alpha overlay in the OSD if I use the 5700, but not with the 9600 - so that's a plus. Also, I would like to keep the cost of the card around $150 as I'm on a budget.

Any success/horror stories are appreciated, especially if you have a similar TV - all the info I can get in making this decision is appreciated.

Cheers

[stanger89]

That TV is HD ready if I'm not mistaken, in that case you definitely don't want to be using S-Video. What you want is one of these:
http://buy.ati.com/shopati/product.a...c=&country=USA

[slightly]

Yeah, I was considering connecting the TV Out to the TV using component. I noticed both the 5700 & 9600 have DVI Out. If I bought that ATI DVI-to-Component adapter, would it work on the 5700 as well? Or will that adapter only work on ATI cards?

Cheers

[kny3twalker]

it is only for ATI cards
a 5700 personal cinema has component output but cost more than a 9800 PRO

I would get the 9800 PRO before spending money on a personal cinema card which you cannot use the tuner in Sage

and the TV out on a Video card will be the worst option of all of your choices

[slightly]

TV Out on a video card is my worst option? How else would I view SageTV on a TV? When I say TVOut, I dont mean that I would connect the card to my TV using a coax cable. I would obviously use S-Video or Component. Is that what you meant?

[stanger89]

TV-Out is at best S-Video, which is acceptable on a SDTV but it's not good (better than coax yes). But you've got an HDTV, and you can do much better than S-video. S-Video is 480i, but with Component you can do 480p or 1080i both of which are orders of magnitude better than S-Video, so yes, buy the adapter for your 9600.

As for the adapter on non-ATI HW, as kny said, it won't work. It's not a converter (it doesn't convert DVI->YPbPr), it's a special connector that tells the card to output YPbPr instead of VGA, and only works on Radeon 9500+.

[slightly]

Gotcha. You cleared up ALOT of confusion. I like the ATI 9600 that I bought, but when connected with the HDTV via S-Video, it tears at the top a little, and the image just didn't fit the screen right. Has anyone successfully used a 9600 (non-pro) with a TV like mine and gotten a good fit for the picture? Will the picture fit better if I used the component converter by ATI? Would the 9600 pro prevent the tearing?

Picture is great - just tears and doesnt fit the screen well. If I can fix that - I'll be stoked.

Thanks for your help guys.

[stanger89]

A 9600 Pro may prevent tearing, but if you upgrade for that reason, I'd go for a 9800, updating to Cat 4.7 may help to. The only way I know of to guarantee no tearing is to change your Video Renderer to Overlay or Default.

You'll get a much better picture in every way with the dongle (HDTV Adapter).

[slightly]

I was going to return my 9600 card today, in search of a better one. But I will keep it for now, tinker around a little more, and experiment with the component connection (Just ordered the adapter from ATI). Hopefully this will aleviate some of my problems.

[kny3twalker]

when you use the Svideo referred to as TV out
the image has to be rescaled and then interlaced before outputted to the TV
and thats why it looks horrible

if you use component output from the DVI output
it is like using the TV as a monitor and will look very nice

[ezeitler]

I am using a Matrox G450 dual head that I got on ebay for $10 plus a $2.00 adapter cable from Matrox that provides TV out from the second HD15 connector. Very usable at 800x600 for checking news, weather, etc.

I would not use it as my primary internet machine by any means. However, I did want to be able to use the HTPC for simple things on the net.

[Tighr]

I also have the Sapphire 9600 (non-pro) and was considering buying the ATI component dongle, but had a few questions about that. Has anyone had any success using the dongle on a non-HDTV with component in? My 27" Philips 27PS55 is not HDTV but does have component inputs (which I'm currently using with my DVD player). Would the component be better quality than s-video on my TV, or would the difference be negligble?

Also, I noticed that there are two versions of that dongle available, both the DVI version and the VGA version. Since I have a FPD that has both DVI and VGA input, I'd prefer to use DVI to go to my FPD and VGA to go to my TV. Any comments on the quality difference between the two adapters?

[kny3twalker]

I think the VGA is for older cards and the DVI is for newer cards(dongles)

and yes you should notice a big difference
between svideo and component
use svideo for the DVD player and use the component forom the DVI output on the 9600

[stanger89]

I think the dongle is supposed to support 480i (SD) but I haven't ever tried.