Best TV-Out Hardware

[lordbelial]

Im trying to build a stand alone DiVX box. Which has better quality, a video card w/ tv-out or a scan converter? What video cards have really good TV-Out for under $100.

[FredoFromBelgium]

Think about G450 dual heads
or any Gforce models with Philips chip SAA7102 or SAA7108(VIVO)

These are the very bests !

[Zhnujm]

and never ever buy a scan converter...

[MvB]

I own a GF2 MX200 with TV OUT (Asus) and with TV-Tool and Windvd the output is superb! With the drivers the output is really bad

[cult]

i use radeon 8500.Great card with great tv-output.Dont need to use tvtool or other software.

[theReal]

A friend of mine has a divx/mp3 box with an ATI Radeon VE. This card is really cheap, but the TV-out is great (at least through a DVI to S-Video converter. The composite out is also good quality, though).

You can use the tv as the only monitor with this card (with all ATI cards, I think)

[Vantage]

Just thought I should relate my own experiences with TV-out using various graphics cards. The one I am currently using right now is an old TNT2 Ultra based card my roomate had, and has by far the best video quality I have seen. It can make a shitty rip look good. Surprisingly, the quality is even better than his new Gainward GeForce 2 Pro card.
And then there are my two ATi Rage Furys. One is OEM, the other retail, both with the ImpacTV 2 TV-Out chip. The quality is terrible. They can turn a good rip on a computer monitor into a major block fest on the TV, not to mention a winamp playlist is barely readable. Also, I have not noticed any quality difference between using S-video and the normal RCA out. Conclusion: There is no really accurate way to tell in advance what sort of quality you are going to get.

[theReal]

Well, the Rage cards are pretty old (but so are the TNT2 Ultras)

I think the Radeon family has a good tv-out, I can't say for any other ATI (I have an old ATI Rage IIC, so I know how crappy older ATI cards could be...)

[Zhnujm]

i have had a rage fury (PAL) and the tv-out was superb. if you cannot see a difference between the s-video and the comp out there must be something wrong with the cards or your cables.

[Sven Bent]

MATROX

matrox is the only way to go... the tv-out qualtiy surpasses any nVidia/ATI card

[kilg0r3]

@Sven Bent

Yeah it seems so. the ct (german computer mag) has published a test of Radeon 8500 cards, testing also 2d and video-out quality. all cards were really bad at that; very unlike the radeon 7500 cards which were quite good.

[takeru]

i have an asus geforce3 ti200 deluxe. the tv out now gives me a strange vertical wave flicker pattern from right to left. more noticeable in the upper 1" of the screen. when the wave gets near the left the upper portion of the screen flickers a bit. the wave goes right to left like every second, so its quite annoying. i never had this problem before when i first got the card, but now i dunno why i have it or how to get rid of it. any ideas?

using nvidia 2.7.5.0 drivers, nvidia 1.08 wdm drivers.

[Sharro]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
and never ever buy a scan converter...

You could not be more wrong.

It is common sense (for whoever saw one) that scan converters have better tv-image quality that any Graphic card tv-out available at this moment.

Furthermore, they are driver/software free.

I have tested 3 models from Trust and 2 from Focus-Enhancements and...they alwats beated any Nvidia/Ati tv out.

Think before you state.

All the best

Sharro