Xcard

[JReiginsei]

I currently have a GF3 Ti200 video card installed. It's very fast for the games I play, but the DVD quality sucks. What do you all think would be a better thing to do: replace this video card with a Radeon 8500 LE or with the sigma designs realmagic xcard? I still have a real magic hollywood plus but don't use it because the pass-thru quality looks bad. I'm not sure which one has better tv-out quality and DVD quality on computer monitor, has anyone had the chance to compare them?

[NeoBlade]

Don't go with the Radeon card. I have tested the 128MB cards and have not found much more performance than with a Nvidia 64MB card. As for the other cards I can't help but suggest you try some of the hardware vendors like www.tomshardware.com . Good luck with the choice.

[JJI666]

I just installed an XCard in one of my older P2 400s that I use for DVD and SVCD playback. The quality is very nice compared to most S-video outputs I have seen (and I have seen a lot of them). It is also a nicer, more intuitive, more TV-like interface and user experience than trying to fiddle with video card output settings if anyone but the computer expert in the house is going to use it.

But don't buy the XCard expecting perfection. It theoretically plays Divx video but hasn't played one Divx file I have (and I have plenty). Also, you have to use their player to use the remote, and you cannot output the whole desktop to the S-video, but only the content of the file or DVD being played back (and thus if their player won't play it, you can't watch it through S-Video). And it is a bit fussy and unstable.

But the quality is very good and if you don't push it regarding stability, you can get a nice picture quality that your girlfriend or wife might even use and watch! I would say that RealMagic / Sigma Designs has a lot of software development and driver improvement to do, but the hardware has potential.