[mythtv-users] Video Card Recommendations for TV Out

[Brian Foddy]

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003, Joseph Jamieson wrote:

> Brian Wrote: 
> 
> > For the time being, I settled on a solution I found to be very
> > good and relatively cheap.  I picked up a G450 on ebay (thinking
> > it would do everything, but no).  But instead of trying card after
> > card, I bought a signal converter, hooked up screen 1 to the 
> > converter (since only head 1 has XV support), but a cheap 13"
> > monitor on head 2 as a console.  The video quality is very good;
> > much better than my TI4200 with TVout on another machine,
> >  and the total price was
> > in line with other possible solutions.  And my confidence that
> > it was going to work was much higher.  With the signal converter,
> > the video card becomes almost irrelavent with only XV support needed.
> 
> Yea, I've tried scan convertors.   They can work well, and it also
> depends on what type of signal they receive.
> 
> I have a TVAtor, and a fancy one with a remote control.   The TVAtor is
> an inferior unit, but performs better hooked up to the Geforce then the
> expensive one.   The expensive one works better on my ATI board and most
> other boards.

I can't remember the name of mine, but I'll post it tonight.  It was
abotu $80 and does come with asmall remote and will convert up or down
resolutions; but I just use 640x480.  
> 
> Scan convertors are an excellent way to get TV-Out on your PC, but your
> mileage may vary.  It might look great, or it could look like soup.
> 
> While I'm posting to the board, what is the "real" resolution of NTSC?
> So many times I've seen "The practical limit is 640x480" but what is the
> actual signal?

I'm no EE, but its not quite as easy as to ask what the real resolution 
is.  There are intentional scan lines above and below the signal that
are usually not displayed on a TV, the interlacing complicates things 
a lot, and then you have NTSC or PAL.  I've always heard 640x240 and
then interlaced to another 240 lines is about all you can expect.