QUICK REPLY NEEDED- calling all TV-out experts!!

[baker]

I have a chance to buy this card:

http://www.001abc.com/videocard/3dfx_voodoo3_3000.html

I have been told that a lot of s-video outs now-a-days are pretty crap.

I am only buying this card for its video out as I need a tv-out card.

So if the tv-outs no good then I wont buy it.
PLz plz plz

give your opinons now!

Thanks!

Baker

[Bob W]

Having had a V3 video card I can tell you this the TV out on that card is crap. I would stay away from that card plus I assume you are aware that 3dfx went belly up two years ago.

[baker]

yea I toght that.


What do you think is my best bet for a tv out card, quailty is top prio as I will only be sing it for that.

Baker

[Bob W]

Do you have an AGP slot available or are you looking for a PCI video card? Anyway I would look at www.pricewatch.com and do a search for video cards with TV out.

You can get an 32MB ATI Radeon AIW card or Radeon 8500 AIW cheap these days and the TV out on those is pretty darn good IMO.

[baker]

yes I will be using an agp slot,

I am pretty poor at the moment so am hanging around ebay looking for a deal

So I need to know basically which manufatures provide the best tv out.

baker

[Bob W]

ATI video cards are known for the best TV out and have been for the longest time.

[John2001]

An ATI might have the best TV-out but it's not as good as those on garden variety TV products. The problem is they compete with other PC card makers and mainly on 3d gaming performance and features. They don't compete on TV quality. Reviews that you read tend to focus on gaming and features and card A is compared to card B but never compared to regular TV equipment. If you did a simple A/B comparison on a good TV you'd go "eww" when you switched to the AIW's s-video TV-out.

The other area where AIWs fall short is with the TV tuner. I'm not talking about reception but how good the image looks with a strong signal fed from the AIW straight to the TV s-video -- a worse "eww" than with the TV-out. If you were at a Best Buys shopping for video equipment and viewed a variety of TV sources, not knowing what TV image was from what source, the PC with the AIW would be the very worse TV source in the store.

So the ATI AIW is probably a better choice but the key is to lower expectations. I'm generally happy with my AIW 7500 and use it quite a bit.

[disturbed1]

I had a 7500 Radeon with S-Video out.

If wanting to just stream some movies, or play game on your TV, it does ok. For computer viewing eww is right. 800x600 is just awfull, 640x480 looks pretty good though.

You should be able to get this card cheap. I pick mine up in Oct. for under $40 shipped new.

Here's a used 7000 32mb for $35 http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=1025-H4433

New 7500 64mb $50 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&...codevalue=3042