TV-Out Recomendations

[supersoccer2001]

I've looked at past topics, none seemed to fit exactly what advice i'm looking for. Please don't flame, well, at least not too bad

I'm looking for a card that will let me watch DivX, VCD, SVCD, etc on my TV. The computer is going to be only used for playing movies, no games. I will have a P333, with 128 meg of ram with an AGP slot for the video card. The movies will either be moved across my home LAN, (i've got 180 gigs on a server) or played on burned VCD's and SVCD's.

1.) How much video memory should an appropiate card have for a good picture?

2.) AGP is a must, correct?

3.) How important is s video? Oh, and what does RCA mean and how would it affect my quality compared to svideo?

4.) What price range are we talking?

If you could make any specific card or brand recommendations, i would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

[markums2k]

I can answer 2 of your questions.

1) There's no reason NOT to go AGP, unless you don't have the slot. It should go without saying.

B) S-Video vs. RCAs... well, there is a noticable difference. Colors will bleed less and video is much sharper/crisper when viewed through S-Video, in relation to RCA jacks. Now, a more challenging question might be: is there a difference between the plain $7 Phillips S-Video cable and the $50 Gold-Titanium-Plated Super-Thickly-Shielded Monster Cable? I don't know.

3) Well, I might as well go ahead and add that S-Video out seems to be a pretty standard feature on video cards nowadays. I wouldn't expect to pay over $300 unless you're going for state-of-the-art. I haven't payed much attention to the market since the Voodoo cards were killed off.

You may want to check out www.pcgamereview.com and see how they rate the video cards that you're considering. All the reviews are written by consumers who supposedly have bought or tried the game/product in question.

[Scummm]

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm#
GO HAVE A LOOK

[holistic]

supers,

1. 8Mb minimum - i have a 16Mb Matrox G400 and i use it for exactly what you are thinking. (i also had a hollywood magic DVD decoder card but the divx hack for it didn't work)

2.As previously stated if your motherboard supports it get a AGP card . Ensure the motherboard supports it though as 2x and 4x have different voltage requirements.

3.RCA is the generic name for those connecters you see which are normally yellow for video , white/red for stereo audio channels. S video splits the chromance and lumiance (hmm spell check needed here) for a slightly better video signal.

4.$$ anywhere from $40 for a used G400 to $300+ for an ATI A.I.W radeon

I prefer Matrox products .... just a preference.


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[statuspending]

i would recommend the voodoo3 3000 agp card
find it for under twenty-five bones at www.compgeeks.com
it features an s-video out and a svideo-composite video adapter.
i use it to output all my divx movies to my home theatre, but now i gotta replace mine because new motherboards usually don't support its 2x 3.3v operation.