tv out playback

[cypreon]

What do I need to play VCD's and Divx movies on my TV?I have NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX 400 card.Do I need another,special tv card,or just some kind of a cable to connect my PC with my TV?Thank you.

[jkl]

you need a s-video to composite adapter. the S-VIDEO end needs to be MALE (to fit in a mx 400) and the composite end female(the composite end could be male if it's long enough to reach the tv). MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE LATEST DRIVERS FROM NVIDIA.COM. nowhere else. enable twinveiw, restart and you should be ready to go.

[Prospero424]

The s-video to composite adapter should have come with the video card, but sometimes not, depending on the brand and type of packaging. You will need this if your TV or VCR only have the composite connection (which is the little round yellow input, perhaps next to a red and a white one of the same type, these are the audio connections) then attach a composite (sometimes termed RCA) cable long enought to reach from your PC.

OR if your TV or VCR has an S-video input, all you need is a nice long s-video cable and a stereo RCA cable (red and white connectors) for audio and you're in business.

Hope this helps
Prospero

[Morford]

I have a similar problem. I'm using a GeForce3 Ti500 with s-video out. My TV doesn't even have composite input, so I'm running through an s-vid to composite converter then an RF modulator. I have the latest drivers, but my TV Out option is grayed out and refuses to change. However, if I disconnect the monitor and boot the computer, the TV-Out initializes without a problem. Any ideas?

[Prospero424]

I'll bet what's happening is that the TV out on the Video card doesn't detect that is connected to a display device because of the converters attached. When you disconnect the monitor, both outputs default to the on status for debugging and testing purposes. I can't really think of a way to fix this other than to get an active video splitter/converter or a new TV. I think the new TV would cost about the same and there's no guarantee that even tha active splitter would register with the vid card as a display.

What I would do is hook it up to a VCR that has either composite inputs or preferably s-video inputs, this will definitely work because I have done it in the past. If you don't have a VCR with a composite input, you can get one for REALLY cheap npw even at a store like Best Buy (around 50-75 bucks) or even cheaper buying it online. I would suggest looking on www.pricewatch.com for what you want after doing some research on brands and models. Above all make sure that the VCR has STEREO audio inputs, at least four heads, and of course a composite or s-video input.

You can then use the VCR to output the mixed audio/video signal through it's RF output to the TV with decent quality, and you can record stuff from your computer to tape in order to clear up space, especially if you don't have a CD-writer for this purpose.

Hope this helps

Prospero

[secretagent]

search on google for software called tvtools. it allowa for dual outputof signal to tv and monitor at the same time, works with some but not all video cards.

[Morford]

Still no good. My VCR's got a composite input, but the video card still doesn't recognize it. The "detect devices" button doesn't do anything either.

[Prospero424]

Other than making sure the VCR is on and perhaps enabling the input through the VCRs menu before anything, all I can say is hook it up, reboot the computer, and if it is still grayed out, I don't know what's going on.

If the above fails and TVtools suggested by secretagent doesn't work for you either, I would try different drivers for the video card. If none of these work, then I would contact the manufacturer of your card and perhaps start discussing a warranty card swap with them.

Bueno Suerte,

Prospero