How to play a DVD on a TV from a computer

[AlkalineTrio]

alright I really don't know anything about this, so if you can be really specific, but still clear, that would really help. I want to play DVD movies on my TV (which has an S-Video input), but I want to use my computer DVD player to play these DVD's. I have a GeForce 4 Ti 4600. I have heard that audio \ video cables provide worse quality "transmissions" (I don't know what the right word is for playing something on a TV from a computer) than S-Video Cables, so I guess I want to go for S-Video. Is there anything I need besides an S-video cable? would I just connect this cable to an S-Video output in my computer and to an S-Video input on my TV? what kind of configuration is nessecary? do i need any extra software? any help would be great, thanks.

[pharlap]

just use a program called Tv Tool available from many places and also
http://www.tvtool.de

[theDruid]

or just use the nView part of the nVidia driver - go to Display Properties->Settings->Advanced->nView.

I'd try that before paying for TV tool, as I think the nVidia drivers do a lot of the stuff TV tool does now.

(Make sure you've got a fairly up-to-date nVidia detonator driver first.)

The quality you get doing it this way is unlikely to be as good as even a cheapy DVD standalone by-the-way. Graphics cards for PC's are really designed to work with monitors, and the TV-out is often not great quality; you often get bad colours, dim picture, pixellation etc..

I've got an older and cheaper GeForce card, but my TV-out's not much better than VHS quality when watching DVD's. Plus the fans on my PC are noisy! It's nice to switch it off and play DVD's on my standalone.

Each to their own though!

cheers,
mcdruid.

[jaxxboss]

Actually the quality isnt that bad at all. I guess it all depends on the individual...different strokes for different folks. Use the s vid cable to the s vid on the tv or use ur rca jacks, either way will work. Just gotta make sure you set your graph card to display TV. read your manual or just fart around with your setting on ur graphics card and u should see something for displaying TV out. or maybe its called CLONE. jst look and u will see it, bottom right icon and right click it.

[theDruid]

yeah - the clone function is what I was talking about in nView.

Maybe my TV-out is just bad - mine is quite a cheap GeForce2.

It's not that bad anyway - just not nearly as good as a standalone; I still use it for things I can't be bothered to make (S)VCD's out of.

[pharlap]

it all depends what the tv encoder on board is connexant is the best
believe it or not

[handyguy]

U need audio cables too. Be sure the tv is on before you turn on your computer.

[jaxxboss]

theDruid I had an older ati all in wonder 8mb and i used thatfor awhile, still looked good on my tv, but like you said, its not gonna be like playing ona stanbdalone and yea, I do the same with videos i really just wanna watch but not bother to burn...tv shows mostly.

handyguy, I really dont think it matters if your tv is on first, last or at the same time. I know what you're referring to and it's not much of a problem to send the video to the tv if its not on at first.