rec needed for video card

[seab]

I'm in trouble, I bought an expensive HDTV in 2002 & told my wife it was the last TV we'd ever need. Now I've built a HTPC with a blu-ray disc player & I can't figure out how to play hi-def movies on the TV cause it's component input & only supports 1080i. A HDFury2 also didn't work cause the video card I was using couldn't set the proper res & refresh rates. So I'm in the market for a video card or 2. The 1 for my primary display is a no-brainer, it's the 1 for the last TV we'll ever need that's a puzzle.

[edDV]

I'm in trouble, I bought an expensive HDTV in 2002 & told my wife it was the last TV we'd ever need. Now I've built a HTPC with a blu-ray disc player & I can't figure out how to play hi-def movies on the TV cause it's component input & only supports 1080i. A HDFury2 also didn't work cause the video card I was using couldn't set the proper res & refresh rates. So I'm in the market for a video card or 2. The 1 for my primary display is a no-brainer, it's the 1 for the last TV we'll ever need that's a puzzle.

What is the TV model number and what inputs does it support?

What is your current computer display card?

1080i should work but a 2002 HD ready TV probably is limited to an analog component connection (Y,Pb,Pr). Most current display cards support analog component output at 1080i through the TV port.

The cable shown for this NVidia card connects to the Green, Blue, Red connectors on the HDTV.


Note: Commercial Blue Ray discs may have HDCP encryption which limits playback resolution mto 720x480p. If so, you will need to make youre own discs.

[Soopafresh]

In the event you don't get an answer here, try Avsforum.com although it seems like ed has a solution above

[seab]

What is the TV model number and what inputs does it support?

Its got 2 component 1080i inputs.
Details of the 32" Toshiba 32HFX72: http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=2&group=521&product=801&category=

What is your current computer display card?

None - I've just returned a Radeon HD 4870 1GB to the supplier as defective. I suspect they will not honor the warranty as I've modded the card with a TRad2 cooler & a couple of Artic fans. I had to modify the Artic's electric connection plug with the oem part to make it work. In doing this the oem fan got mangled & I couldn't put the card back into its original condition for the rma. I'm waiting to hear back.

1080i should work but a 2002 HD ready TV probably is limited to an analog component connection (Y,Pb,Pr). Most current display cards support analog component output at 1080i through the TV port.

Yeah - the Radeon has the component adapter, but not the PowerDVD software shown in your photo. I was using Cyberlink that came with the LG blu-ray/hd-dvd drive (GGC-H20L) I bought. (Cyberlink didn't work either)

Note: Commercial Blue Ray discs may have HDCP encryption which limits playback resolution mto 720x480p. If so, you will need to make youre own discs.

Not an option. When you say "commercial", do you mean I'll never be able to play Blockbuster rental blu-ray movies?

...it seems like ed has a solution above

Is the solution you reference the nVidia Palit Geforce card in edDV's photo? What specific model would you suggest?

Once I get a card that will work on my TV, the next problem I will have to solve is the software to make it work.

[edDV]

Is this computer used for gaming? If that isn't a priority stick to NVidia models with "PureVideo HD" (e.g. 8600GT or better) or ATI models with "AVIVO-HD". Make sure the card includes the analog component adapter or cable that you will require.

The card in my photo was just chosen to show typical NVidia packaging including the cable. I wasn't recommending that specific card.

Your display card settings for the TV output should be 1920x1080i @29.97 fps or 720x480p @ 59.94 fps. Test both.

I have a similar CRT TV to your 32HFX72 with INVAR shadow mask. Although the TV supports 1080i input, the CRT shadow mask pitch limits effective resolution seen by the viewer to between 800x600 to 1024x768*. As such you will see some benefit from Blu-Ray but not much. That TV can also show normal DVD at native 720x480p as an alternative when fed 480p.

You are going to need the Cyberlink player shipped with the Blu_Ray drive to decode most store bought Blu-Ray discs. Unfortunately playback resolutions above 720x480p may be inhibited unless an HDMI HDCP compatible monitor is used. This restriction is placed by the disc maker. This won't be a problem for home made discs.

* The specs shown for your TV indicate resolution is closer to the upper end of this range.

[seab]

Is this computer used for gaming? If that isn't a priority stick to NVidia models with "PureVideo HD" (e.g. 8600GT or better) or ATI models with "AVIVO-HD". Make sure the card includes the analog component adapter or cable that you will require.

OK, that's a straightforward recommendation, thanks.

Your display card settings for the TV output should be 1920x1080i @29.97 fps or 720x480p @ 59.94 fps. Test both.

Do I understand you correctly? The 1920x1080i would be for my Blockbuster blu-ray movie rentals & the 720x480p for regular movie dvds.

I have a similar CRT TV to your 32HFX72 with INVAR shadow mask. Although the TV supports 1080i input, the CRT shadow mask pitch limits effective resolution seen by the viewer to between 800x600 to 1024x768*. As such you will see some benefit from Blu-Ray but not much. That TV can also show normal DVD at native 720x480p as an alternative when fed 480p.

Let's see if I've got this part also: when I'm watching hi-def tv from my cable company thru their hd set top box, I get a 1920x1080i res picture; when I watch a dvd rental movie thru a dvd player or dvd disc player in my htpc, I get a 720x480p res picture (upscaling enhancement turned off); and finally, a blu-ray rental movie thru my htpc will NOT display at the same hi-def res as a hi-def tv program but somewhat better than a regular dvd movie.

Thanks for the effort you've put into this.

Here's some of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 advertising that I based my purchase on. Too bad that truth in advertising is so casual!
Add this graphics card to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity
Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
sources
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4870/Pages/ati-r...-overview.aspx
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4870/Pages/ati-r...fications.aspx

[edDV]

Your display card settings for the TV output should be 1920x1080i @29.97 fps or 720x480p @ 59.94 fps. Test both.

Do I understand you correctly? The 1920x1080i would be for my Blockbuster blu-ray movie rentals & the 720x480p for regular movie dvds.

1920x1080i would be the normal setting. It would pass Blu-Ray video over to the TV at native resolution. The HDTV would then draw sequential even and odd 1920x540 pixel fields to the back of the CRT's shadow mask. The shadow mask will pass about 1024x768 pixels to the screen. 16x9 aspect will show about 1024x576 resolution inside the letterbox.

If you play a progressive 720x480 DVD from the computer, the Cyberlink player will either software enlarge or use the display card scaler to telecine and upscale 720x480p to 1920x1080i.

An alternate way to display progressive DVD is to set the display card to 720x480p out. In this mode the Cyberlink player will frame repeat 720x480p 24fps to 59.94 fps. The CRT HDTV will then scan that directly to the CRT's shadow mask. In progressive mode the TV will display a 16x9 (wide) DVD as 720 pixels horizontal and 480 lines centered vertically. The letterbox area is not scanned. All 480 lines are used for the active picture.

See which mode works best for you.

I have a similar CRT TV to your 32HFX72 with INVAR shadow mask. Although the TV supports 1080i input, the CRT shadow mask pitch limits effective resolution seen by the viewer to between 800x600 to 1024x768*. As such you will see some benefit from Blu-Ray but not much. That TV can also show normal DVD at native 720x480p as an alternative when fed 480p.

Let's see if I've got this part also: when I'm watching hi-def tv from my cable company thru their hd set top box, I get a 1920x1080i res picture;

Yes, 1920x1080i is scanned to the back of the shadow mask. From the front you see about 1024x768.

when I watch a dvd rental movie thru a dvd player or dvd disc player in my htpc, I get a 720x480p res picture (upscaling enhancement turned off); and finally, a blu-ray rental movie thru my htpc will NOT display at the same hi-def res as a hi-def tv program but somewhat better than a regular dvd movie.

Not quite.

The DVD player in 480p mode will be scanned as 720x480p to the back of the shadow mask and all 720x480 pixels will be visible from the front inside the letterbox.

If you set your DVD player to upscale to 1080i, then your TV will scan 1920x1080i to the back of the shadow mask and about 1024x768 (1024x576 for letterbox) will be visible from the front.

In 1080i mode for your HD cable box or the computer, the TV will scan 1920x1080i to the back of the shadow mask same as explained above.

[edDV]

Here's some of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 advertising that I based my purchase on. Too bad that truth in advertising is so casual!
Add this graphics card to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity
Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
sources
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4870/Pages/ati-r...-overview.aspx
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4870/Pages/ati-r...fications.aspx

As usual, it gets buried in the footnotes.

1 HD capable monitor required.

2 Blu-ray drive required.

3 This may vary depending on your system configuration and video formats. Using an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz based PC, AMD was able to achieve GPU accelerated transcoding speeds up to 19x faster using Cyberlink PowerDirector than when using the same CPU alone with MainConcept encoder in Adobe Premiere CS3. Using the same system, full 1080p files were converted 1.8x faster than real-time.

ATI Radeon™ HD graphics chips have numerous features integrated into the processor itself (e.g., HDCP, HDMI, etc.). Third parties manufacturing products based on, or incorporating ATI Radeon HD graphics chips, may choose to enable some or all of these features. If a particular feature is important to you, please inquire of the manufacturer if a particular product supports this feature. In addition, some features or technologies may require you to purchase additional components in order to make full use of them (e.g. a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive, HDCP-ready monitor, etc.).

The rub is you don't have an HDCP capable monitor. You may have difficulty playing many Blu-Ray discs at resolutions above 720x480p.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection

[edDV]

CRT definitions...
"shadow mask" is similar to "aperture grill"
http://hankfiles.pcvsconsole.com/answer.php?file=91

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch

Aperture grill


INVAR shadow mask

[MysticE]

I'm in trouble, I bought an expensive HDTV in 2002 & told my wife it was the last TV we'd ever need. Now I've built a HTPC with a blu-ray disc player & I can't figure out how to play hi-def movies on the TV cause it's component input & only supports 1080i...

An almost 8 year old set and the wife is still throwing it in your face? I know what I'd be replacing along with the set.

[seab]

An almost 8 year old set and the wife is still throwing it in your face? I know what I'd be replacing along with the set.

Leaving my personal family issues aside , the 8 year old set is still a beauty. When the manufacturers switched from crt to lcd & plasma screens, they screamed how beautiful the pictures were. NOT! They still aren't there. The picture quality (pq) on my almost 8 year old set is awesome, particularly with a HD broadcast. I'm looking to duplicate the pq from media thru my htpc to my hdtv.

[edDV]

An almost 8 year old set and the wife is still throwing it in your face? I know what I'd be replacing along with the set.

Leaving my personal family issues aside , the 8 year old set is still a beauty. When the manufacturers switched from crt to lcd & plasma screens, they screamed how beautiful the pictures were. NOT! They still aren't there. The picture quality (pq) on my almost 8 year old set is awesome, particularly with a HD broadcast. I'm looking to duplicate the pq from media thru my htpc to my hdtv.

So did the above help?

I still prefer my CRT HDTV for viewing mixed HD and SD video clips from a computer especially for interlaced source. Cable SD and direct VCR playback also looks much better on a CRT IMO. It's also great for edit-monitoring DV-AVI. For progressive movies I prefer a plasma or LCD-TV. A projector would be nice if I had a dark theater.

[seab]

edDV - very very impressive presentation & information. Your effort is truly appreciated.

The rub is you don't have an HDCP capable monitor. You may have difficulty playing many Blu-Ray discs at resolutions above 720x480p.

As I mentioned at the top, I tried a HDFury2 that makes my hdtv hdcp capable. It failed in my case cause the video card didn't support 1080i which is all my hdtv supports.

... stick to NVidia models with "PureVideo HD" (e.g. 8600GT or better) or ATI models with "AVIVO-HD".

Do you have a subjective opinion as to which card company would give the better quality picture on 1) my Dell 2408WFP and 2) my hdtv. If there is a great disparity between the two, are 2 cards an option?

[edDV]

I'm not aware of an HD Fury that supports analog component output. It would be a complicated box.

Purevideo-HD vs. AVIVO-HD is subjective. They both try to do the same thing. Try to find some comparative reviews. I don't have both to compare.

[AnalogRocks]

I'm in trouble, I bought an expensive HDTV in 2002 & told my wife it was the last TV we'd ever need. Now I've built a HTPC with a blu-ray disc player & I can't figure out how to play hi-def movies on the TV cause it's component input & only supports 1080i. A HDFury2 also didn't work cause the video card I was using couldn't set the proper res & refresh rates. So I'm in the market for a video card or 2. The 1 for my primary display is a no-brainer, it's the 1 for the last TV we'll ever need that's a puzzle.

Hi saeb,
did you ever get this working? Do you still have the HDFury2? There are other ways to hook things up.

Regards,
Jeremy

[AnalogRocks]

I'm not aware of an HD Fury that supports analog component output. It would be a complicated box.
.

Hi Ed, not too complicated. The HDFury2 does component output no problem.

[seab]

An almost 8 year old set and the wife is still throwing it in your face? I know what I'd be replacing along with the set.

The wife & I went to see the 3D movie Avatar over the Christmas holidays. We both came to the same conclusion; Wouldn't a big screen be super? Now just waiting for delivery of a 58" Samsung.