Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Best Video Card for HDTV
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rojito   01-19-2008 at 07:37:01 PM

Hi guys, I'm buying a new PC and was wondering about the video card I should buy.

The thing is most reviews are about gaming and my priority is to be able to watch HDTV (Probably 1080p on an LCD TV) connecting the card directly to the TV (HDMI to DVI Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6812189058).

My Main Priorities are:

1. 1080p capable to watch HD Movies on my TV (Mandatory).
2. Won't get obsolete for about 2-3 years.
3. Be able to do a little gaming (Medium quality settings on a 1680 x 1050 pixel monitor).
4. Low Noise.

I'm thinking about this Radeon HD 8500 256 MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814241066
since is a mid-low budget and is DirectX 10.1 compatible.

What do you guys think?


Message edited by rojito on 01-19-2008 at 07:55:52 PM
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Spyhawk   01-19-2008 at 08:44:50 PM
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Well if you want a decent playing video card as well as the very best HD you can get, you should take a look at this radeon HD 3850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814103049. You cant go wrong for only 169$ Thats a kickass product for the money

Message quoted 1 times
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dariushro   01-20-2008 at 12:14:54 AM
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Spyhawk , that's the card OP had in mind...

Nothing can beat the 3850's value atm imo...

Reply to dariushro
Wolfshadw   01-20-2008 at 12:56:18 AM
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Thumbs up on the HD 3850. You could probably get away with an HD2600XT as well.

-Wolf sends

------------------------------ System Specs:
Gigabyte EP43-UD3L Intel Core2Quad Q8400 8 Gig RAM
NVidia Geforce 8800GTS-640/Creative X-FI Extreme Music/Dual-Boot XP-64&Server2008
 Reply to Wolfshadw
rojito   01-20-2008 at 03:41:24 PM
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Spyhawk wrote :

Well if you want a decent playing video card as well as the very best HD you can get, you should take a look at this radeon HD 3850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814103049. You cant go wrong for only 169$ Thats a kickass product for the money


Thanks guys, I wasn't sure if a HD 3850 would be enough for what I wanted, I'll be buying it soon...

Reply to rojito
vincio_filiarum   01-20-2008 at 05:22:17 PM
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Why cant you do a little gaming on that hdtv of yours? saves you outputting to two places.

Message quoted 1 times
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rojito   01-21-2008 at 01:14:08 AM
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vincio_filiarum wrote :

Why cant you do a little gaming on that hdtv of yours? saves you outputting to two places.



Well the thing is the computer won't be where I will be watching the movies, but is the HD 3850 capable of outputting to two places? Or Will I have to tell the video card to output only to the HDTV when watching movies?

Reply to rojito
serulin   03-31-2009 at 07:03:37 AM
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I have a similar situation, but my budget is very low around $50ish. The person I am setting this up for only has agp (2x) maybe 4x mobo and pci slots. Upgrading anything except for a video card is out of the question for him.

So I want to ask, what is the cheapest graphics card I can get that will allow him to just use his hdtv as a monitor and watch tv, stream movies (basically everything besides gaming) on it?

I was looking at some of these but am not sure if they would be suffice. (As in it wont lag or anything)


PowerColor Radeon X1650Pro 256M TV-Out/2DVI vg-agp-pow-002
PowerColor Radeon X1650Pro 512M TV-Out/2DVI vg-agp-pow-001
eVGA GeForce FX5200 128M TV-Out vg-agp-evg-007
eVGA GeForce 6200A 256M TV-Out/DVI

Thanks!


Message edited by serulin on 03-31-2009 at 07:06:31 AM
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rojito   03-31-2009 at 06:42:15 PM
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I you need audio over hdmi I recommend this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121273

its 46$ (AGP4x) and you`ll need an HDMI adapter (About 10$ more, it has to be for ati 3000 and 4000 series).

If it's not an issue, any HDCP compliant video card with a DVI out and a dvi to hdmi cable will do

Reply to rojito
serulin   03-31-2009 at 09:53:55 PM
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Thanks rojito!

Whats good about the one in the link and how does it have audio?

Would the speakers on the hdtv be better than pc speakers?


Do you know what the quality would be like to convert vga to hdmi? Or svideo to hdmi?

Reply to serulin
rojito   04-04-2009 at 01:16:04 AM
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HDMI cable can carry audio and video at the same time, but any average computer speaker (2.1) would be much better than average TV speaker. The good thing about the one in the link is that it has audio over HDMI, but that depends on if you're going to use it or not.

I don't know if you can convert vga or svideo to hdmi, what I can tell you is the quality of each one connected to your LCD or Plasma.

DVI or HDMI, Best!!!!
VGA, lower, but good
SVIDEO, as if you're watching movies on conventional TV's (even lower).

But I repeat, if you have an LCD or Plasma TV, and don't care about audio over HDMI "any HDCP compliant video card with a DVI out and a dvi to hdmi cable will do "
The dvi to hdmi cable is because TVs don't usually have dvi inputs. And beware, some tvs don't even have vga inputs, that's why I recommend dvi, since svideo is a lot worse than the other choices.

Reply to rojito
MeWiki   06-10-2009 at 10:30:04 AM
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One more think about Audio and new LCD tv's.

If I connect the TV out (svideo) of the PC to my LCD tv and the Audio directly to 2.1 computer speakers they are out of sync.
There is a delay before the pixture is shown so you here the audio before the pixture.

I don't no if this is the case with HDMI. The TV has less computing before it can show the pixture.


Reply to MeWiki
rojito   06-10-2009 at 06:02:08 PM
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Sorry man, it seems to be a software problem I have never encountered, so I can't help you with that. All Computer to TV connections I have ever made have been perfectly sync, even one as yours (s-video to tv and audio directly from comp to 2.1 speakers).

Reply to rojito
geforce gtk   06-10-2009 at 11:06:40 PM
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Get The passive cooled 4670 Radeon.

Built in HDMI so you just plug in the Cable.

GREAT for gaming may i say! they said its nowhere near a 9600GT, however my one compares to a 8800GT in most games, everything on max.

Reply to geforce gtk
haril79   10-01-2009 at 07:25:05 AM
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Hi Guys,

I was looking into this and thinking about getting the VisonTek All in Wonder HD or the Diamond 4870, I see prices for around $150-170 , Ebay Amazon....

Now I was reading posts and got interested in the Nvidia 9600.

Can someone help me out ? My main concern is HD movies and TV.

Gaming very little. Mainly concerned with Image and product reliability.

Haril@mlusa.us

www.mk4ghd.com
www.buyghdhairstraightners.com

Reply to haril79
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