Quality Widescreen HDTV PC gaming?

[Guest]

I have searched the forum and can't seem to get a good answer. We recently bought an HDTV ready 57 in widescreen TV primarily for DVD movies (have separate non-pc prog scan player). I hooked up my old Voodoo 3 3000 TV out to the TV but the quality is just plain bad. Obviously I want to upgrade my video card but am not sure if I will be satisfied with the TV output quality.
The X-Box has a converter (30$ US) for HDTVs though I have not seen how it looks personally. I know converters are available for PCs aimed at the DVD/MPEG users. My question is can I buy a good Video card for TV out gaming, such as the ATI Radeon 7500 alone, or do I need to couple this with a HDTV converter as well? Remember this setup is only for gaming.
It seems that the quality TV out for gaming use is largely neglected in the computer industry, yet is available for the X-box. Am I living a pipedream?
Please post your thoughts/opinions on how TV gaming looks with a quality video card. In particular I would like to hear how it compares to the X-Box visuals with the HD converter. Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

As long as yout HDTV TV don't have a direct VGA in to connect computers you will need some sort of a Scan convertor to make the VGA into a TV signal.
Using TV out on a display card require you to work in 800X600 resolution and in any case give poor Quality.
You might be able to find a real Scan convertor for HDTV but it will cost you a arm and leg. (snell&Wilcox make them)

Intel / AMD - <A HREF="http://www.llnl.gov/asci/news/white_news.html" target="_new">IBM are still the best</A>

 

[knowan]

The only card out there right now that has HDTV support is the Radeon 8500 (and its all-in-wonder radeon 8500 cousin). Even then you will have to get seperate software and an adapter.

To my knowledge, no gForce cards have HDTV capability. The Radeon 7500 doesn't either, just the 8500.

here's the <A HREF="http://www.ati.com/na/pages/faq/radeon8500_faq.html#12" target="_new">link</A> from ATI.


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[Guest]

Basicly what ATI are saying is that they made the chip that decode the DVD better and capble of decoding more complicated Mpg2 streams then MP@ML used in DVD.
You still nees a tuner for it and I didn#t see one on ATI site.
More like future compatebility that they are trying to push in as current sell point.

Intel / AMD - <A HREF="http://www.llnl.gov/asci/news/white_news.html" target="_new">IBM are still the best</A>

 

[knowan]

Actually, they do have a DVD decoder chip on the card. Here's a link from <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1555&p=7" target="_new">anandtech</A> where they talk about it.

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[arsend]

Here is a little secrite, any ATI video card that features a DVI-Output can except the HD TV Converter. This is something that they incorporated into the original Radeon AIW and the Radeon VE that very few people know about (with no software needed) However, finding the DVI to component output adapter is a difficult task.

If it works for you then don't fix it.