Clear S-Video output

[DTerbrock]

I recently rebuilt an old PC to hook up to my entertainment center to use as a music juke box. I used the old video card which was a PNY GeForce 4 Ti4600 with an S-Video output. I hooked it up to a 57" widescreen HDTV. The quality of the video is horrible. I hooked it up using DVI and the quality is good but for some reason it expanded the picture out past the edges of screen. For example I can just see the very top of the start button. It also did this using the S-Video but if I changed the resolution it would put everything inside the screen. For some reason it will not let me change the resolution when using the DVI connector. I would prefer to use the S-Video since I have everything run through my receiver and that way I only need to change the input on the receiver instead of TV and receiver. Does anyone know of a video card that has a decent quality S-Video output? I don't play games on this machine so it don't have to have high frame rates, I just want a clear picture. Anything under $200 will be acceptable. Thanks.

 

[splenda20]

No need to buy a new card. The reason the picture extends beyond the screen is because the TV doesn't support the resolution your card is running in.
I'm not sure about NVidia, but there are programs for ATI cards that allow you to customize the resolution to suit your needs. I'm sure there is something comparable for NVidia cards that someone here will recommend.

 

[Crashman]

One resolution that should work is 1280x720. The closest "standard" video card resolution is 1280x768. Of course if you have it set at 1280x768, the image will be too tall to fit on the screen, so you need a custom resolution.

There has to be a program somewhere that will allow you to make that setting with your card.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[mopeygoth]

powerstrip should do the job, just google for it

Abit IC7 Max II Adv.- P4E3.0@3.6 - CNPS7000B-CU - i875P - 1024mb dual ddr400 3-2-2-5 - Leadtek 6800 128mb@380/850 - 600W dualfan(front/rear) PowerTek Psu - maxtor 4K080H4 & 6Y120P0 - samsung sm-352b

 

[DTerbrock]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try powerstrip for the meantime but I still plan on replacing the video card in the future so I can use S-Video and simplify using the remote with the entertainment center. I have an 8 year old son who I can easily teach how to use it but I have to make it idiot proof for my 40 year old wife who still still has problems with door knobs and light switches.

 

[mopeygoth]

LOL

I would go with the Ati >=9600Pro/XT for tv-out/HDTV purpose

Abit IC7 Max II Adv.- P4E3.0@3.6 - CNPS7000B-CU - i875P - 1024mb dual ddr400 3-2-2-5 - Leadtek 6800 128mb@380/850 - 600W dualfan(front/rear) PowerTek Psu - maxtor 4K080H4 & 6Y120P0 - samsung sm-352b

 

[cleeve]

You simply can't use S-video to deliver a clear HDTV picture.

Svideo is limited to... heck, I think 120 lines of resolution. That's why it's blurry.

Your DVI output is the way to go. Otherwise, get a videocard that has an optional adapter with true YPbPr (component) outputs.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[DTerbrock]

I'm just looking for something good enough so I can read the text. Right now it's so bad even the word start on the start button is fuzzy. I'm going to try bypassing my receiver, which upconverts the S-Video to component video (HD), just to make sure that's not it but I don't think so since my VCR runs S-Video through the receiver and it looks fine.

 

[cleeve]

I'll put it another way; plain and simple, you can't read clear text at s-video's 120 lines of resolution.

This is not a digital source here, your problem isn't because of some degredation. Your problem is that s-video is not meant to handle the kind of resolution you're trying to get. It's made for pretty fuzzy analog TV output, not digitally represented pixelized text.

S-video will not work for what you're trying to do. You can upconvert 120 lines, use it native, or trace over it with a pencil and it is still going to be blurry as hell.

S-video will never work for reading screen text at 1024*768. If you're running 640*480 you MIGHT be able to make out some of the blurry text. If you're lucky. Probably not.

If you want to read screen text at computer resolutions, you *NEED* DVI or component YPbPr outputs.


________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[grafixmonkey]

I've done what you're trying to do. Basically you won't find anything that will give you readable text through s-video at 1024x768. I have an arcade machine I built, Radeon 9000 AIW card, displays to TV through s-video. Dragged the computer through Circuit City looking for the TV that had the clearest picture. All of the the TVs were blurry, some less than others, none gave readable text at 1024. TV resolution is 720x480, and that gets chopped to about 576x384 because the picture goes past the edge of the TV bezel (b/c of frame safe zone), so that makes sense to me. I found a few TVs that were readable at 800x600, all were clear at 640x480 but I couldn't use windows at that resolution. I tried a couple of their cheaper HDTVs too, and surprisingly they didn't offer much improvement. So the quality is due to the s-video port or cable, and AFAIK the Radeon All In Wonder cards have the highest quality s-vid ports you can get, so my conclusion was you can't get clear picture beyond NTSC resolution with s-video even if you have HDTV with s-video input.

 

[DTerbrock]

In your reply you stated that I need DVI or component video output. Does anyone actually make a video card with component video output? If so I could run that through my receiver and still get it to work the way I want it to. So far I have not seen a card with that type of output.

 

[cleeve]

The only cards I've heard of that have component YPbPr built into the card are some of the new Deltachromes from S3. And I'd avoid those.

Your best bet is to buy an Ati video card and then the corresponding DVI-to-component adapter for that card. You can buy it from the ATI website, about $40 to $50 if memory serves...

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[DTerbrock]

I would like to thank everyone for their help. This is what I finally came up with. I bought an Ati Radeon 9600 XT video card and when I use s-video it looks a lot better than the old geforce 4 Ti4600 and I don't have to screw around with the resolution to get it to fit in the screen everytime I restart the machine. It must have been a bug in the nvidea driver. The Ati software has a lot of very usefull options that let you adjust the width, height, and position of the screen. The smaller text is still fuzzy but readable. I tried using the DVI cable with the new card but when I use it the outside edges of the screen are still hidden by the dezel of the TV. Unfortunatly all of those usefull options for adjusting the screen size that exist when using s-video are not available when using DVI. The Powerstrip software I downloaded also will not allow me to adjust the screen size or resolution when using DVI. I would try a DVI to component adapter but I suspect I would have the same problem as with the DVI connection. It looks like this is as good as it gets. Thanks again for all of the help.

 

[phsstpok]

I don't know squat about HDTV but I know ATI sells an HDTV adapter for Radeon 8500's up thru 9800. One of the models is VGA to component video.

You say you can set the screen sizes in VGA mode so perhaps the adapter is what you need.

Here's a link. Download the user manual and see if there is any helpful information.

<A HREF="http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvadapter/features.html" target="_new">http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvadapter/features.html</A>

<b>A mind is a terrible thing</b>

 

[Crashman]

I told you 1280x720 (for HDTV) is a custom resolution, the closest standard video card resolution being 1280x768. I believe I also told you that Rage3d Tweak allows you to unlock the 1280x720 setting.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>