What is the best standard definition video card?

[ewakkuri]

I have a standard def. TV and I am looking for a good card on a budget to display beyond TV?

[NickHark]

Your post suggests that you want to MERELY watch TV. BTV is a PVR with all its complications and complexity. TBS, I think the best cards are Hauppauge HARDWARE encoding cards. These kinds of cards allow you to run a PVR on less powerful, read "innexpensive", machines. These forums are a wealth of information about the best of everything from motherboards and video cards to drives and displays. Please feel free to become educated as to whether you want to jump in with both feet.

If you need to MERELY watch TV look elsewhere.

[tscales]

I don't think that was his question. He's not asking about tuner cards, he's asking about video cards.

First, we need to know what bus? PCI, AGP or PCI-e.

For SD, almost anything will work, from a bottom-end FX5500 on up.

[ewakkuri]

Yes the question was about video cards. I am currently using a NVIDIA FX 5200 and it looks okay, the problem is the sharpness of the picutre on my standard def. TV. I tried an ATI card (9200SE) and it had an overscan feature that really cleared up the picture and made it really sharp, but my toshiba 36" standard def. image got very wavy or flickery when using. Expecially when there was a lot of motion happening on the screen. Therefore, I was wondering if maybe the overscan is the way to go, but I just need a different card or maybe I just had some settings wrong. Anyway I am looking for suggestions for a video card to connect to my standard def TV with SVideo.

Thanks for all replies.

[ewakkuri]

Also... I forgot to mention I have an AGP card slot. I would be interested in seeing if there were any PCI cards capable of doing the job too.

[Bill Sanders]

I have been very happy with boards using the nVidia chips. My current HTPC uses a board with the 7100 gs chip. I chose it because it seemed to be the most powerful nVidia chip that didn't require a fan (although it has a very big heat sink). The absence of a fan meant that it is totally silent, which is a big plus in an HTPC. It supports two displays with different settings, so you can have different settings for your monitor and TV.

[tscales]

You can get a fanless 7600GS (I have one), but it may be PCI-e only. Great card, but probably beyond what the poster wants to spend. Personally, I'd look for a 6600 or a 7300GS or GT (NOT base or LE).

[tenax]

i agree on a 6600gt oc..with the 7000, 8000 series out now, the 6600's in full fighting trim are a great value and frankly, unless you're a super serious gamer, can handle pretty much anything out there you want to throw out them from pvr to a lot of games. i used a bfg 6600gt oc for 2 years in my pvr system and was very happy with it. i bought a 7900 gs oc (again bfg) cause it was dirt cheap for what i got and i needed to put a card into my daughter's new system.

[btrcp2000]

tigerdirect has a bfg 6600gt agp for $50 afer a rebate. just bought one myself.