PCI TV out card?

[cmessa]

I have a system that has onboard video and I want to add a TV out card. I was looking at the Geforce Mx440 Video card, 64 mb DDR, TV_out, PCI. Anyone have any experience with this card?

What about other TV out cards that are PCI. I do not need this computer to use a monitor at all as it will be a dedicated machine for Beyond TV. Any suggestions or comment?

I have read that mixing cards is not good, but this will just be eliminating the onboard video.

Any TV out only cards available?

Thanks,
Cmessa

[Brett]

I have never owned a motherboard with onboard memory, do they have AGP slots as well? I would think so, and if that is the case the *economy* recommendation for a videocard seems to be the GeForce5200. The MX cards have several issues from what I have read, not neccessarily with BTV but with windows in general. Regardless of whether its AGP or PCI, you will need to disable the onboard video through the bios (or a jumper depending on the age of the system).

-Brett

[cmessa]

It has no additonal AGP slots for any more video cards. It is one of my dell servers, so it was designed to not have a monitor most of the time. It has a ton of hard drive space and the resources are not being used much. So I was hopeing that it would be a good match. But.... after looking more, it only has 1 pci normal pci slot. To much trouble to add the additional cards I need.

So I decided to use another computer and ordered a 440 mx card before I read your reply. What issues does this card have with Windows?

Hopefully with the pvr-250 and the 440 mx card, I can do what I want with BTV.

[WillP]

I have a 2 GF4-MX 440 cards. One in my main PC and one in my BTV box. I haven't had any problems myself. Works very well with BTV and the nVIDIA decoder. Of course this is only one person's experience.

Whatever vid card you have, make sure to update the driver before installing BTV. Likewise for all your other hardware. And DON'T USE THE DRIVERS FROM THE CD THAT COMES WITH THE PVR-250. Use the latest drivers from Hauppauge's site.

Will

[toby3264]

I have never seen a card wich just had video outs (for tvs) although it would be nice if there was one. If i were buying a new video card again I would buy a Radian card (Radian 7500 or higher). I have problems with nvidia cards. I dont even like my fx 5600 wich is supossibly a good card. It is a joke as far as features go. Nview is the worst program ever. A nvidia card can only "see" two moniters at a time (found out the hard way... tried three moniters) I also had a radion 9000 pro wich would display for moniters the drivers for the radion are also bundled with much better softwere. Another thing that shoked my was my radion 9000 actually ran higher framrates than my nvidia card. Nvidia cards also have some wierd bug wich causes some programs to lanch off screen havent figured that one out (it happens when you switch primary moniters) I also found out a trick to help anyone who runs there pc with a moniter and a tv. you can put the tv to primary display load beyond tv (wait for it to fully load) and then switch the moniter to the primary display. Beyond tv should stay on the other display.

[RobertH]

any geforce4mx, fx and most of the 2mx cards will boot with just the svideo output connected and will set the svideo as the default output in windows and will show the boot screens on the svideo out as long as there is no device hooked to the vga/dvi connector

[Brett]

MX cards have in the past typically frustrated hardcore gamers, no issues if your using it just for a pure BTV server though, or so I I believe.

-Brett

[WillP]

any geforce4mx, fx and most of the 2mx cards will boot with just the svideo output connected and will set the svideo as the default output in windows and will show the boot screens on the svideo out as long as there is no device hooked to the vga/dvi connector

Yeah, I actually installed Windows with the TV as the only display. I wouldn't do it again though unless I get a larger TV. Pretty hard to read the text! Although I've installed Windows so many times I pretty much have every screen memorized.

Will

[RobertH]

i use a mx4 (pny geforce4 mx440 se 64mb 8x agp) and get great results with it in games, I play wolf, et, and hl/cs and get frame rates over 125 in wolf/et (capped it at 125 cause its the magic number) and well over 250 in hl/cs at 1024x768, of course Ill have to replace it when doom3 and hl2 come out but until then its a great card for the 69$ i payed for it at walmart

and both of my mx cards work great with btv and I get even better results because I use nvdvd with them

[TomZ]

I wouldn't do it again though unless I get a larger TV. Pretty hard to read the text!

A larger TV just makes the blurry stuff bigger.

You can change the DPI in the advanced setup of your display and get bigger fonts.

[WillP]

You can change the DPI in the advanced setup of your display and get bigger fonts.

Yeah I know. In my post I was referring to the Windows installation screens.

Will

[TomZ]

Starting to formulate a rule here...

"Read the entire post before replying!"