Best video card for CRT TV setup?

[uncleben]

Hello, this is my first post, been lurking for a while though. Sorry if this has been covered.

I had an older ATI Radeon (??) that died and found a temporary older NVidia GEForce4 MX440 (AGP) to use. The ATI was decent but not the best so it's just as well I have to look for something new. I have a 34" Sony Wega CRT-based TV. Getting computer output on a CRT TV is a bitch and the refresh rate makes it useless to act as a PC; I wish I'd spent the money on a DLP/LCD/whatever! But Anyway, I have been using a DVI->HDMI cable and the picture is pretty good but it is a real PITA to get resolution the way I want it. Fortunately the NVidia tools that come with the drivers seem a little more friendly in tweaking to a CRT TV that needs custom rez than the ATI software was. (originally when I started trying to connect the PC to my Sony I used Powerstrip but never was very fond of it)

So on to my question. This NVidia is slow and playback of BTV video recorded from my Hauppage WinPVR-250 is horrible. Oddly enough when I playback downloaded DivX/XVid content they play pretty smooth. Maybe it's because I've got BTV set to record at the highest setting and it's too much for the older card to playback. Okay, still haven't got to my question.. haha! What do you all recommend for an AGP video card with DVI output (pref Nvidia but I'm open to suggestions) that will work great with BTV on a Sony CRT? I'm particularly interested in what you guys that are using CRT TV's are using.

If I need to spend a lot, I'd just assume put it towards a new mobo/proc/mem and PCI-express but that sure seems overkill for a DVR PC.

BTV is cool and all but I'm about to the point I just want to fork over a few more bucks a month to the cable company and get their DVR with HD and just keep the PC hooked up for playback of downloads. I just love the BTV features (smart skip!!) and of mainly the ability to copy off the captures for my own use.

thanks


PS: my system is an older AMD Athlon XP1300 with 1GB ram / 250gb SATA running WinXP Pro.

[uncleben]

Another bit of info- I have never seemed to have much luck with either video card setting the BTV playback settings where you can change which video/audio playback and the 3d/hardware/deinterlacing settings. At least I assume it's because of the video cards I had.

So in otherwords, I want the best AGP video card that is the most 100% compatible with BTV and works well with a CRT.

Sorry for the long first post

[zurik]

I'm primarily in the same boat as you here. I am using a CRT TV and find the resolution less than desirable. Unfortunately that's pretty much natural as tube TVs use old technology and weren't designed for PC output. I have a GeForce 6200. My connection is via S-Video. I'm considering using a PC-to-TV scan converter, but I'm not sure if these work any better. I would think they might because they seem to support higher refresh rates and resolutions than a TV out would. Has anyone had experience using on of these?

[Mr_eon]

I've been very happy with my Nvidia 6600GT Component Video output to a 32" CRT TV. I'm recording off a PVR150 and a TV Wonder Elite.

Are you having playback trouble with Mpeg-2 or showsqueezed files? If you cannot play Mpeg2 smoothly but the showsqueeze works fine, try dropping the data rate by 500's until it works. Before my last processor upgrade I couldn't do mpeg2 better than 640x480 @ 5000 kbps.

[bnflaherty]

Originally Posted by zurik

I'm considering using a PC-to-TV scan converter, but I'm not sure if these work any better. I would think they might because they seem to support higher refresh rates and resolutions than a TV out would. Has anyone had experience using on of these?

See my sig for my Link configuration ....

[uncleben]

Originally Posted by Mr_eon

I've been very happy with my Nvidia 6600GT Component Video output to a 32" CRT TV. I'm recording off a PVR150 and a TV Wonder Elite.

What resolution do you output to? Is that a wide screen HD TV?

Are you having playback trouble with Mpeg-2 or showsqueezed files? If you cannot play Mpeg2 smoothly but the showsqueeze works fine, try dropping the data rate by 500's until it works. Before my last processor upgrade I couldn't do mpeg2 better than 640x480 @ 5000 kbps.

You know actually, I don't bother with showsqueeze usually just because I have so much diskspace and I don't usually get below 20 hours of free recording. Do you change the bitrate via webadmin or something? I changed the quality from "Best (DVD)" to "Good (DVD)" I believe and it did seem to produce much smoother playback. I record a lot of F1 and sports car racing on Speed Channel and there's nothing more annoying than cars flying past the screen in a choppy fashion!!

[MagnumRT]

I just bought a PCI express 7600 GS GeForce and I haven't figured out how to make it output to the TV sharply like my ATI Radeon 9250 did. I'm using a s-video cable as well.

The ATI had an option in its panel for "Video Mode for TV" where it increases its sharpness dramatically at 640x480. The video looked like it was coming right off of a regular digital box or satellite.

With the Geforce, I can't find anywhere where I could use that option. It's all fuzzy on the TV.

The reason I had to switch was cause I changed to a new motherboard that only uses pci express. If I can't figure out how to make that Geforce output to my tv as well as the ATI did, I may switch to a pci express ATI card.

[Mr_eon]

I record at 720x480 @ 7000 kbps now. I showsqueeze it down to 720x480 @ 2500 kbps. That puts me right at 1Gb/hour for the final file.

I output at the full 720x480 that SDTV can do.

Yes, the settings for resolution are in the webadmin under advanced settings, Recording qualities.

My Earlier machine I recorded at 576x330 @ 4000 kbps. you might want to try that and see how the playback looks. The issue that kept me from higher data rates was not the TV tuner since it was a hardware encoder, but when I tried to play the file back it would stutter, on a better machine the file worked fine.

Originally Posted by uncleben

What resolution do you output to? Is that a wide screen HD TV?



You know actually, I don't bother with showsqueeze usually just because I have so much diskspace and I don't usually get below 20 hours of free recording. Do you change the bitrate via webadmin or something? I changed the quality from "Best (DVD)" to "Good (DVD)" I believe and it did seem to produce much smoother playback. I record a lot of F1 and sports car racing on Speed Channel and there's nothing more annoying than cars flying past the screen in a choppy fashion!!

[Mr_eon]

Are you using digital output or Analog?

Originally Posted by MagnumRT

I just bought a PCI express 7600 GS GeForce and I haven't figured out how to make it output to the TV sharply like my ATI Radeon 9250 did. I'm using a s-video cable as well.

The ATI had an option in its panel for "Video Mode for TV" where it increases its sharpness dramatically at 640x480. The video looked like it was coming right off of a regular digital box or satellite.

With the Geforce, I can't find anywhere where I could use that option. It's all fuzzy on the TV.

The reason I had to switch was cause I changed to a new motherboard that only uses pci express. If I can't figure out how to make that Geforce output to my tv as well as the ATI did, I may switch to a pci express ATI card.

[MagnumRT]

I'm using a regular crt TV. I think I figured it out. I downloaded the latest drivers and gave me an option in control panel to zoom in/out and to reduce or increase the flicker (more flicker, sharper video). So far it looks OK but I think I'm still more in favor of my old ATI 9250.

Before I go back to ATI, is the 7600 GT from evga a good choice? It has dual DVI, it says HDTV out, but can I use that same connector for an s-video to my regular CRT?

HDTV is in the future also.

[ClamsTheCat]

I have not seen a DVI to S-Video converter. Most DVI outputs on video cards are DVI-D meaning they are a digital video signal. S-Video is an analog connector. It sounds like you need a video card with S-Video outputs on it.

I am moving up to an HDTV (with HDMI connector) just for this reason. It seems like CRT TVs just do not display computer images very well. Especially at anything higher than 640x480.

[Bigbird999]

Magnum
The 7600 is a lot more power than you need for BTV , but does it not have svideo out as well??

BB

[MagnumRT]

I'm not just using it for BTV only, it's my "everything" box. I got the card to where it seems like it shows better on the TV than my old ATI. so I'm happy now. But I stillordered the 7600GT anyway because I want to start getting into games. It will be here Friday so I can play with it.

[Bigbird999]

KEWL

Game on!!!!

BB

[uncleben]

anyone else have thoughts on the best card for CRT TV's?