Better TV-out

[diuby]

Could i see a very noticeable difference between my G400max and a new Parhelia? And with ATI(or Hercules) Radeon 8500?

What are your experiences?


Thanks

[diuby]

No experiences?

[defaultuser]

I'll tell ya what, I've been pretty lazy about this, but I'll go out to radshack this weekend and buy an S-VIDEO extender so I can test out my 8500's TV-out.

To be perfectly honest, I already have a composite cable long enough, and since I'm not a friend of the Department of Redundancy Department, I've just been using my old G400 MAX with composite.

But you've piqued my curiosity

[diuby]

Thanks for your reply defaultuser.


I use a S-video cable to SCART with my old 27'' TV and it seems only slightly better (especially color) than composite cable on my good old G400Max.

I'd like to try a Parhelia for comparison..............but is very expensive......

[defaultuser]

Okay, I picked up a good 25 foot Svideo cable this weekend, and I must say I should have done this sooner - the edges are crisper and the colors are more saturated.

As for the comparison between my Radeon 8500 and the G400 MAX...

I tested both machines at 800x600 for video, a reasonable resolution for DIVX and DVDs, and the desktop font is still slightly readable.

Both the G400 MAX and the Radeon 8500 had excellent color quality, and ATI's "Theatre View" does the same thing with overlays as Matrox's DVDMAX, so they're both one-click solutions for displaying video.

One thing I noticed was when displaying a video, the G400 MAX gave me a picture so perfectly sized I didn't even want to adjust it.

The Radeon's picture was not quite rectangular, and they don't give you any controls beyond position and size. The problem mostly went away though as I corrected the screen proportions, so it was hardly noticeable.

Both TV-outs are capable of displaying text sharp enough to be discerned, especially at 640x480, and both driversets come with adjustable sharpness for easy test reading. I may be imagining things, but the G400 might have had a leg up on the Radeon. But again the difference was slight if any.

A plus for ATI:
The display layout is very clear. You have one screen with your display choices, and you can see AND configure every single one of your displays in the same window.

Also, when I plugged the Svideo cable into the Radeon and started my computer it automatically enabled the TV-out and configured the second display. I am not sure if the G400 does this, I havn't had the chance to try it.

A big minus for the G400 MAX:
Everyone knows this one. It is too damn easy to screw up and enable DualHead when you want to enable DVDMAX - I managed to forget to connect the svideo cable up, and that's all it took. The trouble is, DualHead requires a restart, and the TV-out doesn't. At least it hasn't in my experience.

Worst of all, DualHead switches your primary display, so if you don't have easy access to the rear of the PC, you have to go digging or use the TV to fix the problem.

Obviously I'm only mentioning this problem because I encountered it the second time I was enabling the Matrox TV-out for a more thorough check. That and this is not the first time I've run into this issue. ATI's drivers may have similar quirks, but I havn't run into them.

[D0ug]

The G400 can display the PC screen during the boot processess. However it seems it dosnt support the resolution of the BIOS post screen. When i hit del to enter my bios, i can see the BIOS setup screen on the TV, and the screen where my FastTrack66 RAID controler detects the HDs displays fine on the TV, as does the txt mode progress bar of win2k startup, and the graphical splashscreen/progress bar

In order to get TV out before entering windows, you need to flash the bios, and enable the option fos DOS tv out in the bios flash utility.

Originally posted by defaultuser
Okay, I picked up a good 25 foot Svideo cable this weekend, and I must say I should have done this sooner - the edges are crisper and the colors are more saturated.

As for the comparison between my Radeon 8500 and the G400 MAX...

I tested both machines at 800x600 for video, a reasonable resolution for DIVX and DVDs, and the desktop font is still slightly readable.

Both the G400 MAX and the Radeon 8500 had excellent color quality, and ATI's "Theatre View" does the same thing with overlays as Matrox's DVDMAX, so they're both one-click solutions for displaying video.

One thing I noticed was when displaying a video, the G400 MAX gave me a picture so perfectly sized I didn't even want to adjust it.

The Radeon's picture was not quite rectangular, and they don't give you any controls beyond position and size. The problem mostly went away though as I corrected the screen proportions, so it was hardly noticeable.

Both TV-outs are capable of displaying text sharp enough to be discerned, especially at 640x480, and both driversets come with adjustable sharpness for easy test reading. I may be imagining things, but the G400 might have had a leg up on the Radeon. But again the difference was slight if any.

A plus for ATI:
The display layout is very clear. You have one screen with your display choices, and you can see AND configure every single one of your displays in the same window.

Also, when I plugged the Svideo cable into the Radeon and started my computer it automatically enabled the TV-out and configured the second display. I am not sure if the G400 does this, I havn't had the chance to try it.

A big minus for the G400 MAX:
Everyone knows this one. It is too damn easy to screw up and enable DualHead when you want to enable DVDMAX - I managed to forget to connect the svideo cable up, and that's all it took. The trouble is, DualHead requires a restart, and the TV-out doesn't. At least it hasn't in my experience.

Worst of all, DualHead switches your primary display, so if you don't have easy access to the rear of the PC, you have to go digging or use the TV to fix the problem.

Obviously I'm only mentioning this problem because I encountered it the second time I was enabling the Matrox TV-out for a more thorough check. That and this is not the first time I've run into this issue. ATI's drivers may have similar quirks, but I havn't run into them.

[defaultuser]

An update:

I tried some ZSNES action tonight and was fairly impressed.

%25 scanlines made even the filtered, stretched picture look crisp. And while they look horrible on PC, they sure make the difference on TV-out.

To put it bluntly:

It's not as perfect as my G400 MAX in terms of quality, but it is certainly very good and fairly configurable. If you're looking to read text a lot on your TV ( ala web-TV or something like it ), or the type of person who is driven nuts by even a tiny distortion, then stay with Matrox.

But otherwise you have no reason to hold back, ATI has done a good job matching Matrox's feature-set.

I do like the ATI control panel setup, it seems to make switching between outputs a cinch.

* D0ug

Just in reply, it's not like I'm going to be using that particular feature at all for my personal use, but I figured there are some people who would like to build a standalone classic gaming PC, and a feature like that would be a must. Nice to know the G400 can do it too.

[diuby]

Thank you defaultuser for the detailed information about ATI Tv-Out and driver features.

Anyone can make comparison about G400Max Tv-Out vs Parhelia?