Best card for TV-Out?

[Krobar]

Im looking for a new graphics card that offers the highest possible tv-out quality to a projector (Cant use VGA cable due to cabling concerns). Fanless is also a bonus.

Trouble is cant decide between ATI or Matrox. Component Video output would be best but my HT amp contains a good quality video convertor anyway. Can anyone recommend a card?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Sasq]

Is this for powerpoint presentations (ie mostly 2D) or is this for gaming or 3D presentations?

Dan

[az]

The current ATI cards' TV out quality is crap, sorry. Dunno about the 8500's one, though.

AZ

[Krobar]

Its actually simply for a jukebox (2D). I want to get rid of the seperate monitor and put the output into the projector through the amp. I tried a geforce 3 TV-out and the quality was not acceptable. A friend's GF4MX fared much better but still the best image quality is what I want.

Also I dont understand how you get Component Vid out of the ATIs, they dont have 3 phono jacks for output.

[rugger]

The gf4mx is actually pretty good,

Set it for TV resolution, it looks very nice. 800x600 and 640x480 doesn't look bad either. 1024x768 gives terrible quality though, probably because 1024x768 is much higher than a TV's real resoultion.

[Sasq]

Actually I was thinking a second hand G400 - cheap and good IQ. also can be tweaked to do TV from boot up. (IIRC)

Dan

[LvR]

Originally posted by rugger
Set it for TV resolution, it looks very nice. 800x600 and 640x480 doesn't look bad either. 1024x768 gives terrible quality though, probably because 1024x768 is much higher than a TV's real resoultion. [/B]

Interesting that........Is this statement true for all cards with TV-out? - my current ATI card says TVout is set at 1024x768 - exactly the same as the PC monitor display and I cant seem to find a way of changing that rez independant from the PC screen properties.

[rugger]

Originally posted by LvR
Interesting that........Is this statement true for all cards with TV-out? - my current ATI card says TVout is set at 1024x768 - exactly the same as the PC monitor display and I cant seem to find a way of changing that rez independant from the PC screen properties.

No, the problem is that ATI drivers suck.

Nvidia's drivers has no such problems. (although, they have a whole set of their own quirks)

[dZeus]

TV-Out on ATI R300/R350-based cards is abysmal indeed. The drivers are incredibly buggy regarding tv-out, and quality is horrible compared to the G400.

[Maggi]

get a G400 32MB DualHead, it's still unbeaten in TVout quality.

[LvR]

I have both a G400 and a 450eTV- and with those cards this thought has never even crossed my mind because these things just work as advertised so yes, Matrox rules.

[az]

I heard the G550 isn't as good, is that true?

AZ

[mmp121]

Is there a G400 PCI version that can do the DOS boot up display like my G400MAX AGP can?

I want to replace my G400MAX AGP in my shuttle system with a higher end card (to be able to game) and still have it hooked up to my TV as a HTPC.

[Goc]

No G400 PCI AFAIK...

[Krobar]

Thanks for all the help.

Im gonna search out a G400 (Not Max) on ebay.