RGB SCART Output

[Cwaigy]

Hi,

I'm currently in the process of building a media PC. As I'm in the UK and I've got a Widescreen TV that supports RGB SCART I'd like to use that to get the picture from computer to TV.

I'm planning on only having the TV connected to this PC so no monitor or anything. At the moment the best option I can see for this is a G400 with flashed BIOS as it seems to display everything from DOS on the TV too however I can't find any new G400's at the moment as its an older card.

Are there any alternative Matrox cards available that would provide a similar function? If I can source a G400 is there a better one to go for over another as there appear to be various models.

The other question is do the RGB SCART output these cards provide have any kind of flicker reduction? Also I'd like to be able to set an anamorphic Windows resolution to be outputted to the TV so when I put the TV in 16:9 it stretches it back to the correct aspect ratio and the desktop icons, etc won't look stretched. Is that possible using the G400 or similar Matrox card?

I'm assuming in addition to the graphics card I'll need to make a RGB SCART lead? Is there anywhere that you can buy them to save making one?

Cheers
Craig

[Wombat]

The G400 will be the best card by far. It has a dedicated Maven TV output chip.

[greinedo]

I bought 2 brand new G400 DH 16MB AGP4X on Ebay some months ago (29$). OEM products with SDRAM only. But for home theater or office purpose, they work marvelous !

It's quite easy to make the SCART RGB cable.
Unfortunately I didn't find a solution to have no stretched icons in 16/9 TV mode. Anamorphic DVDs can be played correctly with a Player like Zoom Player (choose Anamorphic Aspect Ratio).

[dZeus]

as greinado says, feeding the TV a 16:9 signal is no problem when playing back videos (DVDMAX) with the G400. You cannot output a 16:9 square pixel aspect ratio desktop resolution to tv-out however.

Since most games have either special 16:9 modes and widescreen TV sets have special '4:3 smart zoom' modes, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

[karma]

Hello

I'm on the HTPC band-wagon too and have an old G400 card. To get things working I've been using a composite-cable and later on a S-vhs cable. Now I want to try the RGB-thing.

Is there really no place that sells this cable?

If I have to make it myself (have someone do it for me) - would they understand it if they just say the diagram (thanks for that, anyway)?

Thanks!

[Cwaigy]

Originally posted by dZeus
as greinado says, feeding the TV a 16:9 signal is no problem when playing back videos (DVDMAX) with the G400. You cannot output a 16:9 square pixel aspect ratio desktop resolution to tv-out however.

It seems that the G400 can't do this, but are any of the later G series cards capable of outputting a 16:9 resolution to TV-Out RGB Scart as thats what I'm after ideally. Failing that I know the P series doesnt support RGB Scart, but I understand the QID does so would the QID allow me to do output 16:9 over TV-Out?

Thanks
Craig