need video card advice for windows xp

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Postby madmag9999 » Fri Jul 09, 2004 7:46 pm

i use svideo for my comp and it works farily well. and im sure you can install a vid card yourself. its not hard at all. when you are ready to do it one of us can walk you through step by step. its really easy.
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Postby klinky » Sat Jul 10, 2004 12:44 am

You probably won't run in to any problems using S-Video. S-Video won't look as good as a direct DVI input, but if all you want to do is watch movies you should be ok.

Radioshack is about as qualified as you are for installing a video card. >_>

It's really not that hard... :/
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Postby TaranT » Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:44 am

Arigatomyna wrote:Okay, I have the television now and it does have a composite video in section set at 480i/480p. It also has a VGA port and a DTV (not sure what this is >.>) but those are all in the same area so I think they're three types of connectors I could use depending on what card I get. I guess this means it doesn't have the DVI input. ^_^;;

If there is a VGA port (blue 15-pin), then the manual may have instructions about connecting to a PC.
As for "DTV":
Pioneer Electronics wrote:Digital Television (DTV):
Refers to a group of 18 U.S. digital broadcast formats set by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) to replace NTSC, the current but aging television system. Each of the formats uses a different combination of standards for resolution, aspect ratio, frame rates, and progressive/interlaced scanning methods.

Not sure how that relates to what you see. If it's a white connector like the one on klinky's picture above, then it's a type of DVI connector.
Are there video cards that have component outputs? Or would getting something to convert from VGA out (on the video card) to component in (connecting to the TV) settle the resolution problem? I've seen converters like this for sale when I was searching the internet. I definitely don't want to hurt my television if using the VGA causes problems.

ATI sells this little device that plugs into the DVI port on the graphics card and provides the three component jacks. Since it's a standard DVI port, I'm betting this will work on other brands of video cards as well.

One thing, the television also has 4 S video input slots (and one output) - would the resolution be less of a problem if I got a card with S video out and connected it to one of the S video inputs on the television?

Resolution settings would not be a problem at all. Just plug it in and go. S-video isn't too bad. It was the default high-quality option before HDTV came along. All the cards I've seen that have TV-out had an S-video jack; e.g. the Matrox G550 that I mentioned earlier.

And I think I'll let RadioShack install the card I get - I'm not competent to open up my computer and start messing with the inside. o.o ]

As the other guys said, they're usually an easy install. If you Google on "how to install video card" a whole lot of sites come up. Here are two of the better ones:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/installvideocard.mspx
http://www.directron.com/howtovideo.html
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Postby badmartialarts » Sun Jul 11, 2004 10:25 am

The ATI cards pictured above have S-Video outputs, so if worse comes to worse and you can't go full digital signal, you can opt out for that.
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Postby Arigatomina » Sun Jul 11, 2004 7:57 pm

klinky wrote:...but if all you want to do is watch movies you should be ok.

Mostly I want to watch amvs on it - without running around and burning dvds (since my dvd player refuses to read cdrs). I also want to use it as a sort of 'big screen' for displays. It's really hard showing people things when they're all crowded around my little moniter. For movies - dvds/vhs I can just hook up my dvd/vcr player or my ps2. What I want is to be able to use my tv instead of my computer monitor - without hurting my tv.

The television is used, so I don't have a booklet with it. I even had to buy my own remote for it. ^_^;;

I think I'll get a card with multiple ports - vga and s video - and then get some connectors so I can try the three component jacks. That DTV section I mentioned is just another 'component' area - it looks the same as the 'component' section, it just has a different name and two extra 'audio in' ports.

I'm going to have to shop around more before settling on something. ^_^;; At this point I may just get a long vga connector and replace my monitor with my television - no card necessary (the monitor connects to a vga port just like the one on my television, and I can reset my graphics to display at television resolution manually - at least according to my computer 'help' folders).

I just thought the quality would be better with an actual card designed for PC to TV use.
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Postby madmag9999 » Sun Jul 11, 2004 9:35 pm

i highly dought you will be able to use your tv as a moniter. u loose alot of qualtity on a tv and the resolutions suck. this may also be a problem with amv's the quality on the tv will be lower then on the moniter, even with a tv out card. if you gave us the modle and make of the tv we could help you out more but i strongly dought u will be able to replace your moniter with your tv.
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Postby Arigatomina » Sun Jul 11, 2004 10:59 pm

madmag9999 wrote:...i strongly dought u will be able to replace your moniter with your tv.

They did exactly that in every class I had in college, whether they were using laptops or large cumbersome computers. And the televisions varied from small 'up in the corner near the ceiling' ones to large widescreen format ones.' In every instance, they used a single converter (some sort of cord) to connect the two. o.O Either colleges have something secret, or it's entirely possible. That's not even mentioning corporations that regularly connect computer and television to show powerpoint presentations.

Make and model...heh, I'm not sure. It's a Mitsubishi tv, has 'Medallion' on the front along with HDTV 1080 series Integrated and it's a widescreen (but you can change the resolution to fit whatever dvds/visual source you're using - it has a lot of internal options that I haven't played with yet since I don't have a booklet to guide me).
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Postby madmag9999 » Sun Jul 11, 2004 11:11 pm

heh our school has them aswell. it splits the signal at the vga output and our tvs have vga in (the blue 15pin port), i once had a cable that splits the vga signal and turns it into rca but it also wanst that great quality, its good for powerpoints and watching movies and stuff. but if u try to read a webpage on it u can barly make out the letters becouse the pictuer isnt as good as a moniter. same goes for svideo out. i dont see a way of useing a tv as a moniter, u can get that cable and watch movies on the tv and amv's and power points but not webpages, unless your school has some super great conversion cables or something. i still think the best way for you to do it would be to use the DVI port to DVI port as mentiond above or use the svideo port and this will only be good for watching amv's and movies (unless the DVI output to a tv is at moniter quality witch i dont see happening but i have no experiance with useing DVI on a tv.)
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Postby Arigatomina » Sun Jul 11, 2004 11:19 pm

madmag9999 wrote:i still think the best way for you to do it would be to use the DVI port to DVI port as mentiond above-

My television doesn't have a DVI port, just vga, composite video, and svideo.

...or use the svideo port and this will only be good for watching amv's and movies

Amvs are the main 'high quality' footage I'd be wanting to watch. I don't plan to 'replace' my moniter so much as be able to switch over when I want to show something at large scale - such as a video, picture, microsoft text page (word or a notebook type txt file), and hopefully a program or two. The tv is just *way* too big to use all the time, my eyes would be ruined in a few hours. I can barely watch movies on it right now (I've had a 12 inch all my life, this thing is ridiculously huge). And I don't mind a little quality loss - I just wanted to find out which converters/systems would give the best quality so I can go compare prices with a bit of 'education' behind my decision. ^_^;

Besides that, my television has all sorts of video options, like progressive vs ntsc - reading the description before I bought it sounded like they were advertising a computer rather than a television. Unless I'm mistaken all that extra crap was added for video buffs (it doesn't come on the version sold on the mitsubishi hdtv website - the old owner added it himself). I'm fairly sure it will handle computer generated video input - with a little tweaking on the television settings. I just need to figure out which way I want to feed it that footage from the comp. ^.~
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Postby TaranT » Sun Jul 11, 2004 11:29 pm

If you can locate the model number, you may be able to download the owners manual from the Mistubishi TV Web site (click Products button). The model number should be on a paper or metal tag on the back of the TV (along with the serial number, manufacture date, etc.)

More about the component DTV connectors:
Pioneer Electronics wrote:There are two types of component video connections, Y, Cr, Cb, for interlaced signals most commonly found on DVD players, and Y, Pr, Pb for progressive signals, which can be commonly found on progressive scan DVD players, HDTVs, and HD set-top boxes.


For example, on one of my DVD players (the cheap $30 one :roll: ) there is a single set of red-green-blue component connectors on the back. But there is a menu option to change them from interlaced to progressive (YCrCb vs. YPrPb).

The ones on the back of your TV marked "DTV" are probably the progressive inputs.

And...I think in one of your previous posts you mentioned "480p". If that's the maximum number of lines, then with your PC attached, you may only be able to achieve 640x480 resolution. Hard to tell for sure, but if you can get the manual from the Web site, you'll know more about it.
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Postby Arigatomina » Sun Jul 11, 2004 11:43 pm

TaranT wrote:And...I think in one of your previous posts you mentioned "480p". If that's the maximum number of lines, then with your PC attached, you may only be able to achieve 640x480 resolution.

The normal composite section did have that, but the DTV composite ones have 480i/480p/1080i - but if they limit the resolution, it still sucks. o.o I had no idea. The composite and svideo hookups in the front of the television (there are like 6 input areas) don't have any designation above them. Would that mean they aren't limited like the ones on the back, or did they just leave out the text?

Hard to tell for sure, but if you can get the manual from the Web site, you'll know more about it.

Thank you *very* much. ^__^ I'm downloading the manual now - the version number was on the back of the tv. I didn't realize they offered that on the official website (I bought the tv via ebay, so the only pages on the mitsubishi site I saw were the ones the guy linked to in his description of the product).
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Postby madmag9999 » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:07 am

im sorry i miss understood your first post on this page, i though u were trying to rplace your moniter with your tv. the manual should tell you how to connect the tv to your computer and other things about it. if u could link us to it we could probably help u more.
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Postby TaranT » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:26 am

Arigatomyna wrote:The normal composite section did have that, but the DTV composite ones have 480i/480p/1080i - but if they limit the resolution, it still sucks. o.o I had no idea. The composite and svideo hookups in the front of the television (there are like 6 input areas) don't have any designation above them. Would that mean they aren't limited like the ones on the back, or did they just leave out the text?

Nope, there is a limit for the composite and s-video, but only because they are fixed and can never be changed. In other words, you don't have to worry about those.

And keep in mind I'm only bringing up the possibility of an operational limit (there is always a physical limit in the sense of a fixed number of rows of pixels). The manual is really the reference for this.

As a rule you want to operate a flat panel monitor at the "native resolution" - which is the number of rows and columns of physical light elements. You don't have to, but if you don't, the color information will be smeared or divided over several pixels. The picture will not be as sharp.

Thank you *very* much. ^__^ I'm downloading the manual now - the version number was on the back of the tv. I didn't realize they offered that on the official website...

That's something to keep in mind. I know that many - perhaps most - electronics manufacturers are posting the product manuals online now. I guess it helps with tech support, or at least gives the support people a chance to do the "RTFM !!" routine.
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