Best Quality Video Pc To Tv

[leevirg]

Which of the following methods would give me the BEST quality A/V when I play my downloaded movie files on my TV?
1. A good quality video card with TV out and direct link it to my TV.
2. A PC to TV converter and direct link it to my TV ( maybe even a wireless).
3. A digital HD TV (which I am going to buy whatever method I use) with a VGA input and direct link it to my PC VGA output.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bronco]

I too would be interested to know this.

Like yourself leevirg, i am also wanting to watch my movies on my tv.

Having done quite a bit of research im led to believe that the HD TV way with direct
VGA input would give the best results although i cant be 100% sure.

Me, not having the funds for a HD TV ( stupidly expensive imo) am going the
video card with TV out way, but thats more thru having no other option really.

Btw heard your #3 choice gives not so good qualty results as i considered this
method ( think its known as a scan converter)


bronco

[clocker]

Originally posted by leevirg@22 June 2003 - 07:37
Which of the following methods would give me the BEST quality A/V when I play my downloaded movie files on my TV?
1. A good quality video card with TV out and direct link it to my TV.
2. A PC to TV converter and direct link it to my TV ( maybe even a wireless).
3. A digital HD TV (which I am going to buy whatever method I use) with a VGA input and direct link it to my PC VGA output.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think #1.
I have a Radeon 9000Pro card and it gives very good results on my tv.

I only have a Sony 27" regular tv though, so results may differ with a better tube.

The big advantage of this method is that you don't have to do anything to your movie files in order to watch them on tv. No converting, no burning to DVD, etc.

[leevirg]

the radeon 9000 was one of the cards I was considering, I can buy it locally for $90 at radio shack. Was there much of a proplem hooking it up. also can you be working in your computer on something else and watch a movie on the tv at the same time??

[3RA1N1AC]

well, i think that (theoretically) VGA should be the best connection, out of the choices you listed. but it is fairly rare to find a video card that has TWO VGA outputs on it (if you want to continue using a CRT monitor as well), although they do exist. much more common are cards with ONE VGA output and ONE DVI output.

and if you're going to buy an expensive television, any tv that would boast a VGA connection should also include DVI. that should be even better than VGA as it would mean that the connection is sending a pixel-perfect digital signal across the DVI cable (as opposed to the analog signal of VGA which is subject to interference, distortion, etc). the trick here is to verify that the brand of tv you buy has a DVI connection that supports PCs. i have read a few articles about certain brands of tv accepting DVI but not DVI from PCs, so you would spare yourself a headache by making sure that the DVI input does support PCs if you intend to use it for that purpose.

and yeah, if you get a Radeon 9000, you can display a movie on one screen and do other things on your computer monitor. it takes a bit of fiddling with the drivers (the most important steps are to set the tv as the secondary screen, enable theater mode, and set your movie program to use the hardware overlay), but it isn't terribly complicated.

[b33fy]

I too was fed up with converting avis to vcd, bought an Epia M1000 m/b and built a computer round it, it comes with processor, video-out (s-video) and sound processor, run all my avis through the tv now- its great.

Have a look at http://www.mini-itx.com/ for some whacky ideas.