S-video PQ better than component?

[IM2BZ2P]

I have PVR-350, nvidia geForce2 MX/400, transcoder and Toshiba Cinema series 36" TV. I playing with trial version of Sage, which I really like.

Want to eliminate computer monitor and only use TV. Picture looks great using s-video connection from 350 to TV. But component connection to HD inputs from VGA looks terrible. Have a Toshiba progressive scan DVD hooked to TV by component. That picture is excellent.

Do I need a different VGA card? If so, recommendations?

If not, what else can I tweak? I have latest nvdia and Hauppage drivers AFAIK

Thanks.........Rick

PS: Can't wait for Sage TV 2.0!!

[shuban0]

Are you sure your computer resolution is set to the best HDTV resolution for your TV?

[falchulk]

What are you using to accomplish the "component connection to HD inputs from VGA" and are you using powerstrip?

[deltaforce]

From what I understand, the nVidia cards previous to the FX chipset have a poor TV-out solution. I have not used an nVidia chipset for TV out yet but I am running an ATI 9600 SE and I couldn’t complain. I do plan on using the 350 S-out until HDTV is becomes better (not just with Sage but also with local support) and then I would only run DVI. With the lost of quality you receive from the the converting between analog and digital I personally do not see a difference in quality with S-video and component. Maybe others do but I just don’t see it. I do see it with DVDs from my DVD player.

I had heard that the nVidia fx chipsets use more hardware for their TV-out and produce quality that is up there with ATI. I just have not used it myself since I have always like ATI better for multimedia.

[falchulk]

I have a system with a ati aiw 8500 dv and the output does not come close to my shuttle's onboard geforce4!! Not to mention the built in HW decoder delvers much better looking mpeg 2.

[IM2BZ2P]

I'm using Powerstrip to run a 960x540p resolution at 60hz.

Maybe I should look at one of the new geforce cards?

[falchulk]

what transcoder are you using?

[IM2BZ2P]

Audio Authority 9A60

[cmalinowski]

I'm a newbie and still don't quite understand all of this stuff, but doesn't the s-video on the pvr-350 use the decoder on the card, which is ultimately going to produce better PQ than a software decoder that would be needed for the vga from the video card?

Apologies to my high school english teacher for that lengthy sentence.

Chris

[salsbst]

Originally posted by cmalinowski
I'm a newbie and still don't quite understand all of this stuff, but doesn't the s-video on the pvr-350 use the decoder on the card, which is ultimately going to produce better PQ than a software decoder that would be needed for the vga from the video card?

Apologies to my high school english teacher for that lengthy sentence.

Chris That's a reasonable point.

If one is using the component output to supply a resolution higher than Svideo can do (I do 1080i, but 480p is also nice), then component wins hands down.

However, even if they're both at 480i, it is possible for a software decoder to look as good or better than a hardware decoder, especially with a very fast CPU.

[Crazedz]

Originally posted by deltaforce
From what I understand, the nVidia cards previous to the FX chipset have a poor TV-out solution. I have not used an nVidia chipset for TV out yet but I am running an ATI 9600 SE and I couldn’t complain. I do plan on using the 350 S-out until HDTV is becomes better (not just with Sage but also with local support) and then I would only run DVI. With the lost of quality you receive from the the converting between analog and digital I personally do not see a difference in quality with S-video and component. Maybe others do but I just don’t see it. I do see it with DVDs from my DVD player.

I had heard that the nVidia fx chipsets use more hardware for their TV-out and produce quality that is up there with ATI. I just have not used it myself since I have always like ATI better for multimedia.

Acctually it was all Geforce cards prior to the Geforce 4 Nvidia had problems working out that part of their cards up till then. But they had finally fixed it by the time they put out the Gefroce 4 line of cards. So after that they were pretty much comparative to the ATI cards in reguards to TV output quality. However that is still aguable by thoughs who favor one or the other of course. For me i think either or will work just fine for TV output but if you go the Nvidia route don't use anything less than a Geforce 4 or you will not be at all happy and of course the newer versions may have inprovements for both ATI and Nvidia. Geforce 4 and FX will both work as will almost any ATI and of course don't forget the Matrox cards, Some say they are better than ATI or Nvidia but of course i haven't tried them myself so i can't say for sure but thoughs who use them seem to swear by em so their worth a look.

Sugjestion : Try one of each and see for yourself which one you like the best or think is the best for the money and go with that one, That way you won't have cause to be sorry. That has always been my moto and i haven't gone far wrong useing it when i have yet.

For me it has been a Geforce card they have always worked for me for everything i wanted them to do but for others like my brother up till recently it has been ATI so we both stick with what has made us happy. Though with my brother he has recently switched to Nvidia but that was a personal choice he made for other reasons not connected with video or anything like that, It kinda suprised me when he made the switch i thought he was a die hard ATI fan but hey we all change path's from time to time i guess.

Also if going the PVR 350 route the next beta Sagetv Studio is supposed to allow output of gui over the 350's svidio output so it should be acctually better considering that the 350 does it all in hardware whereas both the Gefroce and ATI as well as Matrox use hardware assisted decoding IE they do some of the harder work in hardware and leave the rest to software to take the hardest load off the cpu. So the 350 will use less of the cpu than a Video card with hardware assist would but i don't think the difference is real huge at anyrate though i haven't looked into it or tested it myself. But other than cpu usage the difference between svideo out on a 350 or svideo out on a Geforce, ATI or Matrox card shouldn't be much different once it comes into the system since it gets converted to digital the only differece at that point is how well it gets converted back to analog via Svideo. Which shouldn't be that different between the four versions to make any one that much better over the other. But of course that is just my own oppinion.

[IM2BZ2P]

It sounds like I SHOULD expect better PQ via component, but that my Geforce2 card may be the issue. After the holidays, I'll try a Geforce4 or ATI 9600XT and see what happens.