Any suggestions on a good way to connect pc to tv?

[browngoat0]

I have tried a pc-tv converter that was "low quality" to say the least. I would like to have something that holds the screen settings (so i don't have to readjust everytime the pc is restarted), perhaps a pci card or pcie card? I don't care if it is inboard or outboard but it must offer either an s-video output or component or composite....usa format of course. What are many of you using?

[GKusnick]

Most PCs these days have some sort of TV-out function built in, either on the motherboard or on the graphics card. Even my five-year-old laptop has an S-Video connector. If your PC supports dual monitors, it probably came with a dongle to convert one of those outputs to component or S-Video.

Tell us more about your PC and we'll be able to give more specific advice.

[browngoat0]

well i am "testing" sagetv as of now so rather than putting all this hardware into a new pc, i started on an old HP pavillion with pent4 3.0ghz processor. The motherboard has the stock "built-in" video card with only a vga output. It has 1 available pci slot and 2 picex16 slots as well as a piex1 slot for additions. I am using a hauppauge pvr1600 card for the tuner and the system is working great for pc viewing but I would like to hook up my 43inch HDTV monitor to it, and that is another strange on as it is HD but does not have dvi or hdmi input, just component, composite, and s-video. hope this is enough info for you to point me in the right direction. Thanks for your help. BG


PS, so far I LOVE sagetv, and if this test pc goes well then I will have a theater server built for the living room, thats why i want to work out the do and dont's with this older pc before commiting to a full-blown system build.

[GKusnick]

Any HD-capable PCIe graphics card will have component output (often via a dongle on one of the DVI outputs). I'd recommend something along the lines of an Nvidia 9600 or similar. You'll want a good graphics card anyway for hardware acceleration of HD video decoding.

[browngoat0]

thanks for your replies and help. I am new to sagetv but givin some time and i can see becoming a sagetv-junkie. Thanks again