Standard TV Interlacing Question

[Humanzee]

So I got this fancy pants nVidia 6600GT with all the wiz bang component video outputs and stuff. Mostly because of all the favorable comments about it on these forums, and because someday I will move into the HDTV scene.

For now, I am using the S-VHS output on the card and plugging it right into my TV and running it at 600x800. My TV is an older RCA 31" set and is nothing special. If a standard TV signal is 480 x 720 interlaced (480i), can it even display a progressive signal?

I am running the trial of the nVidia PureVideo decoder, which is supposed to be really good at actively de-interlacing the video. However, my guess is that this won't give me any improvement in the picture until after I get an HDTV that can render progressive images at a better resolution. I mean the picture definitely looks better on my computer screen with the PureVideo decoder than with out, but I’m not sure I can tell the difference on the TV set.

Would I be wasting my money at this point in time to buy the nVidia PureVideo decoder software?

[Humanzee]

bump

[dagar]

You'll need to check the spec's on your TV for certain. But from what you have written, it appears it is 480i only. The 'i' in 480 refers to interlaced. If it was a progressive set, it would be 480p.

You may want to head over to avsforum or htpcnews.com and search around there for the details. That is, unless Stanger or someone else here adds to it.

It's actually S-video (SVHS does use that interface too )

As for the Purevideo part ... I'll save that for someone else

[GeoffQ]

You can't see any of those enhancements on your tv.
HTH
GeoffQ

[Humanzee]

Thanks, thats what I figured. Now I know what to put on my Christmas list.

[Humanzee]

FYI,
Stanger89, cleared up some of my interlacing assumtions in this thread. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14130

When you use a de-interlacing codec, you improve the picture on your computer screen. It is that same improved picture that then gets scaled and interlaced to fit your SDTV. So, unless you are running a hardware mpeg decoder chip you can still benefit from trying to get the best picture quality possible through your software decoder choices.