Geforce FX 5200 for TV out or Geforce 3 or ATI 9000...some thoughts please...

[McCarthy]

Don't remember my 9700 having an external tv chip either, though it's got that Zalman sink on there now so it's not gonna get looked at. Sure it doesn't have one.

Radeon 7000 - as well, no external chip. Did see something nifty while looking at it just now though, has a NTSC/PAL jumper. Only chip that I'd question is a little 8 lead ah heck over near the TV out, but it's like 3/16"x1/4" or smaller and I can't make out any text on it.

I was under the impression Radeons from the start to present are still using the same TV out circuitry. That's why I picked up the 7000 to use for the box, cheap and silent with it's passive sink.

Buddy, you seem impressed with your 9700 and there aren't external chips to affect things so we're back to drivers, TVs and setup. TVs themselves shouldn't make that much difference - yes, to final result, but not as compared to other TV devices (VCRs/DVD/sat). Those are what I compare against, usually the satellite receiver. Drivers I'm using Catalyst 3.2 on that box. With Rage3D tweaker to turn on the overscan option. Could you get full screen without using overscan?

Sharpness is a big issue for me. Can't get a sharp picture. Now I won't get an really sharp pic with my TV, but again, comparing. No artifacts, but then it's not sharp. Contrast seems to be ok except when I have it so I get true black blacks the lighter colors are real bright. Colors I can't get to match the sat signal using the driver's saturation/contrast. Did you make adjustments beyond those? Within ATI control panel or 3rd party tweaks?

 

[BuddyHolly]

McCarthy, I have to say the 9700 pro was the best by far. The ATI Radeons mostly seem to do TV encoding on the chip. Some of the ATI cards had a "Rage Fury" theater chip that some people swear by. With the ATI 9700 pro I got full screen with no real ajustments. I was using the 3.2 Catalyst drivers.
I just tried the GeForce 4 4200 only to discover the card was dead. My cousin's computer got zapped by lightning a few days back, so he brought it to me. I pulled the video card, the GF4 and tried it in my TV computer. Nothing. DOA...I put an old 3dfx PCI card in his computer and it booted fine. I assumed, stupidly that the motherboard was burned, but it was the video card. Typical.
So, I will be getting back to everyone about what I think of the TV out on the GF 4. Oh, it has the Phillips TV chip, for what it is worth..
Keep up the info...

 

[Instigator]

Very interesting thread. I've been curious about this for a couple months since I'm going to build an HTPC. I read in the AVS forums that the 9500 pro and non-pro have very good TV out capabilities. I'm disappointed to hear the 7500 doesn't look good, because that is the exact card I was just about to buy. I've also heard to stay away from the 8500s because of issues with gamma on TV out. Anandtech where are you! I would love to see an article or even a post from you about which card has the best TV out.

 

[bluemax]

The ATI series of cards has the possibility of the "Rage Threater" chip for TV stuff. Some cheaper cards will actually slice this chip off if TV quality is not a big concern and they just want cheap.

Some of the newest cards like the AIW VE, AIW 9000, Radeon 9600, 9700 and 9800 should all have the new Rage Theater 200 chip which is significantly better than the old one (from what I hear.)

When it comes time for me to get a video card, I'm leaning to something w/ Rage Theatre 200 if I can afford it.
Radeon 9600 would be ideal.

 

[Mingon]

Digital Vibrance works on the Philips chips? On the aforementioned TV Tool comparison, one of the main reason they said to get the conexant card was taht it could do digital vibrance while the other chips could not. I guess that was wrong too. How is the sharpness with the Philips? With my Radeon 7500, I can read text at 800x600, but the shrarpness isn't there, either for desktop of for video. Obviously I'm not comparing the output to my monitor, but just a good STB DVD player

the text at 800x600 is very good, obviously not monitor sharp but very readable and browsing the web on a widescreen tv is alot better than a 4:3. The digital vibrance works well, but the card needs the brightness adjusted in some games. I havent tried 1024x768 yet but I will today, more vice city to play!

 

[Mingon]

New card bump

I have now tried a mx440se (what a powerful card) and the tv out is Ok nothing special no where near as good as the xfx ti4200 I had been using - weirdly the card allows me to use 60hz on my tv whereas the ti4200 wouldnt - must be down to the non dedicated tv out controller on the mx440. I have a msi 4600 coming soon will new card bump again then

 

[BuddyHolly]

Well, since this thread is still drawing post, I have a little info to add. Since I last posted, I have tried a Geforce 4 4200 and a ATI Radeoon 9000. Both worked much better than my TnT 2 card. The ATI was a my favorite, but the GF4 did just about as well. The text under both cards is very readable. Both drivers had a lot of options. DVD playback for both was very close to my standalone DVD player. Enough so that a third party (my wife) could not tell the difference. Oh, I wound up with the GF 4 card as my TV output card. I got the GF4 out of a trade and have been using it for a few weeks. The ATI went in a friends computer.

Oh, by the way as a point of interest, the TNT 2 was not dying. It just developed a severe dislike for the S-out video cable I was using. I switched cables and it went back to working normally. Which was not bad, but I really am happy I replaced the card.
Anyone else have anything new?
Thanks,

 

[Mingon]

NEW CARD BUMP - AGAIN

Ok tried a ti500 with the bt687 chip, quite good output better than the mx440se but no 1024*768 which I need for CM4 and the flicker is slightly visible - heres hoping my msi ti4600 has the philips chip

 

[rbV5]

Don't remember my 9700 having an external tv chip either

The Radeon 7xxx and 9xxx cards (except AIW) have the basic theater instructions (for TV-out) embedded in the core, so they should all be very close in IQ. The AIW 128 Rage, AIW Radeon, AIW 7500, 8500, 8500dv, AIW 8500 128 all use the seperate Rage Theater chip (the 8500 cards did have a gamma bug, IIRC its been fixed) The AIW VE, AIW 9000, AIW 9700/9800 all use the new theater 200 chip. All the 7xxx+ cards with dual RAMDACs support theater mode, which you will definately want, so you can disregard older models, or newer single RAMDAC models if you want to view movies on the TV, while working on your desktop.

Also, you'll need to use a tweaker like Rage3D or edit the registry to enable the hidden "overscan" option in Radeon drivers to eliminate the black bars on "most" sets.

I always thought my AIW 7500 had the best analog TV out IQ (using s-video) of all my Radeon cards, and I've owned all but 8500 series Radeons (no AIW 9800 either). I've never tried the s-video out of my 9700 however as I'm using component and VGA to drive my HTPC display, and my large direct view set is in another room now.