TV-Out on HD4870

[dreadman]

Hi guys. Hope this is the correct forum for this.
I tried hooking up my older tv to my pc using the yellow rca jack on my video card. For the life of me I wasn't able to achieve what I wanted.
I wanted to extend my desktop onto the tv where people could watch videos etc and I could use the monitor to surf the net or work in excel at the same time.
I don't know if things have changed from the older generation of cards but I was able to achieve this quite easily on my all in wonder 9000 Pro.
Just connect the dongles and extend onto the secondary output.
The only way I am able to get to display anything on the tv is to swap devices in the catalyst control center and that just turns the tv into the primary monitor.
Any ideas?

 

[dreadman]

Looks like this issue has stumped everyone else too

 

[lopri]

Use the component cable that came with the card? In any case, ATI did away with VIVO long time ago iirc (at least for high-end like 4870). Your options are: DVI, VGA, HDMI, Component

 

[dreadman]

Thanks for the help. But my TV uses composite video, just the one yellow cable. Yes people still have those.
I did not know that they removed VIVO. Kinda makes me wonder what is the purpose of advertising TV-Out on these cards then.
I guess that is the sacrifice as they improve tech. Useful stuff sometimes has to make way for newer and more useful stuff.

 

[superunknown98]

VIVO means video in, video out. It is true most cards do not have video in anymore, but almost all have an S-video out. I find it very hard to believe your 4870 has a composite output on the back of the card. So you are most likely using the s-video 7 pin output with a converter to composite? Are you using the converter that came with the card? If not that could be your problem.

 

[dreadman]

The card came with both a component dongle and a composite adapter/converter which I am using with an rca cable to connect to
the tv. Maybe the capability to extend the desktop on an older tv was removed.

 

[Beanie46]

Actually, if his 4870 is anything like mine, he should have two DVI and one S-video outputs on the rear of his card. Then, he should have gotten an adapter set like this:

Pic of adapters that came with my 4870.

So, there is an S-video-to-component adapter, S-video-to-dual S-video and dual composite output adapter, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, and a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, along with the Crossfire bridge.

Think that's about all the adapters that came with my card, not including power adapter (6-pin to 8-pin adapter.)

So he should have a way to connect his composite TV to his card, unless he lost the adapter or bought the card second hand and wasn't sent the adapter that should have been included.

 

[Modelworks]

composite is generated off the svideo lines so if a card has svideo it can do composite. Make sure you have the tv connected before you turn on the pc. Some cards will not detect the tv unless it is there at power on.

 

[way2fast91]

You did remember to enable dual monitors in your video options right? I know it's elementary but sometimes it's the little things that kill.

 

[idiotekniQues]

hdmi out of my 4870 works great. with audio too.

check your display settings make sure you are enabling dual monitors like the above poster said.

 

[dreadman]

I was able to get it working thanks to the suggestions and a little perseverance.
I shut down the machine and turned off the power supply. Then I connected another monitor. Then I booted the pc and both monitors
were displaying. When the machine entered vista, through the catalyst control panel I was able to extend, clone etc to my hearts content.
So then I shut down the pc and power supply, connected the little s-video to composite video adapter to an rca cable to my tv.
Then I turned the tv to the video input channel and booted the pc and voila....video on tv and surfing net on monitor.
Another case solved with the help of the AT Team. Thanks guys.