TV-Out questions

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NoRain

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I recently bought an ATI All in wonder 2006 edition to replace my aged Visiontek (geforce 2 based aiw clone). I wanted to hook up my tv and do some tv out to play guild wars and WOW and web browse using my tv. I've found that text output quality is atrocious on tv out. After googling around around I saw some suggestions, but in general everyone still says tv out sucks. I wanted to get the opinions of some cags who might have experience with using tv-out.

My set up is as follows. AIW hooked to 31" Sanyo tv thru rca video input, I can do it thru S-video but I don't think its going to help enough to make the text readable in games seeing how bad the quality is. I have reduced my resolution to 800X600 and set all the font sizes to largest in windows. My main question is would S-video make the picture quality exceptable enough to read the text comfortably or would an HDTV instead of an old school tv be a solution. If so would I be wise to find an HDTV with DVI? If I got an hdtv would it be able to get the resolution right 16:9 instead of 4:3? Ect. Are there any solutions or is tv-out truely just a gimmick that isn't good for anything but fullscreened video?
 
First of all, S-Video is better than Composite (single Yellow RCA). Why you haven't plugged BOTH in and tried switching between the two to learn yourself is beyond me.

Second of all, since you're using ATI, you will be able to change the SHARPNESS of the video signal on one of the sliders (I'm not on a computer with TV out at the moment, so I can't tell you exactly where it is, but it's most likely in display properties->settings tab->advanced button->Displays tab->TV button. There should be a slider which you can move left and right to make the text more ledgeable.). HOwever, for doing ANYTHING other than reading, keep the slider to an optimal level of bluriness, since the hard edges will flicker and tire your eyes.

However, you are missing the point of using a TV out. It's not to browse the internet, or read text. You use the TV out for things like playing games, watching movies, or winamp/WMP visualizations, etc. My advice is to make the TV a SECOND monitor and then drag all the video programs over there.

Lastly, if you do connect a computer to an HD TV and use DVI, you can set it to 720i and 1080i (with the latest firmware I have. It may change to 720p or 1080p later). Just go to the same menu I pointed you to before (with the TV button) and click on the button that is highlighted with DVI. From there, you can force either of the HD resolutions.

I also want to point out that the Purpose of the ATI AIW cards is for Video in. Just about any card has video out. Unless you do video capture or watch TV on your computer, you just wasted a lot of money. I also would like to take the opportunity to ask that you either shrink your signature, or make something less hideous.
 
[quote name='capitalist_mao'] I also would like to take the opportunity to ask that you either shrink your signature, or make something less hideous.[/QUOTE]

I second that, anyone know the number for OTM?
 
Due to popular request it will get cut off until I feel like shrinking it.

Thanks for the reply but I wanted to be able to play world of warcraft and guild wars on my tv. It's near next to impossible to read any guild chat and stuff as text. So really I was trying to play games on it. Right now I see the tv out as more of a gimmick. I would have tried the s-video out, but I have yet to buy a cable lenghty enough to make it to my tv where I had a composite that was already long enough.
 
[quote name='NoRain']Right now I see the tv out as more of a gimmick.[/QUOTE]
I have a computer in my living room on which I watch movies (divx or dvd), play games (either 8-bit, 16-bit or 3D) and use as a stereo with winamp and its visualization (I have audio output running to speakers and a subwoofer, so it's not like I rely on the TV's speakers).

I'd have to say that TV out on my computer is NOT a gimmick.
 
I used to use Geforce MX TV-out on my P3 computer back in the day and I used S-Video and the quality was good for movies and games. So I don't see why a new card would be so bad.
 
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