silver1503559554 Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 my tv only has SCART RGB video in, no component in, and i want to use something better than simply s-vhs so i can get the best possible video quality when playing video files from my pc.. how can i get scart RGB out from a pc, is there an addon card of some sort that allows it ? i have googled it and can only find some expensive profesional grade cards that provide it. i know in theory you can rewire some of the analogue vga output wires from the pc, and use a utility proggy on the pc to correct the timing issue and sync issues, but i am reluctant to do fiddle with electronic bits that risk damaging my nice tv, or pc. so i dont really want to make a home made mod to solve it if i can avoid it. http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/ there are some not to expensive hardware units that can do it , like this gadget for the xbox http://www.amazon.co.uk/Box-Official-Advan...0939645?ie=UTF8 does anybody know any units like that on sale in australia ?.
PaulP33 Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 If you are only interested in playing SD files you could get a xcard. Teamed up with Tvedia software it makes a great media player. The xcard can do RGB through 3 RCA plugs or you can get an adapter to add a proper scart socket. The catch is that you can't use your TV as a monitor with the xcard, it won't decode HD (not 1080i anyway), and although running a Tv card through it is possible, it is not easy.
silver1503559554 Posted September 4, 2006 Author Posted September 4, 2006 If you are only interested in playing SD files you could get a xcard. Teamed up with Tvedia software it makes a great media player. The xcard can do RGB through 3 RCA plugs or you can get an adapter to add a proper scart socket. The catch is that you can't use your TV as a monitor with the xcard, it won't decode HD (not 1080i anyway), and although running a Tv card through it is possible, it is not easy. thx for the sugestion paul. i had heard (reading at avscience.com i think) that the analogue video component/rgb from the xcard wasnt all that good in quality, so i'd prefer not to go that way. if you say it is also problematic to run a pc tv card through it, then i am even more reluctant. how have other people in auz solved this ?
PaulP33 Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 thx for the sugestion paul. i had heard (reading at avscience.com i think) that the analogue video component/rgb from the xcard wasnt all that good in quality, so i'd prefer not to go that way. if you say it is also problematic to run a pc tv card through it, then i am even more reluctant.how have other people in auz solved this ? I remember seeing that as well but I think the video quality is excellent, just as good as my topfield STB. The old version of Tvedia (3.4) supported some (non bda, such as the hauppauge nova-t) dvb-t cards. The new version (4) does not have any PVR functions yet but they say BDA card support will be released at a later date. I believe sage tv supports bda TV cards and xcard but have not tried it. GBPVR started with xcard support but it was not developed because it was too hard. As a result it works with some cards but not others. I personally use my HTPC as a recorder (webscheduler, transport streams require post processing to mpg for best results with xcard but this can easily be automated) and media player, I have a STB for live TV. I find that this combination gives me less headaches and optimal SD PQ for both playback and live TV.
IanD1503559705 Posted September 5, 2006 Posted September 5, 2006 my tv only has SCART RGB video in, no component in, and i want to use something better than simply s-vhs so i can get the best possible video quality when playing video files from my pc.. There are currently a few options apart from a VGA->RGBs converter: 1. Xcard (as mentioned by another poster) has very good video-out quality and supports RGBs, but is really only for playing media and will not display the PC desktop. Anything the PC can play, however, can be output by the Xcard by re-encoding on-the-fly with ffdshow. 2. Matrox G400 or equivalent has good quality video-out (compared to most graphics cards) and supports RGBs. Is capable of displaying desktop and multimedia with a bit of jiggery pokery but has no dxva acceleration. 3. Standalone media players (eg MD-350HD, TVIX 5000, Zensonic Z500, etc) now support a wide range of multimedia types and some I think can support RGBs, plus have PC connectivity. Although none support desktop display, it depends what you actually want to do when playing back video files. It really depends on what you want to do and how much fiddling around you are prepared to accept.
Ajax9000 Posted September 5, 2006 Posted September 5, 2006 my tv only has SCART RGB video in, no component in, and i want to use something better than simply s-vhs so i can get the best possible video quality when playing video files from my pc..how can i get scart RGB out from a pc, is there an addon card of some sort that allows it ? i have googled it and can only find some expensive profesional grade cards that provide it. ... There are several possible ways, none of which I have ever had to try :-) Get a VGA2SCART converter unit such as this:- https://www.lindy.com.au/online/arrshop.exe...&ai=1271006 Most recent ATI and Nvidia cards can be set to output component, so you should be able to combine appropriate cable and adapters:- Get a DVI2component adapter (e.g. 1, e.g. 2, e.g. 3) plus a component2SCART adaptor (e.g. https://www.lindy.com.au/online/arrshop.exe...amp;ai=1271006) or a component2SCART adaptor cable (e.g. http://www.htcustomcables.com/component%20QUANTUM-C.htm) ATI have a VGA2component adapter as well as a DVI2component adapter (see http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvadapter/index.html and http://www2.ati.com/manuals/CmpVidAd.pdf but they don't support 576i or 576p and ATI support for 50Hz apparently sucks. Adrian
walaj Posted September 5, 2006 Posted September 5, 2006 If you can get someone to build the cable, and want to take the risk of doing yourself, the ATI card (9xxx+ - maybe earlier as well) VGA->RGB (SCART) cable is apparently the best quality you can get on an SD tv. details at http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136811 (I've made the cable, just not got round to testing it)
silver1503559554 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Posted September 5, 2006 thanks for all the sugestions it looks like it might be easiest for me to just convert the component video out from my current gfx card (geoforce 6600gt) to RGB, but the only converters i can find so far cost around 200$ http://www.highway.net.au/parts/converters/2012.html http://www.hometheatre.net.au/cyu333.htm might be cheaper to just get a media player that sits next to my tv, and use its network connection to connect to my pc ?
Owen Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 There is more to it then just a compatible connection. You could be hard pressed to get a video card to output PAL compatible 576i 50Hz via its VGA or DVI outputs. Even if you do succeed, the improvement over a good Svideo setup will be minimal, however Svideo output quality varies significantly between various video cards.
bruiser333 Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 Out of interest, does anyone have any knowledge of what those VGA2SCART converters are like? Would they give a decent quality hi def RGB signal from a PC?; if so it could provide me an option to use a laptop that only has vga output (well, and composite too!) to play hi def files to the tv... Cheers, Bruiser
Owen Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 As far as I know all SCART connections are standard PAL 576i SD ONLY. Many video cards cant provide 576i over VGA. All a VGA to SCART converter does is combine the horizontal and vertical sync into the RGB signals (converts 5 wires down to three wires), it does not alter the RGB signals, so the source has to have the correct timing and resolution to start with.
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