ati 5850 to s-video cable

stonewalker

stonewalker

Gawd
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May 26, 2007
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I just bought a ati 5850 and was using a 4870 which had a s-video cable that I would use to hook up to my tube tv. But now I have the 5850 and it doesn't have a s-video cable, it just has 2 dvi's, hdmi and 1 display port. Is there an adapter I can use to still use my tube tv with s-video?
 
For $30 you might be better off getting an old PCI video card that has an S-video output. It doesn't take much horsepower to display at 480i so anything would do the trick.
 
Sadly, because of HDMI, most higher end videocards have completely dropped for support for old analog TV outputs.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Sadly, because of HDMI, most higher end videocards have completely dropped for support for old analog TV outputs.
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Nothing sad about that. If you just dropped $300 on a video card *usually* you don't hook it up to a display only capable of 640x480 through a horrible connection.

@OP: Just use it as an excuse to buy a new TV :D
 
stonewalker said:
And give up my 5850, or run two video cards?
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Run two video cards: the HD 5850 alongside the PCI video card. Though if your mobo has a spare PCI-E x16 or PCI-Ex1 slot, try to find a PCI-Ex16 or PCI-E x1 card that has S-Video.

You're using Windows 7 correct?
 
stonewalker said:
My tube tv does 1024x768
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Not over s-video it doesn't. S-video only carries standard def (480i). If you are setting a higher resolution in Windows then your video driver is simply scaling it before it sends it to the TV.

I also kind of doubt that you're tube is 1024x768.
 
ill bite on this one.....yes his tube TV probably does 1024x768....i have a sony 36" that i can hook up via svideo and it does 1024x768....dont be so quick to be a know it all prick

to OP: i have an ati 4870 now and have considered moving to a 5850.....what games do you play and at what resolutions?
 
Lamont Cranston said:
ill bite on this one.....yes his tube TV probably does 1024x768....i have a sony 36" that i can hook up via svideo and it does 1024x768....dont be so quick to be a know it all prick
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You don't understand, S-VIDEO *can not* send video higher than 480i. It just can't. If you are setting a higher resolution, then it is automatically being scaled to 480i before it hits the s-video cable. That is the limit of the connection itself. Even if you have a 1080p HDTV - you'll still only get 480i out of s-video. Not only that, but S-Video even has a reduced color resolution. So you're getting 480i brightness, and <480i colors.

So again, just because you've connected via s-video and you can pick a resolution higher than 480i does *NOT* mean that the TV can actually display a picture higher than 480i since s-video is only sending a 480i signal.
 
ive read that svideo can do 576i also, and while i may agree something is getting changed i know i can hook up my laptop to my tv and go from 640 X 480 to 8 x 6 to 1024 x768 and watch the picture change and get more and more to fit on there - but it may be less readable each time
 
Lamont Cranston said:
ive read that svideo can do 576i also, and while i may agree something is getting changed i know i can hook up my laptop to my tv and go from 640 X 480 to 8 x 6 to 1024 x768 and watch the picture change and get more and more to fit on there - but it may be less readable each time
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NTSC doesn't do 576i, so if you have a US TV then its 480i or nothing. And Windows will be rendering things at 1024x768 but then the image will be scaled to 640x480, which will make everything smaller and blurrier.
 
Lamont Cranston said:
ill bite on this one.....yes his tube TV probably does 1024x768....i have a sony 36" that i can hook up via svideo and it does 1024x768....dont be so quick to be a know it all prick

to OP: i have an ati 4870 now and have considered moving to a 5850.....what games do you play and at what resolutions?
Click to expand...

I have a lg 24 inch that does 1920x1200. I try to play all my games at that res. I have like Crysis, warhead, Aliens vs Predator, Battle Bad Comany 2, Mirrors Edge and others. I'm running Windows 7 and in the control panel it says my tube tv does 1024x768 and it does look really good for a tube tv I must say. I do plan on buying a Hdtv but at the moment Im saving funds for a trip to Mexico so I'm kinda sort there. What would be a good HDTV for around 400 bucks that will hook up to HD Cable without a tuner.
 
Danny Bui said:
Run two video cards: the HD 5850 alongside the PCI video card. Though if your mobo has a spare PCI-E x16 or PCI-Ex1 slot, try to find a PCI-Ex16 or PCI-E x1 card that has S-Video.

You're using Windows 7 correct?
Click to expand...
Thx. I am running Windows 7. So I can get a nice cheap one for this solution right? Do I have to log off on Windows everytime I want to use the cheap video card?
 
Lamont Cranston said:
ive read that svideo can do 576i also, and while i may agree something is getting changed i know i can hook up my laptop to my tv and go from 640 X 480 to 8 x 6 to 1024 x768 and watch the picture change and get more and more to fit on there - but it may be less readable each time
Click to expand...

576i @ 50Hz which is PAL (European)
 
stonewalker said:
I have a lg 24 inch that does 1920x1200. I try to play all my games at that res. I have like Crysis, warhead, Aliens vs Predator, Battle Bad Comany 2, Mirrors Edge and others. I'm running Windows 7 and in the control panel it says my tube tv does 1024x768 and it does look really good for a tube tv I must say. I do plan on buying a Hdtv but at the moment Im saving funds for a trip to Mexico so I'm kinda sort there. What would be a good HDTV for around 400 bucks that will hook up to HD Cable without a tuner.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean that the TV itself is 1024x768. Windows 7 actually has no clue what you're TV is capable of, as s-video doesn't do anything like EDID information. Like I said, if you are connecting over s-video you're only doing 640x480 regardless of the TV. Setting the resolution in Windows to higher than that won't get you any extra detail or pixels, it will just make things smaller.

If you're interested in getting a TV I'd suggest starting a thread in the Display forum or similar.

stonewalker said:
Thx. I am running Windows 7. So I can get a nice cheap one for this solution right? Do I have to log off on Windows everytime I want to use the cheap video card?
Click to expand...

You can run two video cards at once with Windows 7 just fine.
 
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