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PC to TV - What do I need?

M

monkay

n00b
Joined
Jul 28, 2007
Messages
10
Hi, I would like to hook up my PC to my standard def., 32 inch tv for videos and possibly gaming. I have a GeForce 6800GT installed on my computer with dual DVI outputs.

The problem though, is that my TV doesn't have DVI inputs. The card came with an S-Video to Component adapter so I was thinking I could use that.

Would it be worth it to hook up the PC to TV using that S-Video/Component adapter?

What kind of quality would I get on the TV with this setup?

Do I have other options to do this, considering my setup, without buying a new TV?

Thanks in advance, and be gentle if I sound like an idiot. :D
 
Does the TV have any HDMI ports? If it does you can go from HDMI > DVI and still have great quality. Thats how I have mine and like it.
 
s-video will work.

you'll get standard def 640x480 res.

don't know why you'd want to though.

If you were using it for a PVR or something, that'd work fine.

But I wouldn't consider this for gaming.
 
no hdmi input on the tv, it's pretty old.

but basically the answer is that s-video will be too ugly to make it worth doing to game?
 
No hdmi input on the TV; it's pretty old.

But basically, the poor quality in the S-Video makes it not worth going ahead with this?
 
Oh, it'll look fine.

I've used a 6600GT to a standard def tv with a Snapstream BeyondTV PVR.

I've used a standard def TV for xbox.

I'm just saying 640x480 standard tv resolution is pretty low.

If it's the best you've got, go for it.
 
A 6800GT is fine for outputing standard definition. As far as SD goes S-video is fine if you can't do component. In these days of HD 640X480 sounds horrible, but it's fine considering most SD sources except for DVD was well below that resolution anyway. If you're doing SD, go component if the TV has it, if not go S-video. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
 
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That's the cable that came with the GeForce 6800GT. Since this is an S-Video to Component cable, will this be any better than just a plain S-Video cable?

I'm just trying to clear everything up so I don't go to Best Buy and purchase the wrong cable :confused:

Thanks for all your help so far! :D
 
S-Video is your best bet. Don't use the SVideo to Composite? adapter, that'll degrade the picture even more.
I don't know how it does S-Video to component, it may just look like S-Video but it's just a proprietary nVidia plug.

I used to watch DVDs off my PC. Before I had a stand alone DVD player, back in Geforce2 days.
Having Winamp with a remote control, or wireless keyboard was sweet, had everything hooked to my sound system back then.

The annoying thing is dealing with overscan / underscan, basically having black bars or borders around the image. I think the new nVidia drivers all have stuff built in to fix this, but in those days there was a lot of monkeying around, and more than likely, the next time you booted, everything would be screwed up again!
 
Really? I thought component was better than S-Video when it comes to picture quality...BTW it's an S-Video to component adapter, not S-video to composite.
 
Component is best, but you're still converting it from an s-video output - so it probably doesn't matter.

I've had some converter cables that were bundled with videocards do some really bad things to the signal.

A straight s-video cable from card to tv is probably your best bet, one without any splices and adapters hanging off it.
 
markintosh13 said:
Component is best, but you're still converting it from an s-video output - so it probably doesn't matter.

I've had some converter cables that were bundled with videocards do some really bad things to the signal.

A straight s-video cable from card to tv is probably your best bet, one without any splices and adapters hanging off it.
Click to expand...
It's not an adapter cable; his card has nine pins in what looks like an Svideo DIN connector, that connector has nine pins in it so that you can have a handle cable that does both svideo and component out (seperate pins for each thing) so that you don't have to use some crappy cheap adapter cable.

Monkay, if the highest quality input your TV offers is component then go for it but it sounds like it's an EDTV which means that the highest resolution it supports is going to be 480p. While not ideal it's going to be okay.
 
That's not true, svideo is perfectly fine for 480i, which I'm sure his TV is. Some of us with higher end equipment are spoiled. It's an older tube TV for which a 480i source will be excellent considering cable is only about 320 lines and VHS is 240 lines and that was acceptable until DVD which is 480i. Some of us have 720P and 1080P HDTVs now and think 480i is ugly and forget what it's like to have a tube TV.
 
You'll be just fine using the cable that came with the video card. And it will be fine for gaming--I've done it before myself. You won't be doing any sniping from across the map on someone who's head would only be three pixels across on a 1920x1200 screen, but it'll be fine. Give it a try--the worst that can happen is that you find the resolution unacceptable and drop the whole matter.

CrimandEvil is right--It's a breakout cable. But that won't affect whether or not this will work for you.
 
And if the OP could come back and update this thread with his impressions after trying out the TV... it would be an interesting way to conclude this.
 
Just to add my opinion, as I have recently hooked up my laptop via the S Video cable to my TV, and it's perfectly fine for playing games on it. My laptop is an HP and has a TV NOW software that automatically sets the resolution to 800x600, you may want to adjust your resolution and see if that affects the quality to the TV.

The only thing I use it for is playing SNES and other old console games through the emulators, which is perfect for that, as you cannot tell the difference between my computer and the actual console system hooked to the TV, and the rare times I play a FPS game like Command and Conquer Renegade, or watch a movie, it looks great. Sure it's not high detail, but then again the game and my laptop are several years old, so. :D
 
That's my point. A low resolution source on a low resolution display will look good because they are matched. The only limitation is the quality of the source being fed. Component video is the best bet in that aspect. OP, please tell us how it works out for you
 
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