Question about the TV-Out on Nvidia cards

T

tdx

Limp Gawd
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Jul 3, 2005
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Hi everyone,

I'm planning to buy a new graphics card that I will use both for gaming and watching movies on a projector. I'm thinking about a high-end Nvidia card (7950, 8800 or equivalent) but I'm worried about one thing:

Since i'll already be hooking up two LCD monitors to the DVI ports of the card, the only port left for the projector will be the TV-Out. But when I checked the specs on Nvidia's website, it says that all nvidia cards carry a 1080i-only TV-out and my projector is 1080p. I know I could use a DVI-HDMI adapter for the projector and get true 1080p, but as I said, both my DVI ports will already be taken.

Anyone has any ideas about this?

Thanks, TDX
 
So I have no choice but to "sacrifice" one of the DVIs for the projector, right?
 
It depends what you want.
Best thing you can do is try and see if TVout suits your purpose.
 
There is no way you'll get 1080i via s-video much less RCA, you will only get 1080i using component.

I've seen a few cards that have component out I think the XFX 7950gt or PNY are one of those.

You can also use a DVI splitter with one of your LCDs and the projector.
 
Stoly said:
You can also use a DVI splitter with one of your LCDs and the projector.
Click to expand...
But would I be able to get full res on both the monitor and the projector if I split the signal? My main monitor is a Dell 30" which has 2500X1600 pixels of res, so would I still be able to use it?
 
tdx said:
But would I be able to get full res on both the monitor and the projector if I split the signal? My main monitor is a Dell 30" which has 2500X1600 pixels of res, so would I still be able to use it?
Click to expand...

probably not, I don't think the projector can handle such a high resolution.
 
What if maybe you got a cheap PCI slot video card just for running your projector?
 
Yeah that's probably what I'll end up doing. I just wanted to run it by you guys to make sure there wasnt an option I hadnt thought of.
 
The component output on the 7 series Nvidia cards is not that bad. It will also output 1080i just fine. I run component cables to my 37" LCD TV (1080p) and surf the web/play games fine on it. Can your projector do 720p? I would rather use that than 1080i as the picture will be much sharper.
 
The thing is my projector does 1080p, which i'd rather use than either 1080i or 720p.
 
You should be able to use the component out cables that came with your card, and the component out on the 7 series cards isn't bad at all. 1080i shouldn't be a problem, but 1080p could be as I think 1080i is as high as it will go. Your not going to be able to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p when using a projector anyway... hell you'd probably have a hard time noticing the difference between 720p and 1080p when using a projector.

The only the only way to find out for sure it to give her a try...
 
Nearly all modern NVIDIA cards come with what looks like an S-video connector on them. But this cable actually connects to a "break out box/cable" that has component video (capable of 1080i max) and sometimes S-Video and Composite.

You'll need to use DVI to get anything above 1080i. But I suspect that 1080i on an LCD projector would look fine.
 
just my 2cents (not that anyone cares) but..

what is the native resolution of your projector?

just because your projector can accept a 1080p signal, doesn't mean it is really the best route to go..

for my projector, with a native resolution of 1024x768.. i found that i get the best picture quality going through the vga/dvi and running it at its native resolution of 1024..

trying to send it a 720 or even a 1080 just ends up compressing the same signal down to the native resolution anyways..

i found by running it at 1024x768 and then buying the Nividia PureVideo Codec and allowing it to do the scaling instead of the projector, my 1080i/HDTV sources look much better..

just some food for thought.. as usual your mileage may vary
 
Actually you are right, I am planning on letting the PC handle the video post-processing, wether with Purevideo (using the GPU) or with FFDShow (using the CPU). But in both cases, unless I'm mistakes, a 1080p signal is preferable to any other res since my projector (the Sony VPL VW50) is a true 1080p projector.
 
um, my 7800GT and both my 7900GT's output 1080p over the component cables.... Usually the problem is that the monitor/TV wont do 1080p over anything but the DVI/HDMI input. My 37"LCD however, deals just fine with 1080p over the component input.
I will agree with H-street that you will have better results if you run at the projectors native res. If the native res really is 1920x1080 then by all means run 1080p. If it is a 1080p projector but the nazive res is 1280x720 or somthing like that you will (probably)get better picture quality running at that res.
 
tdx said:
Actually you are right, I am planning on letting the PC handle the video post-processing, wether with Purevideo (using the GPU) or with FFDShow (using the CPU). But in both cases, unless I'm mistakes, a 1080p signal is preferable to any other res since my projector (the Sony VPL VW50) is a true 1080p projector.
Click to expand...

I read up on your projector and yer right, it is true 1080p.
In fact it looks like a demon considering it is around $6000.
Bulbs last 3000hrs, do you know how much they cost?
 
Justin_Diduch said:
um, my 7800GT and both my 7900GT's output 1080p over the component cables.... Usually the problem is that the monitor/TV wont do 1080p over anything but the DVI/HDMI input. My 37"LCD however, deals just fine with 1080p over the component input.
I will agree with H-street that you will have better results if you run at the projectors native res. If the native res really is 1920x1080 then by all means run 1080p. If it is a 1080p projector but the nazive res is 1280x720 or somthing like that you will (probably)get better picture quality running at that res.
Click to expand...
So it's a fact that ican get 1080p using the component TV Out right? And I wont be losing resolution compared to the DVI output?
 
I cant speak for the 8800 series but the 7950 supports 1080i via the TV out.
I was blissfully unaware that it does indeed support Component out on the TV interface so you shouldnt see a loss in quality at 1080i compared with DVI.

It doesnt support 1080p on the TV port though.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/7_series_techspecs.html
Integrated HDTV encoder provides analog TV-output (Component/Composite/S-Video) up to 1080i resolution

Perhaps you can get away with using a DVI splitter like this (edit: as Stoly mentioned earlier)
http://www.homestead.co.uk/productcategorydetail.aspx?categoryid=53802
Change the resolution to 1080p when you use the projector.
 
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