Graphics Card - Input and Output to/from TV/PC

ciderandhavoc

I'm just after upgrading my computer with more ram, and I've recently receieved a gift of a television and VCR (for my birthday).

I would like to be able to put computer stuff onto video (animations, movies etc.) and of course watch DVDs from my DVD drive on the television. Basically to input and output stuff from and to the PC/TV (and Video).

What graphics card would people suggest?? I would like to be strict when it comes to budget, I don't want to spend that much, suggestions would be great!!!!!

Thanks
Dave

DMC

May I recommend the Hauppauge range...

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/html/analogue.htm

I have the WinTV PCI FM. PC Wor^H^H^ and Maplin havbe 'em, around €100

omathuna

I have a Hauppauge WIN TV/FM also which is a good piece of kit.

It has a "video in" plug so you can watch your video recorder on the PC screen. Also capture this to Hard disk (very small or low quanity if you do not have a fast computer)

It does NOT have a "Video out" so you can not send you TV out nor your animations nor your DVD to your TV. (At least I can not find a way to do it)

To have a Video out you generally need a graphics adapter with this ability. This normally sends what is on the screen to the video out so you can use you TV as a screen (sometimes even a second screen at the same time) Try looking for Geforce 4 or ATI graphics card with TV out on the web.

I also have a Creative DRX2 DVD drive and MPEG decoder (Very old) but it does allow the outputting of the DVD and other MPEGs played with the DVD player suplied. It does not send the screen to the video out only the DVD player output.

To summarise, to bring video in and out seems to require two separate cards, both costing arround E100. Does anyone know of a combination card?

Sorry there is the ATI All-in-Wonder but that is what wet dreams are made of.:cool:

ciderandhavoc

is the ATI all in wonder any good?

I read info about it on amazon, and it seems ok (price wise) about €110 (sterling converted to euro) and delivery is free at the moment.

ATI All-In-Wonder 128 32MB AGP Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004Z9UX/qid=1037206936/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/026-4579022-9475642

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005K2EN/qid=1037206936/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_0_2/026-4579022-9475642

Would this do what i need it to? take a clip from the television onto the computer, and put it back on tv/video.

Well I'd sincerely appreciated any input people could give me!

Rgds
Dave

koneko

I'd go for it if I were you. The ones I used were pretty good, plus it has all the features you need in one card.

omathuna, a DVD decoder board is fine for what it does, but you'll only be able to output DVD and MPEG with it. Won't be much use to ciderandhavoc.

The all-in-wonders (older ones) aren't the best for gaming, but will do the job. They'll have the in and outputs you need though.

watty

The Guillemot Cougar is Nvidia TNT64 based with TV out and TV in
Works in Win98, Win2000, NT.4 and XP though for anything other than Win98 you need to download.

On XP you can capture with no frame loss at 1/2 resolution.
About €140 so really good value. The TV out even works on XP (though option well hidden in Display properties).

For proper full frame analog capture from 8mm or VHS you actually need somthing like a separate Pinacle system (easily €500 ) which can do full resolution in or out and just have a regular video 3D card. No WinTV tuner or Tv/Video combined Graphics card can handle full PAL capture.

354 x 288 is often quoted as VHS, It isn't It is PAL VCD. SVCD is 480 x 576. VHS depending on your machine is anything from 300 x 576 to 450 x 576. Sampling theory says if you sample an analog 354 at 354 you loose information, so even for cheap 8mm video and cheap VHS, editing making a SVCD, or even putting back to tape you need the 576 lines always and at at least 704 horizontally (720 and 756 are other settings). SVCD stills and menus are 704 x 576.
SVCD is 480 x 576 (rectangular pixels)
DVD and DV are 720 x 576. (The pixels are not quite square)
Full frame Digital PAL is 768 x 576 (square pixels)

NTSC DVD and DV is 720 x 480
NTSC full frame is 640 x 480

Only 640x 480 or 768x576 is exactly the correct shape on a PC screen. Hardware playback of the all the other resloutions on a TV squishes or stretchs the pixels (and even adds small 8 pixel black borders in some cases) to give a correct shape TV picture.

Even on a top end PC, a Hardware playback MPEG2 card is the only sensible way to feed a TV set. A standalone DVD player is cheaper now and will play SVCD made on CDR properly , which PC software mostly doesn't.

Ironically SVCD pixels on a 4:3 frame and DVD pixels on a 16:9 frame *THE SAME HEIGHT* are about the same quality.

SVCD is better than VHS, and a toss up vs S-VHS/Hi8. Unless you have a VERY VERY big TV you can't see difference between commercial DVD and a home made SVCD encoded by TMPenc package and burnt with Nero if it was captured from S-VHS or Hi-8 at full frame or via firewire from good (€2500) DV camera.

Have fun...