Video card for movie & TV use?

Could someone shed a little light on the movie watching aspect of video cards for me? I am not a gamer, and my new card will not be used for gaming. I'm moving, and giving up my home theater system in the process. I will be using my 17" flatscreen as my new TV, and am purchasing a 5.1 surround system from Cambridge Sound Works. I’ve searched and read through the site, but most talk seems to be game-based.

What do I need in a card for movies to look good? Some people say 32mb is plenty for watching movies, others say I need 128MB of DDR and a great refresh rate to rival the display I get from a TV & normal DVD player.

Also, will a better card enable me to watch small movies in fullscreen? When downloading TV episodes or watching news clips, I find the clips are usually in the 3## x 2## area, and as a result look terrible when blown up to fullscreen.

I’d like to do this for around $100 or less, which I hope to be possible since I wont be gaming. From talking to people lately, I’ve been told it will cost more, which is fine. I’d rather spend more on the card and get what I want, I just don’t want to spend $300 for a card I don’t need when I could have spent $100 and been happy.

As of now I’m looking towards:
-TI4200 (seems to do well in all it’s reviews, and is often mentioned on various boards)
-Radeon AIW 32mb (A friend told me he had one and it played DVD’s beautifully)
-Radeon 7500 (again recommended by a friend)

The Radeon cards also state they are intended for dvd playback on the box, and offer features for movie watching. Is this worth considering, or will other cards do the same?

Thanks.

3D accelerators aren't going to make a difference in 2D. Normally they go into 2D (overlay) mode and bypass 3D mode entirely (I'm not clear on how much of the card is ignored in this mode).

The Radeon series is know for better image quality (IQ). nVidia products tend to be harsh, with clipping at high and low brightnesses. Clipping is something that computers are known for.

You should have at least 1Ghz processor (actually this should be ample) but DVD playback is not otherwise considered a demanding thing for a computer. Those small movies are always going to look bad when blown up because the files don't have enough information for a large picture. The grain is invisible when small but distracting when large.

Thanks for the help. That's another vote toward the radeon, I think that is the way I will end up going.

As for the processor, 2.53 P4. That being said, what do I need for the quality I see on my TV to be taking place on my monitor in terms of MB? As I said, I've gotten answers from 32 all the way to 128, and that's quite a difference in price.

Also figured as much on the small movies, thanks for the conformation.