Which card 4 DVD on TV???

[wishy]

Am looking to buy new gfx card with the aims of (in order)

1. Watch DVD on TV utilising svideo/phono link I have piped into living room from computer room.
2. A card that let me use comp as normal and pipe DVD film to TV separately.
3, Improve gfx performance for games (although I'm not bothered about cutting edge, just something better than I have with a little future proofing).
4. Video in capability.

Current card (Voodoo3) has Tv out but as computer is in different room then I have to move room, guess how much to move mouse, move mouse, click then return to TV etc. This is annoying!!!
As far as I can see the only card at the moment that will satisfy all criteria is all-in-wonder 8500/7500 but I don't want to get a 7500 for reason of aim 3. I also don't want spend the money for an 8500 all-in-wonder (I want to spend about half that/max two thirds).
The above leads me to 8500LE (forgetting about aim 4.) as best option. I understand that the gforce cards cant display on TV and monitor at the same time??????
I will move house soon and am planning to put a scart/100baseT backbone from computer room to TV room so I can eventually pipe all AV from room to room and vica versa. In this case I would just plug in a laptop in living room to control main computer (upstairs) and watch films/listen to mp3 stuff/simple web surfing during commercials/send video/TV/audio (from HiFi also in living room) to comp room.
I am quite prepared to ditch the video in capability for now until the price of decent cards comes down.

Anyone there got/want a similar setup and have any recomendations?

 

[ptwearnhardtfan]

Something you might try is a cordless mouse. My Logitech cordless works from all over my house even though they say it only works from 6 feet away.

 

[wishy]

Not a bad idea thx, solves aim 1. cheaply and quickly to start with. I take it that the mouse is RF not IR?

 

[Avatar28]

Am looking to buy new gfx card with the aims of (in order)

1. Watch DVD on TV utilising svideo/phono link I have piped into living room from computer room.
2. A card that let me use comp as normal and pipe DVD film to TV separately.
3, Improve gfx performance for games (although I'm not bothered about cutting edge, just something better than I have with a little future proofing).
4. Video in capability.

As far as I can see the only card at the moment that will satisfy all criteria is all-in-wonder 8500/7500 but I don't want to get a 7500 for reason of aim 3. I also don't want spend the money for an 8500 all-in-wonder (I want to spend about half that/max two thirds).
The above leads me to 8500LE (forgetting about aim 4.) as best option. I understand that the gforce cards cant display on TV and monitor at the same time??????

All right, first up, to accomplish number 2 you're NOT going to want software decoding. Even with a good card and a high end PC, the decoding takes up a large chunk of CPU time. And god forbid you do anything that's at all CPU intensive. Those watching TV can kiss the DVD playback goodbye.

To accomplish that, you're going to want to get a hardware DVD decoder. I would recommend the Hollywood Plus card from Sigma Designs. They've also got a new card called the X-Card that looks pretty awesome. You can find it here. It's even got a wireless (IR) remote to control it. The Hollywood Plus can be had for about $40 without the remote. The X-card I found on Pricewatch for around $100.

That gives you number 2 with minimal problems. The X-card also supports progressive scan and digital audio output (I know the HW+ has digital audio, not sure about progressive scan).

For the rest of your requirements, a GF4Ti 4200 or 4400 should work nicely. I'm sure at least some of the 4200s will ship with VIVO capability and should fall within your price range (and still spank the 8500 in performance).

 

[Dieni]

I have the Hollywood plus, and all I can say its a great card. I use to watch DVD on my 28" tv and the quality is amazing even with 10m of phono wire.

I highly recommend it.

 

[Rav]

I'd go with an ATI card. The 8500DV AIW is a great card all around, best DVD playback, s-video, even sound. All sorts of video in, and performs well enough in 3D to boot. If thats too pricey theres a 7500DV thats basicially the same but with the older 3D chips. I *think* the multi-monitor support works with the TV-out, so that you can have seperate desktops on the TV and monitor, but someone would have to confirm this for me.

*add* The 8500DV comes with a radio freq remote control

From what I've heard NVIDIA lacks in their DVD ability and their tv-out isn's the greatest either. I don't think their multi-display is as mature as ATI's either.

I've used my Radeon 64MB VIVO for over a year and its been great for DVD via the s-video out. The composite-in wasn't too bad either. I can only imagine what the newer ones are like.

-Rav