bad tv-out quality (1 Viewer)

[tafelpoot]

Hi,

I am having a problem with the quality of my TV-out.

My HTPC is a MSI 180 barebone with onboard video (nVidia nForce) and is connected to a standard widescreen (no LCD or HD) 81cm Thomson TV.

I use a s-video cable from PC to a scart converter the the back of my TV.

Now everything works fine, but the picture quality is much worse then watching normal cable TV or watching a DVD on an external dvd player.
The quality on an normal CRT monitor connected to the HTPC is very good, so i guess it must be the connection between HTPC and TV..

Is it normal the quality is much worse? What can I do to correct this? video driver settings??

Thanks in advance for you comments!

greetz
Tafelpoot

 

[Forgotten Illustrator]

I use a s-video cable from PC to a scart converter the back of my TV.

What you have connected is just standard video composition by S-video. Try and connect the output from your monitor plug to RGB pins on SCART. Here are some webpage that tells you how make one up
http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/
http://ryoandr.free.fr/english.html
http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/

This will give you the best result by far. But if you not up for it… it may course damage.

 

[Skar29]

Hi,

I have a MSI Mega 180 too, and the qualitiy from s-video out to scart for my TV is very good.

Its better than my Dbox2 with Scart to my TV.

 

[tafelpoot]

This will give you the best result by far. But if you not up for it… it may course damage.

Indeed, this must give the best result, but I think i m gonna try some other options first, before blowing up my TV

 

[tafelpoot]

skar29, do you use the onboard video?

i am thinking.. the cable from HTPC to TV is about 10 meters, could this be the problem?

 

[Elf]

Yes, the long cable is almost certainly contributing to the poor quality signal, but it's not likely to be the only culprit. Try a shorter cable if you can - you'll probably find it's a *little* better but not the quantum leap in quality you were hoping for!

You've also got to accept a certain drop in quality with an s-vhs signal, it's not the greatest quality connection and that's all there is to it.

Have you reduced your graphics resolution to something TV-friendly? 720x576 should be a good match on a PAL set, you'll need to play around with the driver settings to get such a "custom" output. Also set your refresh rate to match the TV - 50hz for a standard PAL set.

Once again, be careful with sending experimental signals to the TV. I've honestly never heard of anyone breaking their TV by doing this, but you just never know!

 

[Skar29]

skar29, do you use the onboard video?

i am thinking.. the cable from HTPC to TV is about 10 meters, could this be the problem?

Yes i use the onboard MX400. My cable is about 1,5 metres

 

[tafelpoot]

I have set my drivers to output TV signal.

I know there is a quality loss with s-video, but there is almost no difference between a Divx (700 MB) and a full-scale DVD movie playing.

Skar29, have you adjusted your drivers in any way? What TV are you using? a standard? HD?

 

[NLS]

MX400 sucks... sorry couldn't speak it softer