The quality of the TV (1 Viewer)

HomersBrain

New Member
March 16, 2006
2
0
Hi, I'm new to MediaPortal.

I've been running an HTPC for a couple of years now, using ShowShifter, and a shuttle SK41G. I'm looking at upgrading/replacing my box, and have a couple of questions.

One of the main gripes I have is picture quality of watching TV through ShowShifter (ie: not very good) The capture card, I admit, isn't the best, so we just watched TV directly though our Sky Box using the RGB scart as the connection. The same goes for watching DVDs. I've got a very good, but old Pioneer plugged into a 5.1 Kenwood receiver.

I want to replace all this and make it a lot simpler to use and get the WAF back. So, to the point....

Who watches TV via their PC, on a TV (not monitor) all the time?
Is the quality as good as watching it directly? (ie, not though the HTPC).
What capture card and graphics card do you have?

Thanks for your help!

Mike
 

DoctorMobius

New Member
March 14, 2006
3
0
Leamington Spa, England
I only use a TV with my HTPC

Somehow I find that the picture through my Mega Sky 580 on the TV is better (brighter/sharper) than using my Nokia digibox. The only issue I have is that unless I set the GeForce 4 Ti 4200 to overscan the TV output, the picture doesn't fill to the edges of the entire screen. But turning on overscanning then means the Start button and system icon area is partially obscured!

The main issue is that turning on my TV and digibox takes three to four seconds to display a picture, whereas the PC takes about forty. Still, I prefer to use the PC to record because of the great quality and then use the digibox whenever I need the interactive text services.
 

nekkidtruth

Portal Member
February 27, 2006
25
0
London, Ontario Canada
Just to answer your tv question....

I have an Hauppage PVR-150 card with analog cable going into it, and output through an nVidia 6200 to my television and it's ALMOST as if I wasn't watching through an HTPC. The picture quality is a tiny bit lower but it's only noticable if you're really looking for it. Otherwise, looks great! Watching on a PC monitor on the otherhand, is a completely different story LOL.
 

HomersBrain

New Member
March 16, 2006
2
0
Thanks for the feedback.

I'm just looking at graphics cards at the mo as that's the area I'll have to upgrade to get a decent picture. I'm running an Airpanel and xlobby to play my mp3s etc, so I reckon I'll need multiple monitor support, so my question has been extended to 'Which graphics card gives great TV out and has multiple monitor support...?'

edit: Afterthought: Because the Shuttle has onboard VGA anyway, is it possible to use that for one monitor and the new graphics card as the other?
 

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