Best S-Video out, cheap

[JonathanTheRed]

Folks--

I'm looking for a video card. My only requirement is that it have the best possible S-Video output. I don't care about 3D acceleration, or good high-resolution 2D, or huge amounts of DDR RAM, or overclockability... all I want is good-looking S-Video. It doesn't even need to display text very well. This is going in my arcade cabinet, and it just needs to drive a TV. It needs to perform well when the only available display is the TV... that is, no monitor.

Subject to the above constraint, I'd like the card to be as cheap as possible.

I'd heard that the Radeon VE offered excellent TV output at a low price. Unfortunately, I wound up with a cheap knockoff VE as opposed to the built by ATI version, and I'm having difficulties getting the S-Video out to work. (I'm not sure why. According to ATI and verified by my own cursory inspection of the board, the TV encoder seems to be integrated with the VE core. Any card that uses the VE chipset should have the same TV output, in theory... but it just ain't working.)

Any suggestions?

 

[Theslowone]

How bout the ati rage 128. Uses the rage theater(pretty sure of it) which is what the newer ati cards use. Pretty darn good tv out, imho better then the nvidia cards.

Im not sure what the expert 98 and 2000 uses but I seen somewhere long ago that they use the rage, but that is based on a very bad memory.

And the chipset has nothing to do with the tv out, well little to do with it, each ati card has a different chip on the card for that part, and most of the time it is the rage theater.

 

[JonathanTheRed]

<< And the chipset has nothing to do with the tv out, well little to do with it, each ati card has a different chip on the card for that part, and most of the time it is the rage theater. >>



Ordinarily, I'd agree. But the Radeon VE doesn't appear to have an external TV encoder chip. The only chips that are on my board are the VE core, the BIOS, the RAM, and two very small chips that I'm guessing are timers of some sort.

 

[Theslowone]

Damn your right, sorry bout that.

But your cheapest bet with good- great quality will still probably be a rage with tv out.

 

[garyboz]

Dude, I am just starting to build my cab! Remember this when I ask you for help.

If you already have a video card, don't bother getting another one with TV out. Get a scan converter instead. It does just what it says, it converts your video output signal to NTSC for your TV. I have a TView Gold.

Tview Gold

I use one for playing divx movies on my TV. It's not cheap, retail $179. I got mine for under $100 on ebay. They have less expensive models as well. If you want the best, that's it.

If you want really cheap <$30 check out used ATI Rage Pro cards. In particular the Xpert98@play. The @play means it has TV out. The quality is pretty good for cheap.

 

[JonathanTheRed]

Garyboz, you feel free to contact me with any cab-building questions you have. I've received an immense amount of assistance from the cab-building community, and I try to repay the favor by helping others whenever I can. I assume you've seen the very excellent BYOAC site and its message boards?

I'll consider the TView. I was hoping to keep the cost down, but picture quality is more important to me than money. Thanks.

 

[hoihtah]

i picked up an ati LE 32mb tv-out card from newegg refurb.
and it's been working great for me.
i have this card installed in my htpc.
out put looks great.

but i have to admit... newegg refurbs are hard to find.