[mythtv-users] [OT] VGA to PAL tv converter

[Stephen Longhurst]

> On Wed, Jun 16, 2004 at 08:26:17PM +0200, Steven Cruysberghs wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Anyone here in Europe that uses one of these devices? 
> 
> Why not just get a video card with TV-out?

Picture quality issues probably.

I imagine that any of the commercially available (and affordable)
PC-to-TV converters are not going to offer much improvement on picture
quality though, even if they offer RGB scart output to a PAL TV.  I
haven't used any though, so I could be wrong.

I started off using the s-video output from a PVR-350 and was amazed
at how good the picture is. However, the lockups and crashes were too
often for the comfort of my better half and I. There's a lot of
development at this very minute on the ivtv drivers, and MythTv too. I
hope that over the next month or few, we might get a stable setup that
can use the the PVR-350 out reliably.

In the meantime, I've switched to the s-video output from an Nvidia
MX440 (Inno) card. Although much more stable, the picture quality is
markedly lower, especially for the GUI. It's not quite so noticeable
watching TV or video, but having seen how good it could be, it's
disappointing.  This depends upon your inputs too, analogue cable is
fine, but DVB doesn't look so great.

I've been looking at several options. There are methods of connecting
the VGA output from a video card almost directly to the RGB scart
input of a TV.  Just google for "vga to rgb scart" to see them.  I
also have a Matrox G400 card, for which an RGB scart cable can be
built (http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=4382).

There's also the XBox, which has a fantastic RGB Scart connection.
I'm thinking of trying this next (I already have a chipped xbox), and
then possibly building the Matrox cable to see how it looks also.

Cheers,

       Steve

-- 
Stephen Longhurst
steve at longsteve.com