[mythtv-users] How to output to Standard TV

Gavin Whitehead gavin at alabastercranium.demon.co.uk
Fri Feb 19 09:38:45 UTC 2010


Nick Rout wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Vince Coen <vbcoen at btconnect.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hi
>>
>> On Thursday 18 Feb 2010, Nick Rout wrote:
>>     
>>> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 10:02 AM, Vince Coen <vbcoen at btconnect.com> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> On Thursday 18 Feb 2010, Gavin Whitehead wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> Folks,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am in the process of spec'ing my first HTPC.  It will be Xubuntu with
>>>>> MythTV.  I will use it as a DVR and rip my DVDs and CDs to it.  It will
>>>>> have a couple of tuners in it so that we can combine FreeView and
>>>>> FreeSat (I am UK based).
>>>>> So far the hardware looks like this:
>>>>>
>>>>> Motherboard: GA-MA785GM-US2H
>>>>> Processer:   Athlon II X2 240e
>>>>> Tuner 1:   WinTV NOVA TD-500
>>>>> Tuner 2:   WinTV NOVA HD-S2
>>>>> No graphics card
>>>>>
>>>>> Initially I will not be 'doing' HD; no Blu-Ray and no HD TV (this will
>>>>> change but not for 6 months or so).
>>>>>
>>>>> My concern is how to connect the HTPC to my Standard TV (Panasonic
>>>>> TX-28PL10).
>>>>>
>>>>> The Gigabyte motherboard has D-SUB, DVI-D and HDMI.
>>>>> The TV has SCART, S-Video and RCA (composite video - yellow, plus sterio
>>>>> audio red/white).  The RCA is currently used for the Wii.
>>>>>
>>>>> How can I get the HTPC connected to the TV?
>>>>>           
>>>> Had the same situation.  Got a Nvidia card in my case, a Geforce 210 Cuda
>>>> (from PC World) it was in the 30 pound price area.
>>>>
>>>> Install it and via the Bios remove the onboard vga functions, i.e.,
>>>> disable it. Reboot and go into graphic setup for your distro and check
>>>> the settings, then you will have to go into myth control panel and tell
>>>> it to use Nvidia driver. Having done all that and rebooted ajust settings
>>>> using the Nvidia control app... Sorted.
>>>>         
>>> so what outputs did that card have?
>>>       
>> Std Vga, DVI, Svideo
>>
>> Others have a hdmi but when I tested it, it did not provide o/p to a monitor.
>>
>> My son said that was'n't what it was for,  eg to a rapsody type device that in
>> turn went to the TV/monitor etc.
>>     
>
> I am really not sure what you mean!
>
> The ideal card for someone who has an SD TV but is likely to upgrade
> would be a card with s-video and hdmi out. s-video plus DVI (like
> yours) is a close second.
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>   
Okay. So it looks like a possible solution is to get a graphics card 
with s-video and/or composite outputs as a short solution (until I 
upgrade to an HD TV at which point I use HDMI either from the 
motherboard or from a different newer graphics card.).  Assuming this is 
what I am going to do I have three questions:

1) [re Brian Woods post] What's all this about "Myth systems like them 
much better than the ATI cards" ?  Can anyone enlighten me?  Or direct 
me to more information?

2) Several of the replies mention poor quality picture when using 
s-video.  Is this only when using the TV as a monitor?  Or is it also 
when using the TV as, well, a TV?

3) Any recommendations for passively cooled graphics card with s-video 
and/or composite outputs?

Thanks guys,

Gav



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