Best low profile component video card for 1080i HDTV?

[ken h]

Like the title says, I'm looking for a graphics card that has high quality component video 1920x1080 interlaced output. Required low profile. Lower power consumption (all power from PCIe slot w/no additional power connector), single slot size and passive cooling would also be better.

Long story why, but this is what I'm in need of, thanks.

 

[giantbucket]

you can convert plain VGA output to a Component output fairly easily, so maybe that would be a start? do you have onboard video from your CPU and does it provide a VGA output out back to experiment with? converted should be cheap as dirt in eBay

 

[ken h]

Yes, I have VGA integrated, but using a converter does not usually provide as high quality as a discreet card.

 

[giantbucket]

true, but component is analog and old, so it wasn't all that high quality compared to any of today's stuff anyways. for $5 or so, would it be worth a try? i haven't had to use component for around 10 years now, the last time was with a 32" JVC tv set, the old heavy CRT. heavy memories.

 

[ken h]

For HD resolutions 1080i & 720p, component video is equal to, or in rare cases better than, using HDMI or DVI. The display I need to get signal to looks best with component video.

 

[giantbucket]

ok, so try the converter. VGA is analog to begin with and it contains the RGB component signals in there anyways.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector

 

[ken h]

Since I'm trying to get the best possible image quality, I prefer not to use a converter, which as I said above, typically is not as good as a native signal.

 

[giantbucket]

so maybe converter isn't the right word. i guess adapter is better. as far as i understand, VGA is already outputting component RGB signals, just that they're housed in a DB15 connector as opposed to in 3 separate RCA connectors. ok, call it a break-out box if it helps.

 

[ken h]

Not exactly. Let me try and explain.

VGA is a physical connector type, not a video format. VGA carries RGB analog video signals. RGB is red, green, and blue video signals, and both horizontal and vertical sync pulse signals.

When broken out into separate cables, RGB always has at least 3 cables, but as many as 5. The difference being that the video sync signal can be carried in 3 different ways:
1) Both sync signals are combined and put on the green video channel and you have 3 cables called RGsB, or RGB sync on green.
2) Both sync signals are combined and put on a separate 4th channel and you have 4 cables called RGBS.
3) Both sync signals are on separate channels and you have a total of 5 cables, called RGBHV. The VGA connector carries all 5 channels separately.

All variations of RGB are the exact same as far as video quality. There are devices called sync splitters or sync combiners that can convert any of these RGB versions into another with no signal degradation whatsoever.

Component video is also an analog video signal, but it's completely different than, and not compatible with, RGB. Component video is always on three cables, called Y, Pb, Pr or Y, Cb, Cr. The Y cable is green and carries the video image in black and white, the total brightness, and all the sync. Pb/Cb is the blue, and Pr/Cr is the red. The technical term used to describe how component video works is color difference because the two color channels are subtracted from the Y channel to get the green color of the image.

RGB is the more pure format, with slightly higher video quality.

To get from RGB to component video you need a transcoder. A good transcoder costs a lot more than the graphics card I'm looking for, because the only ones with component video output are older cards on ebay. A cheap graphics card will result in less video artifacts than using a cheap transcoder, which is specifically what I'm looking for.

 

[giantbucket]

does something with a 7pin or 9pin S-Video work as an option? i've got an old ATI HD2600 Pro and a 9500GT that each has that output. not low profile, though, but with a riser it might be fittable?

 

[ken h]

does something with a 7pin or 9pin S-Video work as an option? i've got an old ATI HD2600 Pro and a 9500GT that each has that output. not low profile, though, but with a riser it might be fittable?

Those are exactly the kind of options I'm looking for. The 7 & 9 pin mini-din (S-video) 'TV Out' connections are what have the component video, with the correct break out cable.

Now the question is, which of those type of cards is the best, or better than average?

 

[giantbucket]

the one that you can still buy on eBay! 😛 i bought mine on eBay and Kijiji last summer, $10 for one and $18 for the other. you might even score an old Quadro or NVS that has the 7pin S-Video on it.

 

[ken h]

How would I find out which one would be better?

 

[ken h]

Still looking for an answer here.

 

[ken h]

I ended up trying a Dell OEM card, the N751G nVidia 9300 GE, that met all the criteria I listed above - low profile, single slot, low power requirement, passive cooling, HD component video out.

It has a DMS59 connector and a 7-pin TV Out connector. Either one needs a dongle to get video; the DMS59 can output either 2 DVI or 2 VGA video signals, while the TV Out can output HDTV component video and S-Video.

The card & dongle for TV Out together cost just less than $11.

Install was straight forward as the card recognized the test display it was connected to, a Samsung 1080p LED, and it looked really good for either PC apps or WMC video. The only drawback is the more demanding graphics for WMC, like a full page guide, load with minor hesitations. But in the application I'm using it, the guide will be seldom used.

Bottom line is that this is a keeper if you want high quailty HD component video, inexpensively.

Hopefully this info may help someone else in the future.