how good is S-video display? (also 4000+ question)

[vishusmartishus]

I'm thinking of a 'media center' pc.
I'm wondering if the S-Video output is good enough for games I'll play, since I'm going to invest a lot in a high-end graphics card. Well i'll let you judge for yourself...

64 4000+
2gb ddr400
2x250 RAID0 3gb/s hd
x1900xt gfx

I wanna know if the 4000+ will bottleneck the x1900xt, and if s-video is a suitable output to a tv.
the tv is kinda old, s-video is the best output it can afford.

 

[mdd1963]

The TV wil be quite low resolution, which can be more than nadled by S-Video out....

(S-Vid is good, but not quite as good as "Yvpr/Component Out"

 

[vishusmartishus]

I've heard that s-video is better than component output?
the tv is 36". I think i read that the max s-video res. is 640x480. that'll loook terrible over 36", wont it?

 

[mdd1963]

A 4000+/2.4 Ghz processor is more than fast enough for todays games...

(At high resolution in fairly modern games, ie., FEAR/COD2, the video card will be the bottleneck, not the processor, as witnessed in an A64/3500+ scoring roughly the same framerates as an FX 57..)

 

[vishusmartishus]

still wondering whether the s-video or the component is a better bet for tv-out.
also, any way i can get higher resolutions with either?

 

[Tattysnuc]

I used to use interlace modes, and you could almost double the vertical scan lines.

This did cause a lot of flicker. If you've got one of those 100MHz tvs (the big expesive ones that branded folks like sony used to make) then t should be able to handle the trickery of interlacing. Otherwise, you will be limited to the TV's res, which is something like 525 scanlines (high) by 480 wide. From memory it wasnt the same as VGA.

I could be wrong. Long time since I upgraded and bought a 19" TFT :lol:

Personally, I'd go with a big TFT and get a tuner card rather than TV. It'll mean a new telly, but the picture will be far better. Technically.

 

[cory1234]

"I've heard that s-video is better than component output?"

You may be thinking of compostie outputs which is worse than S-video.. and component is better than S-video..component supports higer res.

 

[Heyyou27]

Component video is higher quality than S-video.

 

[Craigmandu]

The resolution won't be great.

You may be able to find a third party video converter for your PC that will give more resolution on an older TV. However televisions in general lack the ability to go to a high resolution.

Newer televisions however have SVGA support usually built into the TV (at least Plasma and/or LCD TV's usually do) My DLP Projection TV does as well.

It will cost some money to replace the television, but you will be much happier with a newer television that can make use of your PC's higher resolution, than an older one which can't.

 

[TunaSoda]

Good: Composite
Better: S-Video
Best: Component

 

[vishusmartishus]

I've played my gamecube on the tv and it looked fine to me. is the quality better or worse than that?

 

[the_guru]

Good: Composite
Better: S-Video
Best: Component

Bestest: HDMI/DVI 😉

(If you have a display that support it)

 

[Crashman]

Component out is better, using 3 separate component cables. S-Video combines two components for a slightly blurred picture in comparison. Composite video combines all three components for the worst quality.