Via computer tv-out

[hillbilly]

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone knows the quality of the video out on the
EPIA 800 VIA
Includes embedded
SDRAM, Max 1GB
10/100
Integrated AC '97
TV-Out
USB 1.1
seems like it might be a nice little setup for most games in Mame if the video is of good quality on the TV-out that is.

[maraxle]

Personally, I've owned two of these and found the tv-out quality, both RCA and s-video, to be subpar.  Of course, it does have a PCI slot, so you can put in a different video card, which is what I did.

[hillbilly]

thanks maraxle for the heads up, that would have been frustrating if I ordered one and got it setup only to see it looks bad.
If you don't mind can you show me two pics comparing the on-board TV out to the added PCI cards TV-out. what you consider sub-par might actually be decent for me, prolly not but worth a comparison.

thanks

[maraxle]

thanks maraxle for the heads up, that would have been frustrating if I ordered one and got it setup only to see it looks bad.
If you don't mind can you show me two pics comparing the on-board TV out to the added PCI cards TV-out. what you consider sub-par might actually be decent for me, prolly not but worth a comparison.

thanks

Unfortunately, I don't have either hooked up right now.  One was struck by lightning, and the other was sort of a media PC (music, videos, and MAME), but I pulled it of service because I never used it.

I'm not sure a picture (especially taken with my poor photography skills and mediocre camera) would really show the full impact the video card has compared to the onboard video.  Basically, the onboard video looked washed out - dark gray instead of black, etc - and had lines that would run through it every so often, almost like a sync problem.  Using the same cables and same tv, but plugging in a Geforce4 PCI video card changed the picture dramatically - deep blacks, no sync lines, etc.

Plus, the onboard video shares memory with the system, and is painfully slow.  If you do any kind of hardware stretching, MAME grinds to a halt.  Super Pac-Man gets like 30-35 out of 60 fps in MAME 0.63 on the 800 with 128 mb of RAM in DOS when stretched to 640x480.

[Pacific Ripper]

I use an old NVidia GeForce 4 with S-Video for my TV and it works just fine. The resolution goes up to 1024 x 720 which is good enough for NTSC broadcast.

[Silver]

I've got an early epia - I think they are superb for what they are, so long as you know what they are good at - or more specifically they are bad at. The on board processors are very slow, and heavily optimsed for good general pc (windows) usage - they can play back videos etc fine -   but very poor at intensive tasks like 3D graphics, mame etc...

[Lilwolf]

I'm amazed that they stink for tv-out.  That is what these boards where made for!  really!

they suck in almost everything, but yet they have media playback at almost the same rate as a p4 3x their speed (at least thats what I remember).  The TV-out should have been their #1 priority (or at least in the top 5) and there are some good chips out there that cant cost that much...

Come on.. .these boards cost more then a board 3x their speed... they are only good for media boxes or small spaces... 

[maraxle]

I'm amazed that they stink for tv-out.  That is what these boards where made for!  really!

they suck in almost everything, but yet they have media playback at almost the same rate as a p4 3x their speed (at least thats what I remember).  The TV-out should have been their #1 priority (or at least in the top 5) and there are some good chips out there that cant cost that much...

Come on.. .these boards cost more then a board 3x their speed... they are only good for media boxes or small spaces... 

That's the newer versions, like the M1000 or whatever.  They had built in MPEG decoders.  The older ones, like the 800 and the 5000 don't do much of anything.  But hey, that's just my personal experience.  Maybe the video out is good enough for whatever you're doing.