Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: cmoses on December 16, 2008, 10:43:32 am
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I have a NVidia 9400GT card that came with a component breakout cable. The cable plugs into the S-Video output on the card and gives you the standard R-G-B RCA jacks for component connections.
I was in my local computer store yesterday and ran across a cable that plugs into the standard 15 pin monitor connection and gives the same R-G-B RCA jacks for component connections.
I was wondering what everyone thought would be the best way to connect to get the best picture. The S-Video breakout cable or the monitor breakout cable.
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The RGB breakout won't work without substantial software hackery that I don't think works on Windows (at least not with nvidia cards). You have to configure the RGB output for standard res, sync on green, and you have to get it into the YPbPr color space for it to work with a standard television component input. The former is doable (there are several options), the middle works on many cards with the nvidia driver tools, but the latter I'm not aware of any way to do on Windows (there's a hack to do it on Linux, though).
The "s-video" breakout is for cards with "HDTV" output. The connector is more than just s-video, it's actually a YPbPr output from the TV out scaler. This would be the best and easiest option if your card supports it, but check that it does as many (most?) do not. If you do not have this connection on your video card, just use S-Video. At 480 lines, it looks just about identical to YPbPr in all but some pathological cases.
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MonMotha is correct, what looks like an S-video out on your video card is really Nvidia's answer to HDTV out. The "dongle" that comes with your card will work just fine for outputting to your TV. I have a Nvidia 8400 GS PNY card that is outputting component via this same exact dongle to a 27" Toshiba 4:3 and all is well.
I do not believe your Nvidia card will output HDTV any other way so dont even bother, unless of course they have made significant strides in their newer series cards. I tried outputting HDTV via a DVI to component adapter and it didnt work at all. My only solution was to use the dongle.