Looking to hook to a 27" TV

[jmarket]

I have a PC that has VGA out and also DVI out. The bad thing is the TV is old and just has composite and s-video. I have read on here that some people use s-video so that is my plan as of now. The problem is trying to get from VGA or DVI to s-video. I was able to get an ATI Radeon x1300 free but it will not work in the computer that I am using because I do not have a PCI Express 16 port. The port that I thought was a PCI Express 16 was actually an ADD2/SDVO port. So the only ports i have are two PIC ports and a PCI Express 1. I guess my options are below unless anyone knows anything else.

1. Try to find an old standard PCI card with s-video.
2. Buy a VGA to s-video converter box that will input VGA and give me s-video out.


Any other options?

[MonMotha]

Odd that a system with video outputs already on the motherboard would have an SDVO slot that cannot also act as PCIe.  What model PC is this?

Your easiest is to probably just get a different PC, but if you can convince the onboard video to run at native TV resolution (15kHz timings), you can use an RGB to S-Video converter, and the results are generally quite good (in most cases much better than using the scaled S-Video outputs present on most video cards).

[jmarket]

Odd that a system with video outputs already on the motherboard would have an SDVO slot that cannot also act as PCIe.  What model PC is this?

Your easiest is to probably just get a different PC, but if you can convince the onboard video to run at native TV resolution (15kHz timings), you can use an RGB to S-Video converter, and the results are generally quite good (in most cases much better than using the scaled S-Video outputs present on most video cards).

It is an HP rp5700. builtin VGA and the DVI card is in the  ADD2 slot.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF06a/12454-12454-64287-321881-3328896-3375897.html?dnr=1

Not sure what you mean by  " convince the onboard video to run at native TV resolution (15kHz timings), you can use an RGB to S-Video converter"

[MonMotha]

Oh, they've got the DVI on the SDVO.  You sure that thing can't run as PCIe, too?  That was one of the whole points of the SDVO spec.  I could see HP being cheapskates and not making that possible, though.

Regarding making the onboard video run at TV timings, find the "Soft15kHz" thread.  There's other ways to do it, but that's a popular one.  The idea is that you make the VGA output run at a TV-compatible resolution (480i or 240p).  It won't work with a PC monitor at this point, but you can use an RGB to S-Video converter (tons of options available) to hook it up to your TV using S-Video.  The results are usually pretty decent, though it depends on the quality of your TV.

[jmarket]

Yeah I am pretty sure it wont run PCIe also because I put the ATI Radeon x1300 in the slot and it came up with a post error saying it only supports ADD2 cards. When i went to take out the card I noticed it actually said on the board next to the slot ADD2 cards only or something like that.

Looks like  "Soft15kHz" doesnt support my onboard Intel GMA

[MonMotha]

Awesome.  Score one for HP.

I know the Intel hardware is capable of running pretty much any video timings that you want (I've done it on Linux), but the Windows drivers may not support it.  If indeed that's the case, your only option left is a scaling VGA to S-Video adapter ("scan converter").  They're cheap (~$25-35 on the 'bay), but don't expect it to look particularly good, probably not much worse than the output built into e.g. that x1300, though.

[jmarket]

Only options i see as of now unless anyone has other options.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-7000-64MG-PCI-DDR-VGA-DVI-W-S-VIDEO-OUT-VIDEO-CARD-/121018929428?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item1c2d4a5114

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129042

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U00BJ6965

[MonMotha]

Example of the "scan converter" I was referring to.  This will take common "VGA" signals and mash it to fit on a TV.  The results aren't great, but they should be comparable to the S-Video output on most PC video cards, and this particular one is quite cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/PC-To-TV-Video-Converter/dp/B001CJOLBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353393603&sr=8-1&keywords=scan+converter