Is S-video out good on Radeon 7500?

[TheManuel]

I'm considering getting this from ebay:
ATI RADEON 7500 32MB TV-OUT 3D GRAPHICS AGP VIDEO CARD

This is for my arcade project with S-video out but I know quality of S-video out varies so would like opinions from others.
I have heard recommended that you should choose "built by ATI" but it is not clear to me whether this is a cheap clone or not.
It does say ATI technologies on the board but, would that mean it is actually built by ATI?

Thanks.

[ahofle]

The 7500 is a good TV out card (it's actually the exact model I used to use before I went with an arcade monitor).

[TheManuel]

Hi ahofle.

Any idea if the one shown on that listing might be an actual "Built by ATI"?  I don't expect you to be a psichyc but I ask in case there are any cues that identify it to the trained eye.

Thanks.

[ahofle]

Hmmm that is difficult to say.  The one I have is the 64 Meg version and it also has a DVI out and fan, so it looks different.  I attached a pic of my card.

[TheManuel]

Hard to say indeed.  Yours has that big ATI logo on the lower left whereas the one on eBay does not.  I'll keep investigating.

Thank you.

[billpa]

I have the same exact card. I think I picked it up on ebay for about 8 or 9 bucks. S-video works well although I  dont have much to compare it to. I play MAME on my TV in my living room for the time being. However, I just got my RGB monitor working so I will not be using S-video any more.

Its a good card for the price. Not sure about the ATI sticker. Mine was actually listed as a Dell card (although I confirmed it was an ATI 7500).

Cheers,
Bill

[TheManuel]

Thanks for your feedback.
See? Now I will be looking for a lower price 

[TheManuel]

I forgot to mentioned that five years ago I bought a Sapphire "Powered by ATI" with s-video out (I don't recall the model) and the colors where simply wrong and no amount of tweaking would help.  This is why I'm weary of third party versions.  But that was long time ago.  Things might have changed.
I got a response from the eBay seller saying there is an ATI logo painted on the other side of the card and he gave me a part number 1028342402.  I read somewhere on the web that ATI part numbers printed on the circuit board start with 102 so this seems to be the real deal.

[ahofle]

Let me know if you come up empty handed -- I may be willing to just give you my card.  I suddenly have an extra video card (long story) and doubt I'll need this one anymore.

[TheManuel]

Thanks Andy. 

That's very nice of you.
I'm shy so I'll probably buy the one on eBay and see how it works.
If the picture quality is not good I might be tempted to take you up on your offer and send you the shipping cost to avoid a wild goose chase after a decent cheap card.

Regards.

[tikbalang]

apparently, s-video this card works in dos, without any drivers/enablers.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=58809.msg826764#msg826764
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=58809.160

[TheManuel]

I received the card yesterday and started messing with it at night. The card has the ATI logo painted on the back and has "ATI Techonologies" plastered all over the place which makes me think it is actually built by ATI. However, the PCB has part number painted on it that starts with 109 which I've heard means "Powered by ATI".

At any rate, it has all been dissapointments.
1. First, I could not get the TV out to work. After mucking around the ATI Control Center, I realized it will work in clone mode. When I try to pan the desktop onto the TV, the TV goes black. No big deal, once I get it running, though.
2. The second thing I noticed is the worst. Five years ago, I had bought a Sapphire Radeon card from Newegg for the same purpose. The problem with it was that the colors were not right. The red looked orange and no amount of tweaking the picture controls could fix it. I blamed it on the "powered by ATI" nature of the card, returned it to Newegg and ended up abandoning the project for years. Well, guess what? This card has the exact same problem. As soon the picture came up I knew it was deja-vu with the orange color. I can improve it somewhat with the picture controls of the TV but I can't help but notice the orange'ness.
3. The supid fancy ATI control center has nothing on its NVidia counterpart. The latter is simpler but more effective. For my life, I could not find how to create custom resolutions on the ATI thingy. This was toward the end of the two hours I spend doing this (I watched all of High Plains Drifter on AMC while I was at it) so I did not bother to search for help on the internet. However, it is so straight forward with the NVidia application that this sucks in comparison.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix the colors they will be welcome, though something tells me I might have to seek another card to really solve that problem. I was getting comfortable with my laptop's Nvidia card and software and this ATI card has been a huge let-down. I don't think I'll try for another ATI. 

ahofle: do you recall if the reds looked orange through your card's TV-out when you used to use it?

[ahofle]

Hmm it's been so long I don't recall.  I do remember the red bleeding being a bit of an issue (I turned down the reds a bit to help).  Isn't there a gamma setting in the control panel that you can mess with?  Are you sure this isn't an issue with the particular TV you are using (ie. is it the exact same TV that you used before)?  Can you hook up some test DVD like the Avia calibration DVD to see if the reds look the same there?

[TheManuel]

I'll follow up on that but the laptop I had been testing with previously looked fine.
I'll bring it home tomorrow and double check.

Thanks.