component/s-video quality

[Jox43w]

Has anyone got any experiance running mame/pc games on a componet/s-video monitor using the tv-out on a graphics card? i  want  to use a new HD4850 card so i can play the latest pc games on my tv but im unusre of the quality of the picture ill get iv read some people say it looks terrible but others have said its very close to rgb.

[ahofle]

Can't speak for component video, but here are some comparison pics between S-Video and an arcade (RGB) monitor.  My understanding is that component is somewhere in between the two.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65263.0

[StasisRat]

 I was going to originally use a 19" TV I already owned for my cab that had s-video. I was not satisfied the picture quality. I hooked up to my large 48" Projection HDTV through component for testing and thought it looked pretty good. Hooked it up to every other TV in the house and it looked like crap through s-video or composite. So I bought another 19" new that had component inputs.  In my opinion and at least through the TV's I own there is absolutely no comparison. The component video on the new TV looks way better. It may not be the real thing but it sure seems pretty close.I'm using an nvidia card, if that makes a difference.  However, although mame and my frontend look nice I wouldn't think modern PC games would look very good at 480i/p on a television. If your TV is HD maybe it would good.Hope that helps.....

[Ummon]

I was going to originally use a 19" TV I already owned for my cab that had s-video. I was not satisfied the picture quality. I hooked up to my large 48" Projection HDTV through component for testing and thought it looked pretty good. Hooked it up to every other TV in the house and it looked like crap through s-video or composite. So I bought another 19" new that had component inputs.  In my opinion and at least through the TV's I own there is absolutely no comparison. The component video on the new TV looks way better. It may not be the real thing but it sure seems pretty close.I'm using an nvidia card, if that makes a difference. 

How did you connect from the card to the TV?...And what Windows/software settings did you (need?) to make?

[StasisRat]

The card is an EVGA Nvidia Card I purchased from Circuit City last November I believe. I can't recall the model number but it was like a 8600gs or something??? It was a sub $100 PCI-Express card. I remember the box was super vague when it stated that it had an HDTV connection. Me and the guys at the store couldn't figure it out. HDMI?DVI?Component? Which one? There was no indication of this. Since they told me I could return it I gambled and it turns out it had a component video dongle that plugged into the s-video port on the back of the card.
Now I know what you are thinking. "Well, then that is just s-video then.."(Saw a post once where someone was claiming this)  Wrong, although the port will accept a standard 4-pin s-video it also takes the included 7-pin component video adapter/dongle. Those extra pins carry the component video signals. I read once that different graphics card companies have been utilizing the 7-pins differently so I have no idea if all nvidia cards are like this or just the EVGA branded ones. I'm actually a Mac veteran and my arcade is my only Windows machine (scored free from work, YEAH!) so I really don't know too much other than I got lucky with this card.
As far as the settings I don't remember spending to much time configuring anything. The included control panel software seemed pretty intuitive. If you would like to know the exact model# of the card I have let me know and I will try to figure that out.Hope that helps and good luck!

[Ummon]

The card is an EVGA Nvidia Card I purchased from Circuit City last November I believe. I can't recall the model number but it was like a 8600gs or something??? It was a sub $100 PCI-Express card. I remember the box was super vague when it stated that it had an HDTV connection. Me and the guys at the store couldn't figure it out. HDMI?DVI?Component? Which one? There was no indication of this. Since they told me I could return it I gambled and it turns out it had a component video dongle that plugged into the s-video port on the back of the card.
Now I know what you are thinking. "Well, then that is just s-video then.."(Saw a post once where someone was claiming this)  Wrong, although the port will accept a standard 4-pin s-video it also takes the included 7-pin component video adapter/dongle. Those extra pins carry the component video signals. I read once that different graphics card companies have been utilizing the 7-pins differently so I have no idea if all nvidia cards are like this or just the EVGA branded ones. I'm actually a Mac veteran and my arcade is my only Windows machine (scored free from work, YEAH!) so I really don't know too much other than I got lucky with this card.
As far as the settings I don't remember spending to much time configuring anything. The included control panel software seemed pretty intuitive. If you would like to know the exact model# of the card I have let me know and I will try to figure that out.Hope that helps and good luck!

That's neat. Yeah, if there are any identifying markers, please share.

[david656]

hi

i'm using a GeForce 7300 GT AGP 512mb and that seems to do everything i could ask of it... plays HOTD3 really well and althought it slows in one place it seems fine through out the game as well as mame  it will run smash TV fine but killer instict is a little slow and tahts probably becauce my CPU is only a 2.4 athlon. I'm using S-Video out to a 20" tv and i haven't looked back at composite ! its much much better and gets a nice still crisp image for me.

edit: nope i mean composite ! the yellow thing      not tried component from the PC but use it on my PS2 and thats a brilliant picture with great depth to the colours of the games.

[Ummon]

I'm using S-Video out to a 20" tv and i haven't looked back and composite ! its much much better and gets a nice still crisp image for me.

Perhaps you mean component?

[StasisRat]

The card is an EVGA Nvidia Card I purchased from Circuit City last November I believe. I can't recall the model number but it was like a 8600gs or something??? It was a sub $100 PCI-Express card. I remember the box was super vague when it stated that it had an HDTV connection. Me and the guys at the store couldn't figure it out. HDMI?DVI?Component? Which one? There was no indication of this. Since they told me I could return it I gambled and it turns out it had a component video dongle that plugged into the s-video port on the back of the card.
Now I know what you are thinking. "Well, then that is just s-video then.."(Saw a post once where someone was claiming this)  Wrong, although the port will accept a standard 4-pin s-video it also takes the included 7-pin component video adapter/dongle. Those extra pins carry the component video signals. I read once that different graphics card companies have been utilizing the 7-pins differently so I have no idea if all nvidia cards are like this or just the EVGA branded ones. I'm actually a Mac veteran and my arcade is my only Windows machine (scored free from work, YEAH!) so I really don't know too much other than I got lucky with this card.
As far as the settings I don't remember spending to much time configuring anything. The included control panel software seemed pretty intuitive. If you would like to know the exact model# of the card I have let me know and I will try to figure that out.Hope that helps and good luck!

That's neat. Yeah, if there are any identifying markers, please share.

It's an EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8400GS, sorry it took so long to respond...

[retrometro]

Has anyone got any experiance running mame/pc games on a componet/s-video monitor using the tv-out on a graphics card? i  want  to use a new HD4850 card so i can play the latest pc games on my tv but im unusre of the quality of the picture ill get iv read some people say it looks terrible but others have said its very close to rgb.

I use TV-out for my handheld arcade gp2x as it outputs s-video.  Games look pretty good and I prefer it to a VGA monitor although I prefer an arcade crt to a vga crt.  Here's a video of it running on our 35" CRT TV.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRaL9-BrzUg[/youtube]

[Ummon]

Thanks Stasis.

retro, where's the vid?

[retrometro]

retro, where's the vid?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRaL9-BrzUg[/youtube]

Here it is.  Weird. I must have had the wrong anchors for the URL.

[Ummon]

Hmmmm. That looks really good for s-vid. Scanlines an all. Perhaps you could try one of your computers, though, cos that's what is being asked about. Also, what make/model TV is it?