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Do latest Radeons support composite sync?

Vertigo

Vertigo

Vertigo

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
16,545
Basically my current media PC drives the RGB SCART input of my TV directly from the 15-pin "VGA" connection of a Radeon 9550 graphics card. This is done by using Powerstrip to force the Radeon to output a PAL-compatible video signal and provides vastly improved quality over a regular TV-out connection, in addition to allowing proper 16:9 widescreen ratios.

Critical to this functionality is the ability of the Radeon chip to output a composite sync signal. By default graphics cards output separate vertical and horizontal sync signals on their analogue outputs but the Radeon can be forced to output a single, composite sync signal by Powerstrip, of the kind required by a standard PAL TV.

Now I'm looking at upgrading this machine which will probably mean swapping the graphics card out for a PCI-E model. I don't need any more power than the 9550 offers, so it'd still be a very low end model but the critical question is whether the more recent Radeon chips still offer this composite sync functionality, albeit only via specialist configuration tools such as Powerstrip.

I realise this is a fairly "specialist" question but I thought I'd ask on the offchance anyone knew or indeed was doing the same as I with a recent PCI-E Radeon card. Eventually I'll replace my TV with a proper LCD/Plasma HD panel which supports DVI or HDMI but until that time I need to know I can still drive my old analogue Sony Wega :)
 
It's a homemade cable but quite a simple one, a single resistor is required in addition to the cable and connectors themselves. I've got the link somewhere if you're interested.

The key thing is that the red, green and blue signals are electrically compatible it's just the sync signal that's a problem. The Radeon cards can be pursuaded to output a composite sync but the NVidia cards could never do it and need a shedload of extra circuitry to combine the horizontal and vertical signals.
 
im interested in how you do this , at the moment i have a 8500 dv and the svhs out as you say doesnt do widescreen so dvds look really poor i have to use power dvd to stretch them and its a bit crap , will it work with a 8500 it has the dvi out ? if not and i can make or buy the cable i'll upgrade to the next best card that does the job
cheers
 
just found this http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

but what i didnt like was the statement
"Only attempt this if you are willing to take the risk of destroying the video input circuitry on your TV and/or the video output circuitry on your Radeon!" :eek:

well the card isnt worth much and if i blow up the tv its an excuse to go buy a 32inch lcd :rolleyes:
 
Vertigo1 said:
It's a homemade cable but quite a simple one, a single resistor is required in addition to the cable and connectors themselves. I've got the link somewhere if you're interested.
Click to expand...

If you could post that and any tips/settings that'd be great...found a few wiring diagrams but there's a lot of different ones out there with some rather worrying warnings about destroying stuff...

One thing I read is that you lose the flicker filter, I take it that's not a major issue?

Don't know about the answer to your question, sorry...still looking in to this myself :o (I have a 9100IGP)

You could always get a PCI Radeon for about £20-£30 that you know would work though?
 
been doing a bit of googling on this and noticed that the x800xt all in wonder actually comes with a rgb adapter , so the x800xt definitley works with this
 
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