Improve my TV/PS2 experience?

thegoonden · 12 May 2008 at 07:26

Having no TV, I'm reliant on a rather ancient analogue TV capture card to get my Sky box[1], and my PS2 on my screen.

The colour is faded/washed out, the focus is laughable and it's really not making a 22" widescreen monitor look it's best.

Are there better options for an analogue video input that is clear and as usable as if it were just a video signal plugged into the monitor?

(and speaking of which, I've tried a VGA convertor too....but it was not great looking (terrible brightness/contrast issues), and my monitor, possibly cos of the aspect ration difference just sits with "out of range" on it's OSD, which is permenant and sort of ruins the whole plan.)

I really don't want a second big screen in here, and there's no way I'm putting my PC's through a Telly, UGH, lo-res and blurry, mmmmmmm lovely, I think not. I'm sure you can get a telly that does 1680 or 1900, but I've never seen one that goes higher than HD spec says it has to.

[1] Which is just the machine for making Dr Who and F1 appear on my screen as far as I'm concerned.

hhhhbk · 12 May 2008 at 07:42

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=169

take a look at the hybrid ones as they will give you both freeview and a means of inputting an analogue signal from a playstation 2 or the skybox if you cant get a decent signal via a tv aerial
also hauppauge ones which ocuk dont seem to stock any more

if your prepared to pay more then things like Canopus ADVC100 are available... will have to google that if your interested as ocuk dont sell it

thegoonden · 12 May 2008 at 08:03

Freeview signal is unusable here I'm afraid. My brother with a full size outdoor aerial and an enormous booster can get some of it some of the time.

Been looking at hybrid as an idea for a while, as freeview will have to improve before the analogue switch off. But what deters me is that the auxilliary video input on it might be just as vile as what I currently have.

If anyone has direct experience of the quality of such inputs, particularly with reference to their horridness or otherwise, I'd love to hear it.

Freesat looks interesting, but not much info beyond blurb so far, and I've not spptted any PC hardware for it yet.

It's also impotant that the device uses a well known and supported chipset as it needs to work in Linux.

hhhhbk · 12 May 2008 at 08:08

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards

thegoonden · 12 May 2008 at 08:10

OOOOOH
That's a bit flippin useful isn't it

Cheers.

tripitaka · 12 May 2008 at 09:55

Bear in mind that FreeSat is basically just new boxes with a fancy EPG on them - it's actually picking up exactly the same transmissions that your Sky box picks up.
As these channels are unencrypted, you will be able to pick them up on any PC satellite tuner card... picture will be much better than you have at the moment.