Running VGA to RGB Scart on my HTPC

Hesky82

Hesky82

Hesky82

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Hi,

Im planning on displaying MCE on my widescreen Panasonic CRT TV from the VGA port to RGB scart as the SVHS output is not very good. it seems a little more complicated than I initially thought, I understand this only works with certain ati cards that have the gpu hardware composite sync option. and you then need to use a program called powerstrip to fine tune the signal output parameters, resolution, refresh rate, timings etc..

eventually when I get the cash I will invest in a decent lcd hd tv for myself, but until then it would be nice to get my old crt tv connected to my new htpc as best as possible.
so my question are..
-what graphics card is suitable for my requirements?
-once i ditch the svhs output will I be able to run full widescreen resolutions? I was lead to believe the limitation of svhs dont permit wide screen resolutions to my tv.
-And most importantly is there an easier way? :)

Cheers
 
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I have a nvidia 6200 in my MCE machine and I run 1280x720 over an svideo connection, and it looks pretty damn good, I personally don't think the difference between svideo and RGB scart is enough to justify the hassle involved and having to use one of the limited number of cards that does it.

btw; i'm aware that although i'm running at an HD res i'm not going to see any benefit from it, i just chose that res as the nvidia software has it down as preset mode with timings that work over my svideo link.
 
bam, how on earth do you run that res with svideo?
The svideo output is physically limited to 480i. Your resolution of 1280x720p would simply be scaled down to 720x480i and then the image would be interlaced and output to your crt TV.
 
Hesky82 said:
bam, how on earth do you run that res with svideo?
The svideo output is physically limited to 480i. Your resolution of 1280x720p would simply be scaled down to 720x480i and then the image would be interlaced and output to your crt TV.
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Sure, I understand that, in the advanced timings options in the nvidia tools there are a series of timings for various resolutions at 50/60Hz, using these the card is able to run internally at 1280x720 which means I get proper aspect ratio handling and MCE understands it is running on a widescreen display, so I get the 4 icons per row, black borders at the side for 4:3 tele and the text is properly shaped.

You have to tell MCE you are using component or some other connectivity method for it to allow you to run in 16:9, I think, set it up a while back, but selecting svideo in the setup definitely didn't let it work.

Also even though it is munging the internal res to be transmitable over svideo text is still surprisingly readable close up without having to mess with the native font sizes.
 
I was using a home built vga-rgb cable with a ati 9800pro, I found that using this setup to a 32" crt was streets ahead of using the cards s-video output, playing back dvd's would give better results then my pioneer dvd player and freeview output was on-par to my freeview box. There is a big thread on avforums about doing this.
 
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