PCA Forums

Hey all,

Has anyone made a puter specifically to output AVI/DIVX D/L'd movies to their TVs? What kinda stuff would be needed, I have an idea, but am stumped on what vid card would be required. Would it need TV out? That is the S-Video correct? If you have the time, a parts rundown would be toooo sweet.

Thanks for your time and effort!

Morphius

I've just done so: added an ASUS V8200 Deluxe ( 64 megs DDR Memory, GE3 ) which has SVideo and some form of RCA out.. Have played a little with ripping DVD's and turning them into MPEG-4 files.... none of the '1 touch' programs worked for me, so am having to learn the piece-meal approach... I don't know of S-Video's distance limitation, but if it too short I should be able to put a small system next to the TV on the network and play files from there.

When the free time permits.

I play movies to my TV all the time. Used to use an Asus V6800 Deluxe Geforce DDR. Now using a Visiontek Geforce3 Ti-200. Using WinDVD for playback. Running a P3-1000 and Win2K.

I use S-Video out. The old Geforce DDR had a lot of compression artifacts but the GF3 looks sweet in DVD playback. Just as good as the dedicated player in my living room.

Radeon cards have better software support for TV out than Geforce cards but there's a VERY handy $10 app called TVTool that solves that problem.

It allows TV and monitor out to be enabled at the same time, allows you to adjust overscan (so the DVD playback fills the TV screen edge to edge) and gives you a single click or keyboard shortcut to toggle TV out on and off: http://www.tvtool.de/index_e.htm

Hey guys,

Thanks for the imputs, hows the picture quality?, I know that there not going to be all that good, as in DVD Quality, but I would assume that MPEG2/4 would be pretty good for DVD rips. AVI and DIVX would just be OK, but better than watching on my LCD monitor, and lots more comfortable

bluewhale:

Thats what I plan on doing, making a small to mid system that would "hide" in the lower cabinets of my entertainment system for the home theater. Both my "real" computers are located on the second floor, really too far away for any practicle (cash wise) type of networking.

Well, looks as if I have a NEW project to begin Thanks for the info, and keep the comments coming

Any video card that does good tv out will work fine but you will need tv out for sure. Some do it via svhs and others by rca type. The ones mentioned should do well. The radeon 7500 I have has a svhs to rca converter just in case one has no svhs connector on their tv or vcr. But I'd imagine that simple converter should be easy to find if you get a card that doesn't have it included.

Never use the tv out myself. Best I've found for making personal backups of dvd's is vidomi. The divx it makes looks nearly as good as the original dvd.

From what I've read, DVD's ARE MPEG-2 files. I wasn't aware ripping them to another format and then to MPEG would harm picture quality. ? It can't be anything like dubbing a VHS tape: if so nobody would be bothering to do it.

sigh: time to bite the bullet and RTFM's.

Well if you rip a DVD to Divx it'll suffer in quality - especially if the data rate is substantially reduced to make it fit on a CD.

Most Divx rips I've seen look about comparable to a VHS recording made on 6 hour mode. Acceptable but a bit grainy.

I mostly watch DVDs. I don't see the point in Divx rips when my video store rents DVDs for $3 for 2 night. It's just that sometimes I'll pickup a few Divx rips at a LAN party just for fun - mostly movies I suspect I'd rather not waste any money on.

I've copied some of my own personal home videos onto MPEG2 files on CDs, though, and occasionally play them back on TV. They don't look bad at all. Even MPEG1 doesn't look too bad - like a low grade VHS tape.

Blade,

thanks for the imput, but my problem is that I have never used a video card with TV out, never ever never. My GF3 has one, never used it for that purpose, my radeon had one, and never used it as well. I am parusing through the FS&T forums looking for something decent. Too bad they do not make one with an optical out eh! Picture clarity would be pristine. Also, I assume I would need some type of monitor as well, or can the TV be the monitor?

BW, thats my problem entirely.... I dont RTFMs

I never use TV out either. Heck I even bought a 25 foot svhs cable years ago so I could with my v3 3000. I may have tried it once. I'm pretty sure you can use your TV as the monitor. The sharpness will not be there though.

RTFM?

Most Divx rips I've seen look about comparable to a VHS recording made on 6 hour mode. Acceptable but a bit grainy.

Not the ones I can make, they are better than vhs in the vhs 2 hour mode. Most probably make them with the simpler settings I guess or perhaps copies of copies of copies. If you make it 2 cd's for a 2 hour movie then the quality is dvd-like.

Sweetness indeed

If you make it 2 cd's for a 2 hour movie then the quality is dvd-like

That's the problem Blade, most of the ones I've seen are on a single CD and the quality's not so hot. I've got one one 2 CDs that looks comparable with a 2 hour VHS tape.

Anyway, with cheap DVD rentals up here, and DVD movies selling for $10 a pop at the monster Flea markets up here, I'm not all that interested in them.

Not interested in making them either - seems like a lot of work for little reward.

I would think if you ripped a DVD with the best quality possible then made MPEG4 files things would be perfect. ? All that I've read of MPEG4 says you lose no quality but reduce MPEG2 files by 90%.

Why do it? even old DVD's ( 25 year old movies ) often get $20 out here. If I can borrow one, or rent one for $3 and copy it why buy it? I have some 6-700 movies on VHS: I can't see investing that over and over as each better media comes out.

Hi Dave, hows it going?

are you interested in using your computer in addition to your home theater or do you want it to replace your home theater?

if the second option is to your liking, don't bother with TV out, as you'd be stuck with 800x600 resolution. I'd suggest investing in an HD15 to Component (Y-Pb-Pr) converter for the highest quality possible. Then you can play dvds and pipe HDTV as well. This option is especially good if you want to play multi-region dvds, as dvdroms are more hackable than set top players.

Hi Sam,

Good to hear from you! Hope all is well with you. I am going to make it an addition to the home theater, just for a more versatile system. I am using optical right now for the transfers to the TV from both DVDs. Had to have two since my good Sony DVD does not do SVCD so I had to buy an APEX for that purpose.

Dave