[Patrol]

Hi All

First post here so be gentle.


I have finally decided to start to put together a HTPC. I have the following TV , Hitachi C47WD5000 47" Wide Screen Rear Projection, it supports the following modes ,Progressive Scan/Virtual HD/100Hz (525i/p, 635i/p, 750p, 1125i)


I would like some advice on what video card to buy. 3D gaming is not as issue as I dont want to play games on this machine.


The TV has component video inputs (no vga or dvi). Are there video card with component video out or is is better to use a DVI or VGA to Component converter. What video cards are recomended.


Any advice greatly appreciated


I dont know if this is relavent but I'm in Australia so we use PAL here.


Thanks in Advance

Patrol

 

[Patrol]

Anyone?

 

[Rich L]

If you go with an ATI card you can use the HDTV component adapter or a transcoder. If you go with an nVidia card you will have to use a transcoder. Right now for the lower to midrange cards you are probably better off with the ATI dongle solution. For the upper level cards the nvidia seems to have become the preferred card but you will have to buy an additional transcoder. I don't think anyone really knows if the benefit you get from the nVidia card will be realized if you have to send it through a transcoder over component. By the way, the ATI dongle costs about $30 US while a transcoder will go for about $130.

 

[Dooshik]

Yeah go with an ATI card you can get the optional HDTV converter for around 50 bux. Or you can just use dvi port if your tv's got dvi in.

 

[Patrol]

Thanks for the info!

 

[93coupe]

..then a DVI cable costs money too

 

[grot]

For what its worth, I have had more luck with a key digital transcoder than with the ATI dongle. May be an outlier, but I can get more tweaky in powerstrip...

 

[JavierS]

New X800's come with component adapter cable, so no extra $ needed, PQ is way better than my previous 9700Pro+DVI dongle.