What video card is ideal for TV out to a progressive scan TV

[Anthony1]

I'm thinking of building a PC specifically for emulation gaming.


Here is the deal. I would like to hook this rig up to a progressive scan TV. Are there any video cards that have "wide-band component output"?

Basically, are there any video cards that will output a 640 x 480 Progressive signal to a TV that can accept such a signal through a HD component input?

[zektor]

That's a good question. I have been TV-out"ing" for quite awhile, but just to standard S-vid with a Nvidia TNT2 card. I would imagine what you are looking for would be in any of the new ATI or Nvidia video cards, but check their sites for specs first:

ATI:

www.ati.com

Nvidia:

www.nvidia.com

[bensenvill]

I've been looking for one for quite some time. I dont think you are going to find any video card itself that will have component outputs. I havent checked out the HDTV tuner cards but thats probably your best bet.

~Tj

[kingpong]

I use an ATI AIW 9800 Pro via component output (adaptor comes in the box), and many of ATI's recent higher end cards either come with or are compatible with a component output dongle. Check out their web site for information.

One downside to component input is that the amount of overscan varies greatly between televisions. ATI includes "optimized" resolutions in their drivers, which basically are just lower resolutions at higher timings to fit the timing requirements of a 480p signal (or 720p or 1080i) yet fit everything on the screen. I have to use the optimized 640x480 resolution, which is actually 640x432. Most emulators that I use detect the system resolution and allow me to use that with scaling, but a few (like VirtuaNES) stick to the standard Windows resolutions. Had to edit some ini files here and there to add the resolution to some emulators, but no big deal.

Of course, if you're really lucky your TV will accept a 5 wire component signal, not the usual 3 (jacks for sound don't count). A 3 wire component connection puts the sync information on the green channel, while the red and blue are actually the differences from the green. A 5 wire, RGBHV connection separates the sync into the H and V lines, with the RGB lines pure. If your TV supports that kind of input, VGA to RGBHV cables can in theory be used with any video card.

Odds are though that you can plan on dropping $30 on Powerstrip regardless of what combination you wind up with, as you will wind up having to do custom resolutions or at least custom timings at some point.