TV Out Quality: Nvidia 6600/6800 vs. ATI 9800?

D

Defective

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 5, 2002
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I am currently using a AIW9700 in my HTPC but I am looking to swap it out for something that might have better quality. Has anyone had any experience with the Nvidia 6600/6800 TV out? I am looking at the Albatron AGP6600(non-GT) (which doesnt seemed to have shipped yet) and have been reading some good things. Also, does Nvidia DVD Decoder work better with PureVideo than it does with other cards?
 
are you talking about the svideo output? those cards seem to be a huge waste for svideo output. everything I have heard says that the companes typically use the same svideo for most of the cards. meaning a 5200 will do just as well as a 6800 for svideo output.
 
The dvd decoder works amazing wonders, and i am sure that the svideo is pretty good. He most likely wants to do TV gaming so leave him alone guy!
 
not liek i am atacking or anything. Just trying to save money for him. and as for tv gaming, the low resolutions that svideo support don't require a high pwered gaming card. you could just go with a directx 9 compatible card like a 9600 or 5200.
 
I just put a MSI 6600GT in my HTPC. The TV out on the S-Video was better than on my FX5200 Personal cinema. It also came with HDTV output. However I need to spend more time playing with those settings because at 480P eveything was too big and at 1080i everything was too small and my TV won't run 720P.

So, yes the TV output of the 6600GT is pretty good at standard NTSC resolution.
 
The 6600 series is quickly becoming a darling among the HTPC community and the Purevideo stuff is just gravy. :)

The GF6 series has the exact same TV out chip interfrated into it's GPU as the FX series and yes it's pretty good. What I have to say is that if your going with an SDTV and using Svideo (or lower) to connect to your TV you just might want to go with a 9800 or 5900 since the 6600 might be alittle too much power then needed (your doing 800x600 anyways, my 5700U can do that easy :) ). Now if you plan on getting a new TV soon (one with DVI or component) then yeah go for one of the 6600s with the HDTV adapter cable.
 
Thanks everyone. I am looking at the 6600 because I want to buy a card that I will be able to use with this HTPC for quite a while. The current card does not have DVI, a problem for future planning) and I am getting to a point were I want to make the computer quieter so I am thinking of changing the HSF on the card. The problem is that I dont use the TV tuner on the card anymore and I dont really want to spend any more money on it. I have the Component video dongle for it but the drivers do not allow for any tweaking of it as is possible with the Svideo dongle that I am not going to spend $30 (after shipping) on. I also like using the 3D accelerated options in BeyondTV, and other codecs and players that make use of the power of the card, so I want to keep the 3D abilities of the card at least on the same level. The 6600 (non-GT) looks like it meets the requirements for what I am doing and they dont break the bank (PCIe versions going for around $120), especially after I sell my card.

My concern is for Svideo and, as you have responded, it looks like it does well there. I will also probably switch out the HSF for an Arctic-Cooling HSF for it, who I dont suspect will take very long to produce one that supports it.
 
I have a XFX 6600GT AGP in 1 htpc and 1 ATI 9500 non pro in my other HTPC. The 6600 is definately the better card for HTPC usage as it provides better output. That being said it was much more of a pain to get a stable reliable picture out of due to some quirks in the drivers.

For ease of setup go with an ATI, for all around better picture go with the 6600.
 
I want a 6600 for mine to go DVI out. waiting on some more price drops (probably not going to happen soon).
 
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