Thrush

iTrader: (1)

I am wanting to connect a PC to my CRT TV to use WMP and VLC player to play music and video content via the TV and AV amp. I recently bought a HDD media player, but it's pretty crap, and only has composite video output (yuck!) and stereo analogue sound - so can't pass through the multichannel Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound signals......

SO I thought the best thing to use would be a PC. I have an old PC that has a 650mhz Celeron processor and 256mb ram - and whilst it runs XP it struggles playing back 700mb DivX films, let alone the 1.5gb ones or the 4.5gb DVD Rips..... Playback is all stuttery and jumpy - no good for me!

So I am thinking about just buying a basic spec second hand PC - something like a cheapish Dell, along the 2.66 Celeron to 2.8 P4 range PC's (I have both a 2.9 P4 (mine) and 2.66 Celeron (family) machines and both handle playback fine) and attaching it to the TV via S-Vid and to the amp via optical

Thing is, I would need a graphics card with S-Vid output, which I have (albeit a cheap one), but have been told 2 things. 1) S-Vid PC cards only transmitt at 800x600 - which is PISS POOR for using WMP as the wrting is all big and looks shit, and 2) you have to "turn on" the S-Vid connection everytime you boot up the PC. This is no good for me as this PC won't be connected to a monitor at all, so I just wanna turn it on and turn on the TV and have it work...

So I found this;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...5148&rd=1&rd=1

I am thinking this should do it, as you can "force" resolutions (tho sadly, only 4:3 res's and not widescreen 16:9 res's)and mess about with underscan and overscan. Power for the unit is supplied by USB, so no extra power adapters, and it claims along with S-Vid, it can convert RGB VGA into RGB SCART

I am really tempted to buy it, just to try it out - but it's £35, so if ti don't work or is shit, thats £35 wasted

What do you reckon?

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Fuck it, bought it anyway

Gonna see if it works, and if it does, the hunt is on for a cheeeeeeeap PC to sit behind TV as a dedicated media PC....

Gotta decide what OS to run it on tho - stock XP (which I have) or upgrade to MCE? I would like to use a remote, and not sure if you can get the MCE remote to work with stock XP......

Turbocabbie

MythTV

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

I actually, belive it or not, want to use Windows Media Player (10) to organise and play my music, half because it's just something I have got used to, but I also just like the way it's organised and laid out....

For video I am not too bothered about a front end organiser - I just keep movies in a file folder and open them with VLC media player....

What I do need to figure out tho is if THIS remote and USB eye kit will work with XP, or if you HAVE to upgrade to MCE to get it to work....

I'll probably have a bluetooth mouse or something anyway, but a nice remote would be good

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Well it arrived today.... Hmm...

Maybe I was epxecting a little too much, but it's not really that good...

Don't get me wrong, it DOES work - I connected it to my PC, and then from the box to the TV via composite phono lead and lo and behold I got a picture!

But, if you connect via S-Video, it is in black and white, and if you connect via RGB scart, it's red-washed... Now, for a box that says it converts RGB VGA into composite, S-Video and RGB Scart, it actually only shows in colour on composite

Secondly, the two buttons on the front, which are SIZE and FINE TUNE, which I, perhaps wrongly, assumed controlled the size (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 supported sizes) and then you could mess about with overscan (the fine tune bit) don't actually do that. The size button just boosts the picture to a tad larger (creating overscan) and the fine tune bit seemingly does nothing in particular.....

So I used the PC to change res's. The above listed sizes worked fine, the 1152 strange size windows has didn't show (just flickered) but oddly, 1280x768 did work - "great" I thought "I've got a widescreen tv, so this is great"... no

On any other res other than 640x480, the pic was not clear enough to read any writing without being right up to the TV and squinting, and even then I think I read it cos I kinda knew what it said anyway...

640x480 was just readable, but of course, that meant that WMP was overly cramped, and song titles etc couldn't be read in full!!!!!

Also, 640x480 does and odd thing with the screen size - it reduces it slightly, so that there is a black border all the way round. The units buttons don't seem to work AT ALL with this res either.....

Play vids using VLC worked perfectly tho - in any res they looked really good. In the 1280x768 res it meant all I had to do to make the pic look in the right aspect ratio was set the TV to normal widescreen, which was nice as I didn't have to stretch it to fit (better PQ)

But of course everything else looked a little poo, mainly WMP cos I couldn't read the writing!!!!!! If only the res was good/clear enough to read the writing at 1280x768 on the TV (fine on PC) then it would be PERFECT.... But I either have to have perfect video playback (1280x768) albeit with a little overscan, and crappy, unuseable WMP/desktop/files/etc, or go for readable WMP/desktop/files/etc, but have them too large to see all of them, and have slightly comprimised video (having to sort the aspect ratio out with the TV's settings, not the PC)

Hmmm.... Not sure this was worth the £37 really..... Specially since I was hoping to get a good RGB Scart signal, instead of composite that I already have with my HDD media player......

DanRSturbo

Seriously, why bother ? You won't get as good a resolution on the tv as you will on the pc.

Just get a few dvd-rw's,burn ya films onto that, then watch them, that's all I do

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Dan - I was hoping to get a decent res on it, considering CRT monitors get decent res's - even half as good as that would be okay....

and it's not just about films - I can burn to DVD-R or stick em on the HDD media player I have, thats not a problem (tho a PC will support more file types and be better in terms of being able to use proper digital audio outputs for multichannel audio etc) - but it's more to do with playing my music collection. I really wanted to use WMP for that, but without a high enough res, I can't fit enough info on the screen, and with a high res, it is unreadable....

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, more playing this eve....

Figured out how to use S-Video connection - reaosn it was black and white was I had wrong setting on TV for that AV input - changed it to s-vi and colour works fine Clearer pic than composite, but not as clear as RGB scart - but RGB scart is INCREDIBLY over exposed with seriously high contrast and brightness.... Odd!!!

at 640x480, writing is readable fine, and 800x600 it is JUST readable, but still can't get any higher than this and be able to read

So not sure what to do - can send it back minus the postage back there, minus the £7 postage fee seller charged, and minus a restocking fee of £5, so total of about £15 really - so I only get £20 odd back from the £37 I paid.... so not sure if I should just keep it incase I ever need/want it for something.....

DanRSturbo

Re-sell it on e-bay.

For £37 wasted you may well as have sky with all the music channels

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

I don't want Sky? And the musc channels are shit on there.... How would that help me see my PC on my TV to play the music I already have?

DanRSturbo

M8,

You will never get a good quality resolution on your tv from anything you want to stream from your pc.

Best alternative, Laptop with wireless connection networked, run media player if you insist so much with all media files you want.

I can watch Two And A Half Men from anywhere in my house or garden wirelessly streamed from my PC

RobCarden

i have my computer hooked up to my crt widescreen tv... works well.... pictures on the tv look very similar to when i watch a normal dvd on the tv. my video card has a svhs output that i connect to the tv's svhs.... i use NVIDIA nview desktop manager and i can either right click on a video and select 'play on my tv' or drag the wimdows media player screen with the video playing off the right hand side of my monitor and that appears on my tv....

in control panel it shows the 2 screens next to each other with a 1 on the lcd and 2 on the tv monitor is 19 lcd 1440x900 and tv is crt widescreen phillips 32" wide a resolution set in control panel for it at 1024x768...

not something i know loads about by it works ok... hth