Need help connecting HTPC to TV!

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RevolutionEagle Joined: May 20, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 2 Rep:

Sun Aug 1, 2010 7:13:54 PM #129463 Perm Link

OK, I'm building an HTPC to accompany a big old CRT TV, and I'm having a bit of a struggle: I can't seem to find a way to hook up the video!

The TV has these input ports:
Composite RCA (yellow)
S-Video
Coaxial

The HTPC has these output ports:
HDMI
VGA/D-SUB
DVI-D (dual link)

I've tried looking up different matches of these connectors without success. Can anyone think of any options?

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Aron Schatz

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Sun Aug 1, 2010 10:35:43 PM #129471 Perm Link

What type of video card does your HTPC use? Most video cards come with TV out that should provide S-Video.

Or, you'll need to get a scan converter which isn't that great.

List your components out.

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RevolutionEagle Joined: May 20, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 2 Rep:

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Sun Aug 1, 2010 10:54:03 PM #129472 Perm Link

In response to Aron Schatz #129471

It's an onboard ATI Radeon HD 4200.

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WhiteEagle

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Sun Aug 1, 2010 11:04:49 PM #129476 Perm Link

You're lucky, my TV doesn't even have those ports, all it has is a cable TV hookup.

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Aron Schatz

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Sun Aug 1, 2010 11:23:26 PM #129481 Perm Link

In response to RevolutionEagle #129472

Does it have any TV out cables?

If not, a scan converter or an additional video card is your best bet.

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Tornado

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Mon Aug 2, 2010 2:03:00 AM #129504 Perm Link

I've never seen an onboard video controller that offered any kind of TV out. I'm not even going to suggest a scan converter as an option. A cheap, bottom level graphics card would probably be cheaper than a decent scan converter, and would net you a (largely insignificant) boost in performance as well.

The problem is that most low-range GPUs no longer come with any kind of TV out, because it is cheaper to just to include HDMI, VGA and/or DVI (as well as the fact that nVidia drivers, and possibly ATi ones as well, no longer support S-Video in Windows 7); however, make sure you end up getting a modern one. Sub-$40 GPUs do contain cutdown versions of perfectly modern cards, but there is also a bunch of really terrible and outdated stuff among them like GeForce FX5200s and Radeon 7000s (the Wal-Mart website even has a rebadge of that lovely bottom tier junk dating to 2001, the GeForce MX440). There are GeForce 8400s available with S-Video out, so see you can find one of them that you are okay with.

Edited at Mon Aug 2, 2010 2:07:21 AM

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