Which is best for TV out ? - G 450, 550 (or even G 400) ?

[user]

Which is best for TV out ? - G 450, 550 (or even G 400) ?

I want to buy a new one, so there is 450 and 550.


RGB is cool, and that is possible with 450 and 550, right ?
(by making cable himself)



Or would you recommend me an ATI Radeon 7000 ?


Gaming is NOT important for me.

TV out, with DVD, my self made SVCDs and DivX (by BSplayer, WinDVD, Windows-MediaPlayer)

via RGB, Svideo, Chinch I want to have a nice picture on TV, beamer !



I have heard about bad pauses by G450/550 if you play videos which don't match in multiples of 32 ?
Is there a perfect workaround for both cards ?

I want perfect quality, these cards are expensive enough !


Thanks in advance for your opinions and answers.

[dZeus]

RGB is possible with G400, G450 and G550. (SCART-RGB cable schematics are on Matrox tech support forum).

about 'multiple of 32' video problem: don't worry at all about that one, there are plenty of workarounds nowadays for that problem.

dunno about imagequality difference though. G400 has good image quality, not as good as a decent stand-alone DVD player though (but that one lacks MPEG4 playback ). It probably does sport better quality than most made-in-China el-cheapo players (the ones I've seen).

[Kruzin]

G400 had the best TV-out. It was the only of the cards to have an external maven tv encoder. With G450 and later, it was integrated into the main chip, and never worked quite as well after that...
You can still get refurbed G400s from M's web site...

[user]

Do you have a link to M's home ?

or could I buy any G400 DH from ebay for example, or what means refurbing (=tuned ?!) ?

Does he sell special best G400 's ?

If I buy G400 from ebay, are there speacial requirements, I have to be careful of ?

[dZeus]

M = Matrox, as in www.matrox.com

refurbished means cards that have come back from customers for whatever reason and are ready for sale (often with repair done to hardware or bios/firmware).

Just make sure you get a DualHead card, as the singlehead versions don't sport tv-out.

btw. if you have a beamer with VGA input, use that one instead! it's progressive scan vs. interlaced for tv input, resulting in much better image quality.

[user]

thanks, lol

[feelx77]

I have 1 used G400 32-DH available on Ebay

I am an avid Matrox fan but I am selling my Matrox G400-32MB DH AGP4x card on Ebay. I had already posted it their earlier today but after reading this post I thought you may be interested in it. I am the original owner of the card. It is in miraculate condition and has been professionally modifed by means of removing the stock heatsink & installing a fan that has been tapped into the boards circuitry. Starting bid is at $10.00 on ebay and no bidders have yet bid on it.

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3762&item=2076789313&rd=1

I have many Ebay references & Heatware.com references. I have a verified business paypal account. This is the only one available. It is my personal video card and I am not trying to solicite many items on this forum. I figured we could help each other out. Don't get me wrong I still love this card & that is why I'm swapping it out for the "MAX" version I just picked up.

[user]

Sorry,

first you are in USA, I am in Germany, quite expensive shipping ?!

2nd: I hate fans.
They cause noise.
That's a reason, why I am looking for a card with perfect TV out and no fan.

[feelx77]

Fan, you can't even hear this one it's so quiet...seriously. Anyways, Germany huh...I was born there my sister and grandparents live their. I could send it over with my christmas package to them & have them mail it to you locally. Far fetched idea but possible.

[user]

I do really hate fans.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?act=ST&f=21&t=4374

hmm, at german ebay I am able to get matrox G 400 without fans, without problems.

sorry, would be a good idea with your grandparents, but I have another solution.