Hi all,
I'm new to this forum, so go easy!
Just in the middle of a very long drawn out process of getting a new machine - which I'd like to be a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) too.
I was waiting for the ATi 9800 AIW to come out, but having read newgroups, I'm beginning to shy away from ATi as it seems their TV quality is not so good, tech support not so good, hardware compatibility is not so good. It looks as if you can't use a monitor and a TV at the same time (for 50Hz PAL UK TV) if you dig into their manuals far enough, that's not what I want...
So I've been looking at coming back to Matrox - well the truth is that I've never left them. My home PC has an old Millenium and has been problem free from the day I got it. At work, over the last 3 jobs and about 10 years, I've used Matroxes all the time - no complaints there.
My worry with Matrox is low market share (~1%), together with the 'problems' of the company and the 'banding' problems of the Parhelia. I'm not a hard-core gamer (maybe I'll buy a 3D game one day to see how good they are now) but I want good quality video output - so Matrox would seem a logical choice - there may be no other choice.
Ideally what I would like to do is to drive my monitor (or maybe flatscreen one day) and a TV at the same time. Now my TV is a Sony with RGB inputs and using RGB is much better than watching with S-video - note RGB is not Component Video (YPrPb) that seems to be very popular with our North American friends.
Now in the good old days, one would poke around in the chipset and reprogram registers to give TV-type timings and stick displays straight onto the RGB (VGA) connecter. I suspect that things are better these days...
The simple question is, can I stick a Matrox (P750?) onto my RGB TV?
Would it use an RGB (VGA) monitor connector or some converter? Is there another way to do it? Will it do widescreen too?
Answers or pointers to help please...
Thanks for all your help.
Taliska
I'm new to this forum, so go easy!
Just in the middle of a very long drawn out process of getting a new machine - which I'd like to be a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) too.
I was waiting for the ATi 9800 AIW to come out, but having read newgroups, I'm beginning to shy away from ATi as it seems their TV quality is not so good, tech support not so good, hardware compatibility is not so good. It looks as if you can't use a monitor and a TV at the same time (for 50Hz PAL UK TV) if you dig into their manuals far enough, that's not what I want...
So I've been looking at coming back to Matrox - well the truth is that I've never left them. My home PC has an old Millenium and has been problem free from the day I got it. At work, over the last 3 jobs and about 10 years, I've used Matroxes all the time - no complaints there.
My worry with Matrox is low market share (~1%), together with the 'problems' of the company and the 'banding' problems of the Parhelia. I'm not a hard-core gamer (maybe I'll buy a 3D game one day to see how good they are now) but I want good quality video output - so Matrox would seem a logical choice - there may be no other choice.
Ideally what I would like to do is to drive my monitor (or maybe flatscreen one day) and a TV at the same time. Now my TV is a Sony with RGB inputs and using RGB is much better than watching with S-video - note RGB is not Component Video (YPrPb) that seems to be very popular with our North American friends.
Now in the good old days, one would poke around in the chipset and reprogram registers to give TV-type timings and stick displays straight onto the RGB (VGA) connecter. I suspect that things are better these days...
The simple question is, can I stick a Matrox (P750?) onto my RGB TV?
Would it use an RGB (VGA) monitor connector or some converter? Is there another way to do it? Will it do widescreen too?
Answers or pointers to help please...
Thanks for all your help.
Taliska
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