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Thread ID: 34895 2003-06-27 02:17:00 Home Entertainment PC Mohammad Al-Sahaf (4008) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
155538 2003-06-27 02:17:00 Have just refurbished my old PC case into a the basis of a PC centered Home Entertainment system.
It's a Celeron 500MHZ
DVD ROM drive
CD ROM Drive
512MB RAM
128mb DDR RAM graphics card
Leadtek Winfast TV/FM Tuner Card
Creative Labs 5.1 Sound Card
Windows XP Home O/S
Software:Windows Media Player/J River Media Centre/ Power DVD XP 4.0/uICE/DivX Pro....( blah blah blah)
Hooked up to my existing 29" Sony TV (S-Video connection from graphics card to TV) and was rather disappointed with the graphics quality. Picture 'shimmers' alot and clarity/sharpness isn't fantastic.
Looks great through a regular PC Monitor and haven't been able to 'tweak' desktop settiungs to improve sharpness/clarity etc when displayed via the TV.
I am presuming that this is because I can't lift the refresh rate above 60Hz when displaying thru the TV and presume that my only real option is to buy a new 100hz TV or one with a PC-style monitor connection on the back in order to improve visuals.
Would that assumption be correct?
Or does anyone else have an alternative cunning plan?
Mohammad Al-Sahaf (4008)
155539 2003-06-27 02:25:00 Correct me if I'm wrong but TV Screen Resolution is 640x480, so setting your computer to that resolution should help out.

I've connected my 21" tv via the S Cable and had it play a DVD in fullscreen view and graphics were just like playing a DVD on the DVD Player.
Kame (312)
155540 2003-06-27 02:30:00 I am in wainuiomata and have much the same setup but use a Hollywood Plus card to output my dvd and mpgs to a hi fi video then to my 29" tv with brilliant results have a spare card if you want with remote control for sale . kiwibeat (304)
155541 2003-06-27 02:30:00 You should be able to adjust the settings on your secondary monitor to increase it to 1024x768, however no matter what you do, it will never be good for standard Desktop use, such as filebrowsing, Desktop Publishing etc :-) Chilling_Silently (228)
155542 2003-06-27 02:31:00 > I am in wainuiomata and have much the same setup but
> use a Hollywood Plus card to output my dvd and mpgs
> to a hi fi video then to my 29" tv with brilliant
> results have a spare card if you want with remote
> control for sale .

Kiwibeat>
Could you send me a bell on Psycho*_*Sabertooth*@*Hotmail*....
I'd be keen if it doesnt otherwise get any claims :-)
Chilling_Silently (228)
155543 2003-06-27 02:33:00 Yeah
Line in Wainui myself!
Am interested in perhaps purchasing it and just as interested in looking at your setup for ideas/inspiration if that was okay.
Feel free to e-mail me at paulg.smith@paradise.net.nz

Cheers
Mohammad Al-Sahaf (4008)
155544 2003-06-27 02:55:00 Found this link which looks like the successor to the Hollywood Plus Card


And this one with alot of indepth info on the Hollywood Plus card
[url=]http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/dvd1/index.shtml (]http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm#[/url)
Mohammad Al-Sahaf (4008)
155545 2003-06-27 23:09:00 There should be settings on your computer to reduce the shimmer effect on a 29" TV. Indeed it will never be that great for reading web pages because of the clarity. Droping the res to 640 will make things a bit clearer.

As for playing DVD's it should be the same as playing it through a stand alone player.

i would be interested to know if you got a 100mhz tv will the graphics card let your rank up the refresh rate to 100hz also. (i think tv's run at 50hz not 60hz). Also i wonder if these pixelplus tvs from panasonic and the likes make things clearer?
roofus (483)
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