TR Forums

TR looks to be the best place to get some help on this subject. I have posted on the forums before, but only to comment on other topics.

In my warchest ( closet of parts and junk ) I have my old system. A8N-SLI motherboard, AMD 4400X2, 4GB of PC3200 memory, 2xGTS 250 and a Creative Audigy SE soundcard. The GTS 250 cards in SLi may be overkill for a HTPC, but I would like to use them instead of having them gathering dust. Going to use Windows Enterprise 64Bit Trial which I believe expires on December 31st 2010.

My T.V at the moment is a Toshiba 36ZP57 tube T.V ( Japanese model...I live in Japan ) I have 3 input connections....



On the left of the picture is a Digital input D4. This type of connection is only here in Asia, as far as I know. The GTS 250 cards come with a breakout box that connects to the back via the S-cable pin out then to the RGB outputs on the breakoput box. I have a RGB to D4 cable.

I am wondering what the picture quality would be like comparred to S-cable connection.

I have been Googling for pics and or post on A/V forums all over the internets, but so far come up with nothing that would give me a clear idea of the overall picture quality on a tube t.v.

Thank you for the assistance. If anymore information is requied, please let me know.

I'm a little confused. Is the breakout box essentially an S-Video to VGA converter? If so, you're doing an unnecessarily large amount of converting for no real gain. All those connectors carry analog signals. In addition, S-Video is limited to standard definition 480i/576i signals whereas a D4 connection seems to be able to support 720p. If you have to use S-Video, then you should just connect the S-Video directly to the TV. You're likely to introduce signal noise and distortion by doing so many conversions (although it's likely that those converters are actually just rewiring the signals).

That said, S-Video output onto a CRT TV sucks. I currently use it on an older computer and TV and text is essentially unreadable unless is it's large due to the interlacing and small screen. If you're only going to be watching things, then it might not be too bad, but navigating any webpages or even folders is a pain.

Thanks for the reply. This is what I would like to use utill I can find a HDMI to D4 cable....







Although text isn't that important,yet. I can change it in the display settings with'n the O/S.

Oh ok. Yea, my previous comments still stands. Going from S-Video to Component to D4 is an unnecessarily large amount of converting of an analog video signal. You're most certainly not going to gain anything except cable clutter and you're more likely to actually degrade video quality. You're also not going to find an HDMI to D4 cable because HDMI is a digital signal whereas D4 is analog.

The "S-video" ports on modern graphics cards have extra pins to output different video signals via the breakput box. It's not converting S-video to component, it is outputting component, so the only conversion is component to D4. And since they're both analog, it shouldn't hurt the quality that much (lower quality than digital, but much better than just an S-video cable would be).

Thanks lads. The HDMI to D4 idea was shelved about an hour after posting my second reply. I had some time to do some research and Zoomastigophora is correct. Digital to analog won't work. Going to build it this week during the Japanese summer holiday and see how it looks.

Thanks again for the input. Will post back next week with the finnsihed build and whatknought.

Well it's finnished. I used the 7 pin s video connector that I posted attached to a RGB to D4 adaptor. I was able to set the resolution to 1680 1050/1800i on the T.V. There are two small problems. Half of the Start Orb is missing and the text is kinda small. Oh well, I am very happy with the results and can wait untill 2011to get a digital T.V with a proper DVI or HDMI connector.