TVs as monitors [free capture/tv card]

[wizard at neonedge.com (Grant M)]

Just as a side-note, I have Quadrant Concerto card, which has the
Phillips/Zoran combination. It was a decent card with coax in/out, s-video
and rca video-out. The only drivers I could find weren't specifically for
the card, so it is just sitting on the shelf.
Let me know if you want it,
Grant M.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark J. Dulcey [mailto:mark at buttery.org]
> Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 9:28 PM
> To: dsr at tao.merseine.nu
> Cc: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: TVs as monitors
>
>
> dsr at tao.merseine.nu wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 10, 2004 at 05:05:40PM -0400, Bill Horne wrote:
> >
> >>I think the S-video inputs are capable of much higher resolutions than
> >>NTSC (known in the trade as "Never Twice the Same Color"). The first
> >>step is to visit your local video store and talk about capabilities with
> >>the eager salesmen: if it can be done, they'll want to sell it to you.
> >
> >
> > Nope, sorry. All S-Video does is send the same NTSC signal with the
> > chrominance and luminance signals on different wires, giving better
> > crosstalk rejection, but no improvement in resolution.
>
> The effective horizontal resolution is significantly better, because the
> luminance is no longer messed up by the comb filter. (You don't even
> want to think about what happens on a set that has a low-pass filter
> instead of a comb filter, but such sets probably don't have S-video
> inputs anyway.) The vertical resolution is still limited by the number
> of scan lines, however. The signal format doesn't actually impose any
> theoretical limit on the bandwidth of the luminance signal (over cables;
> the broadcast bandwidth is limited), but the dot pitch of a TV tube will
> impose an upper bound of 800 pixels or thereabouts (lower for a small or
> cheap set).
>
> If you are feeding video from a non-composite source (S-VHS VCR, 8mm or
> digital camcorder, DVD player, satellite or digital cable set-top box,
> or computer) into a TV set, an S-Video connection will usually give you
> a visibly better result. Component video will usually be better still,
> as it eliminates the bandwidth limits of the encoded chroma signal.
>
> None of these things are a substitute for a real high-resolution signal
> from a computer, HDTV set-top box, D-VHS VCR. high-resolution camcorder,
> or upcoming HD DVD. Any of those will be dramatically better than
> anything you can feed through an S-video connection.
>
> To return to a point from my previous message, TV-out is widely
> available on modern video cards, and just about free once you get past
> the really low-end cards. (You'd be hard pressed to find an over-$100
> card that DOESN'T have TV out, other than a specialized workstation
> video card.) There is no good reason not to include it in a new
> mid-range or higher PC; it is handy on occasion, especially if you like
> to do group computer gaming.
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