If you want to do TV out in Linux, go to http://www.mythtv.org/ and look at the compatible video
cards. These guys are cutting edge when it comes to video use in Linux.
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1
ATI makes many cards with TV-out capability, but ATI offers no official support for their use with
Linux. The standard XFree86 ATI driver does not support TV-out.
The standard Matrox driver included with XFree86 does not support TV-out.
S3 Savage IX 8MB AGP. Has SVideo output. Reported to work.
Some NVIDIA cards with TV-out can be run using the standard nv driver in XFree86, combined with the
userspace application nvtv to control the TV-out port. See
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nv-tv-out/ for details. Recent versions of the NVIDIA driver have
better support for overscan and other features useful with TV-Out, so the nvtv application may not
be required.
Some NVIDIA cards can be run with a proprietary NVIDIA X driver made available by NVIDIA. See
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux for more information.
Specific cards:
* GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP. Has Composite and SVideo ports. Works using the NVIDIA X driver.
* GeForce2 GTS 64 MB DDR 4x AGP. Has SVideo port. Works using the NVIDIA X driver. Reportedly
works using the nv driver plus nvtv.
* GeForce4 MX420 PCI (BFG Asylum). Has SVideo port.
My recommendation is to go with a nVidia card. The MX440 and the FX5200 would be my choices for
cheap, but good video. I know the FX5200 is not listed here, but the MythTV guys were using them
right and left. They can be had for $40-50, maybe even lower by now.
Brian Kelsay
>>> "Charles, Joshua Micah (UMKC-Student)" 08/16/04 11:54AM >>>
I've done a little bit of research, but I'm not really familiar with
video card hardware. What I'm looking for is a simple card for my open
AGP slot that has TV out so that I can play DVD's on my big screen using
my computer. I've seen a couple from ATI that are pretty cheap ($30),
but I didn't know if I could trust that. The TV-Out on my laptop, which
is ATI, works ok, but it is only black and white, a problem I find very
weird. That's the biggest thing I was worried about; getting a card
that only has black and white TV output. So any thoughts any of you
have in this matter would be welcomed gladly!
Thanks,
Josh