Request for Video card recommendation

[Brian Kelsay]

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
<Quote>
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.
</Quote>

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)" <jmcqk6 at umkc.edu> 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