video to TV on the cheap

[Talbie]

I have a few older junker computers lying around. I think the fastest is like 750 MHz. What I want to do is setone up in my home entertainment center, hook it up to my home network, use a wireless keyboard and mouse and use my tv for the monitor. now I know that TVs quality is much lower then a monitor. but the goal here is to download video from the internet. transfer them to this home entertainment computer then watch them on the tv. I think the quality would be good enough for this. now the question. I have no idea what to do to get the video to the tv. don't really want to spend over $150. and what ever I get should work all the time. If I reboot the computer it needs to come up on the TV. Any ideas? Has anybody ever done this?

thanks
Talbie

[lil Jimmie]

A Sapphire Radeon 9100 ($85.00 at newegg)with the s-video out would work so long as you used the soundcard of the PC.

I use my PC in my sig to watch DVD's on my TV all the time.

[Talbie]

does s-video not carry audio? do you think the quality of the picture on the tv is good? I assume with s-video it should look almost the same as a monitor.

Talbie

[lil Jimmie]

As far as movies the picture is great quality but tis not so great with the regular desktop as the resolution of a monitor looks far better for desktop apps.

No the s-video doesn't carry the audio signal and I use my sound card and speakers from my PC.

[glc]

You can run cables from the line out of the sound card to a set of aux inputs on your receiver.

[Xayd]

A new Radeon is a bit of overkill, the original Radeons have very good TV out quality and it's not like you're gonna need gaming speed just to play video out to a TV @ 30 fps.

See if you can find a Radeon 1 VIVO. Used is fine. Should run you about 40 to 60 dollars.

For the other hundred, I would highly recommend a good sound card, since most only have single channel outputs. If you intend to capture as well as output to the TV, take a look at the M-Audio Delta cards, the Audiophile 24/96 to start with. It has 2 RCA inputs and 2 RCA outputs so you'll be able to preserve stereo sound both coming and going, and it can also pass digital through to a receiver if you have one. The sound card in question will run you about 100 dollars from Newegg.

[Talbie]

Do you guys think a slower computer can do this well also. say like a 300 Mhz?

[Xayd]

300mhz is pushing it. Anything encoded with DivX 5.xx will not play very well on such a slow CPU.

The minimum IMO would be a 600mhz P3/Celeron.