ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Component Output

[Knight]

http://mirror.ati.com/vortal/aiw9700/flash/index.html

From that site select Component Output on the right.

"ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO allows you to output high resolution,
non-interlaced quality images in multiple settings such as
480i, 480P, 720P, and 1080i to an HDTV ready unit. Watch TV,
DVDs, VCDs, or play games in the comfort of your family room!
This component out adapter is exclusive to the ALL-IN-WONDER
9700 PRO"

Price $449.00

This is only for the high end enthusiest at this price but it sounds
like a dream come true to all of us HDTV nuts who are also
computer nerds...


the card has a built in TV tuner so what im wondering is if it's a
SD tuner and TV can merely be upconverted to any of the above
mentioned formats, or if the tuner is HD and it will give us a true
HD output. my guess is the tuner is not HD. Even if the tuner is
not HD having an output on your computer capable of 1080i
would really kick ass for watching DVD or playing games on my
HDTV...

the good news is that Nvidia is supposed to come out with their
new GeForceFx card in Febuary and it should push the price of
the Radeon 9700 Pro down quite a bit...

has anyone gone out and spent the money on this???
if so how does it work???

[kevinw]

Put into persepective it is about the same cost as a STB. With an antenna connected to it, you can display a HD picture on your television. PLUS you could record HD to the computer hard drive.
I am confused by the cable, It says comp. ou but the cable look like a comp. in adapter.

[Knight]

the only problem with that persepective is that the video card alone is the price of an STB, then you have to build a comp to house the video card... the benefit to that is that you could add an FM tuner and mp3 player as well as a DVD player (progressive by default) and have yourself a new reciever/Progressive Scan DVD player... at most you would need an amplifier to power your speakers.

[kevinw]

But if you already have a computer, then you could record HD:D

[Knight]

you could if infact the tuner card in the TV is HD and isn't just able to upconvert a SD signal to 1080i or 720P, even then my guess is that you could get a WinTV-HD card from Hauppauge for $299 lol

[Knight]

It appears that it has an Analog tuner and simply upscales the images to a HD format...

[57U]

I'm sure they're working on them, but I don't think there are any PC cards that have HD Cable tuners, HD satellite tuners or anything that will easily allow you to make your PC into an HD recorder.

You may be able to "hack" a system together that will get OTA HD signals to your PC, or with a lot more work Cable or satellite, but it's a lot of work and "on purpose" HDDVRs are just around the corner.

Remember also that each hour of High Def programming requires 9 GB of storage, so in order to get a "useful" system, you'll need a dedicated 100-200 GB HDD.

[Knight]

Actually as I stated above Hauppauge makes a WinTV-HD tuner card for $299

"WinTV-HD update version 2.1.20114
This version allows the recording and playback of HD television from your PC's hard disk. While recording your HD TV show to disk, your WinTV-HD should be playing TV either minimized or full screen. You can play back the recorded HD TV show in a window."

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1110-405-4621562-1.html?tag=rating

there is also this card

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1110-405-6742800-1.html?tag=rating

[57U]

Sorry, I was inferring that someone would use the PC as an HDDVR and then output to their HDTV, with an actual 720P or 1080i signal, not to the "small" computer screen.

[Knight]

I see no reason why this cannot be done with either card listed above, they both have HD Tuners and HD outputs capable of all standard HDTV resolutions.

[satanami69]

Nvidia recently released Forceware 56.64 drivers that allow 1280x720p and 1920x1080i over DVI. I hooked my PC to my Toshiba 65HDX82 with a DVI-D cable, and was able to adjust the resolution to 1280x720p without using powerstrip and without having to install a special Monitor driver.

I played LOTR-TTT on my DVD player, and then again through the PC. It was a huge difference, even though the source image is only 480i. I think I'll start throwing together some spare parts and make myself a HTPC now. I'll be able to move the DVD player and VCR(yes I still use it), and get the nice PVR and DVD, plus web browsing, etc. Should be fun.

[Knight]

now if only game developers would start supporting those resolutions, I would definatly have an HTPC