I've thought about making a media box instead of buying a DVD players with media features. But honestly I've never gotten a proper signal from any video cards I've ever used, including one in the Toshiba notebook that COMES with Windows Media Center. It's very static, fuzzy, blurry, lines running up, and distorted. Also, I have trouble getting the video sized right, with proper overscan. Sometimes the video card, like my nVidia 6600, won't give me an option for dual display. Only clone or horz/vert. It won't allow me to make the resolution the same as the TV, normally I use 800x600 and at least the aspect ration is the same. Are these just the common obstacles? Is there a video card out there JUST for TV out or what! I thought my $2500 Toshiba media center would at least work, it was made for it. One thing for sure, the quality stinks. And these are $300 - $400 video cards I'm using. It usually takes me 4 hours to hook up a TV to my computer and I just give up, plug the old DVD player and VCR and cable back up and whew the picture quality is back! I don't get it!
Make sure you go to nvidia and download the latest drivers for your 6600. It has new settings for TV user. My tv in 720p mode uses 1166x768 to compensate for the overscan. Works great for windows apps but I still have overscan problems in some games that use their own settings like Battlefield 2. Instead of using MCE try a program like GBPVR (free) and see if it works better for you. I use it with my Hauppauge pvr150 and it looks great. The analog channels are clearer than they are through my cable box. They have detailed setup instructions for most of the tv cards out there.
I have the same problem...i just bought the Toshiba Qosmio G25 and it has media center built in with a built in tv tunrer. I thought the picture quality would be great because it has it all built in but i was sadly mistaken. I have the nVidia 6600 also. I have updated all of the drivers and it still comes out with static and lines and everything else. I downloaded the GBPVR, but it says that it cannot find the cable source, so i can't get a picture when i try to watch TV. I don't believe it works with the Toshiba Tv Tuner. Is there a setting that i need to change? Thanks
well you guys are lucky, i can't even get my video card to detect the tv. nor do i have the option to change the display. WITH the latest nvidia drivers.
a lot of times its the connection to the TV that is the problem, or the TV itself. What kind of cable are you using for your video connection? Does it look clear on your laptop when you minize the screen and then resize it to a smaller size? You need to remember that regular cable comes in at 320X240 resolution. If you try to stretch that to 800X600 even it has to make the picture bigger. Try stretching a JPEG picture from 320X240 to 800X600 and see ho grainy that is. WHen I hook my PC to the TV it looks like crap when I use my Svideo connection. I get a sharp picture but it has black dots all over the place. WHen I ditch that and go for old fashioned RCA video in I can run at 800X600 or 1024X768 and it looks beautiful. And that is with a FX5200 geforce card ($50).
