connecting pc to tv

psymanproductions · Post by **psymanproductions** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 5:11 am

hi all, i have just built a media centre pc for my home living room, fairly happy with the computer but i overlooked one big thing.

my tv can only accept composite video, so text is unreadable at resolutions of above ~640x480. i didnt know composite was so crap before today lol, any way i have 2 questions;

is there any way to boost the quality of my picture (buying a new tv is not an option at the moment and the only other inputs are scarts)

how do newer lcd tvs with vga/dvi/hdmi inputs compare to "real monitors" (will i be able to get good resolution for reading text when we do buy a new tv)

thanks

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:12 am

psymanproductions wrote: is there any way to boost the quality of my picture (buying a new tv is not an option at the moment and the only other inputs are scarts)

If your SCART takes an RGB signal you can drive it directly from the VGA port with the relevant cable, and some fiddling about with graphics modes.

Like this:

http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/

I think you can get those ready-made if you google about, though they're not particularly cheap (~Â£50). The picture is very good though if you can get it to work, about as good as you can get on a CRT TV.

As for LCD TVs they don't necessarily work like monitors. Some do, some don't. You'd need one which does 1:1 pixel mapping, and there are often limitations on which inputs can do that. Google for '1:1 pixel mapping' for more info.

Aard · Post by **Aard** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:22 am

I assume your currently using an S-Video to composite cable? If this is the case find an S-Video to SCART cable, SCART will provide marginally better quality than composite.

Other than that bump your font size up, maybe mess around with some different fonts to see whats more readable.

As for newer TVs a 26" Samsung LCD at 1080i produces very clear and readable text through its VGA connection, more modern monitors or use of digital inputs would improve this further.

psymanproductions · Post by **psymanproductions** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:28 am

oh peeps thanks a lot for the info... looks like i will have to wait till we can afford a new tv, hopefully around christmas we will have a nice 32 inch lcd

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:32 pm

mediaserver software is specially designed to use big icons and big text. that's because CRT tv's are just bad at displaying smaller text.

MediaPortal and windows own Media Center are easy to navigate on a tv. They look ridiculously big on a monitor, but are perfect for a normal tv.

You have to remember also that tv's are meant to be watched from a few meters away; the bigger the tv, the further away you can sit. Try sitting the same distance from the monitor, see how well you can read the text then...

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 7:29 am

i currently have my pc connected to my 32" lcd, have had it for over year and a half, and it is perfectly fine @ 1360x768. mine only has a vga connection on back of tv for pc, i was hoping for hdmi, but its still really good, as it depends on your graphics card. conecting to a 32" tv will not be a problem i use it for movies, tv and gerneral browsing and office application.

connecting pc to tv

connecting pc to tv

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