TV-OUT Playback on Geforce2 T200 Poor

[hoopy_frood_42]

I did a build (AMD A850TB/128MB) with an Abit Siluro T200 (Geforce2 MX w/TV-out) playing on a Panasonic 27" TV and the quality is good, and bad (but mostly bad). It can play DVD's and Divx files without one skip. I'm actually amazed at how well it works, but the video quality... eesh.

The problem is this, the card cannot reproduce shadow detail to save it's life. PLEASE see attached jpg to understand what I'm talking about.

It has to be the encoding, becasue it does it for both DVD's and DIVX files:
Highlights - Perfect Quality
Midtones - Great quality
Low midtones - Poor quality, Blotchey like 256 color mode
Shadows - Poor quality - Blotchey like 256 color mode - OFTEN BRIGHTER than low midtones in dark sequences, and often shaded greenish.

I used to be a photographer, and have extensive understanding of color adjustment, but there is NO combination of brightness, contrast, and gamma that can correct the picture. Both through the video card AND using the software's internal correction.

The only solution is to turn up the brightness way too high (the black borders around the video then look gray) and take the contrast down, THEN it looks fair, BUT after watching it for 5 mitutes my eyes started to hurt from the lack of contrast.

Please, I beg of you, tell me of a card that has a great picture overall, in both highlights and shadows. I'm about ready to have my breakdown.
I've been reading the forums, and it seems like Radeon has a better encoding chip. help! Advice needed!

[hoopy_frood_42]

I got a Radeon 7500. It fixed ALL the problems. =) Except I now cannot adjust the screen to be tall enough to get rid of the borders. I'll see what I can do. I'd rather have the slight borders than the nasty blockiness -shudder-.

I think it comes down to the quality of the encoding chip. Here are the gross stats:

(I omitted some resolutions, check links below for REAL details)
------------Abit Siluro--------------ATI Radeon 7500
Encoder--Chrontel 7007---------IMPAC TV2+

TV-Out----320x240----------------320x240
Res--------640x480----------------640x480
-------------720x400----------------720x400 (roughly, for HDTV)
-------------800x600----------------800x600
----------------------------------------1024x600 (roughly, for HDTV)
----------------------------------------1024x768

Check the Chrontel 7007 Stats here:

http://www.chrontel.com/products/7007.htm

I don't remember exactly what the IMPAC TV2+ resolutions were, but they were close to these.

What do I thin the problem was? Well, the Geforce/Chrontel chipset could not get the picture bright enough and keep DivX artefacts that are not usually seen (because they're so dark) dark enough. Contrast did NOT help, as it would just make the faint blocks of artifacts more contrasty, and thus more noticable.

Why did it mess up so badly?

It seems like the Geforce2MX/Chrontel Chipset was:
Taking the signal from the GeForce chip
Checking it for brightness and whatnot
Determining that the very dim yet continuously toned DivX shading was so dim that it couldn't be seen, so it would just 'average' the brightness, and make a BIG block of the averaged color, instead of keeping the continuously toned nature.
It then displayed this block on the TV, which was WAY brighter that it thought it was, and thus much more noticable.

I then tried out a DVD using WinDVD, and whoah , it was good, no, -amazing-.

WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT THE DVD QUALITY FROM A RADEON 7500 IS AS GOOD AS THAT OF A STANDALONE DVD PLAYER, IT IS TRUE!!!

The quality was really grainy, with no good continuous tonality on the Geforce2MX/Chrontel chip, but looks great with the Radeon.

NOTE- I did turn Radeon 7500/IMPAC TV2+ contrast down, and the brightness up and played until I got the Radeon to Display DivX perfectly, but it DOES look as good as a monitor (just not as sharp, but that's a TV limitation) - no blockiness like the GeForce2MX/Chrontel chipsets. It was as sharp as a DVD.

I would recommend not getting the Radeon chipset though, and I'll tell you why. Though it would seem you can turn on the overscan function through the Win9x registry files, it doesn't apparently work well. It looks as though Conexant is making chips that are much better than any onther manufacturers' tv chips. I looked around, and believe that the Conexant CX25871 is a better solution. Either way, the CX25817 chipset is the TV chip used by the new X-box, in conjunction with the GeForce2, and if Microsoft is willing to let ITS approval on the CX25871, I guess I'll trust it too.

Check here for TVTool's Suggested Cards:

http://www.tvtool.de/english/faq_e.htm

Click on 'Which nVidia graphics card is recommended for a new acquisition concerning the TV output?'

My next purchase of a graphics cards will be:
A GeForce 2/3 card with a CX25871 or CX25873 TV chip. Currently, I have found the following options:
Asus V7100 Pro 64 w/TV out (geforce 2 and cx25871) at $93 at http://www.newegg.com. It's out of stock, but others have it in stock. Go to http://www.pricewatch.com and search for 'asus 7100 pro tv 64' and pick a place.

Thanks to the forum for, well, no replies, but for being there so I could filter through the other posts. I do hope this helps someone. Later, I'm off to play some DivX.