TV display

[pallismn]

Hi

I am in the process of building a new PC for work, and specced an ATI all in wonder 8500 DV, largely because it would give me firewire and vidio editing. Whilst waiting for the rest of the components to arrive I have installed it into my old PC, and tried attaching it to the TV.

I would quite like to install the old PC as a TiVo/DVD-R alternative, as I think I could do it with the old PC plus £150 for a ATI AIW and £200 for a DVD writer. If it works, I can also get rid of the tuner, VCR and CD player from the room and may then upgrade to a neater case (like a coolermaster 600 or something).

Well that is the background. My question relates to the use of a TV as a display. I have it working but it is not perfect

1. The desktop is bigger than the screen, so I have to scroll around to see everything, although I can size the vieo display to fit the display area.
2. Whilst the TV and video picture quality is OK, the rest of the display is not too good. There is no way you would want to use it to surf the internet (to see what is on telly for example).

I have a B&O MV1000 telly

Is this normal or have I not got it set up correctly? Is using a PC with a TV (as opposed to Plasma or projector) just impractical?

Thanks

Mike

 

[Desmo]

That's pretty much normal for a TV. Mine is the same, great for DVD's and video etc. Poop for any normal desktop/surfing. After a bit of fidling around with the settings you can get IE looking quite reasonable for a bit of surfing but wouldn't want to use it too long. TV is also limited to 800x600.

 

[pallismn]

Thanks Desmo

After a lot more fiddling around I have resolved the screen size issue and improved the text but as you say it is not something you want to look at a lot. But for TV/DVD it is now pretty good.

Mike

 

[pcpaz]

is there a better graphic card that can improve the quality of the picture on a TV, so that it is pratical for surfing the net.

 

[squid]

The best tv output i have seen was from my gforce2 using tvtool instead of the standard tv out options .

With this it looked tataly great . The text was clear and not blury in the slightest . Sadly tvtool will not work with the new gforce4 i have (diferent tv out chips)