So I am building a new computer http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19127659#post19127659, and was wondering about connecting it to my TV. My current video card has an S-Video port, and I have that cable going to the S-Video port on my TV. My TV has 2 HDMI ports, that are both already being used, and I already have the S-Video cable in place.
So if I used this “StarTech DVI to VGA Cable Adapter” Amazon.com
in the DVI-I port, connected to this Insten VGA to TV S-Video 3 RCA PC Computer AV Adapter Cable Amazon.com, I could then connect that to the S-Video cable and send video to my TV, correct?
not necessarily. those adapters are just that, dumb pin adapters. your video card needs to be able to output an S-Video signal, and the adapters would just connect the proper pins to an S-Video port. If your video card can’t output an S-Video signal, then you’ll need a converter/transcoder which will cost a lot more than $5.
Why not just get an HDMI switching device? They might run a little more than the cable (~$40+), but will at least will allow you to use multiple HDMI if that comes up in the future. And the chances of it actually working is higher.
Few modern cards support TV out, which is what you would need to use the Insten VGA to TV S-Video. You would need something just a little smarter like this unit, which is available from a host of different companies. I use one myself to hook a computer up to an old CRT TV.
I will second thelurkinghorror’s recommendation of using an HDMI switcher (or cheap audio receiver with that function). The quality difference is night and day.
I’ve got the cable box in hdmi 1, then this switcher on hdmi 2, with roku on the lowest priority and a dvd player on higher priority. $15. Works great.
GTX 970 is a chip and different cards may have different capabilities, but at least one GTX970 card does support VGA (analog) output from the DVI socket.
The adaptor is to convert the DVI socket pin outs to VGA… you can also buy cables which are DVI at one end and VGA at the other.
However thats no use to you because the step of converting VGA to SVIDEO require a complex convertor box.
You should also see a massive improvement in video quality, IMO better than you get from the card upgrade. Svideo is limited to SD resolutions–HDMI isn’t.
Nice. Among the best choices in terms of value. To get even more performance, you’ll want to overclock and overvolt it. I was scared of it at first but it turned out to be fun.
Since that model comes with 2 BIOS, you might even replace one BIOS to unlock the maximum voltage and really turn it up to 11.