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Thread: My TV is not a good monitor

  1. #1

    My TV is not a good monitor

    The new ATI Radeon 9*** 256 Megabyte (I'm reading from memory, here. I can give more details later.) videocard I have has a S-Video out, as well as the usual monitor hook-ups. Seeing as how I live in an apartment, with no room for an extra monitor, I tried plugging it into my TV. The display was in black and white for about ten seconds, then the screen just started freaking out. I don't know if the drivers on the CD would help or not, because I'm using the Linux Ubuntu OS, and I don't know how to install them (Or if it's even possible). I've used this PC on regular monitors before, and it works just fine. Is there anything I can do to make my TV work as a proper monitor?

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    A couple of things to check first:

    1. Is the video type set on your computer the same as that supported by your TV

    2. Is the resolution set to 800 x 600 or less..............most TVs won't support anything higher


  3. #3
    #2 is fine, but I have no idea about #1. How do I check that?

  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    This article may help:

    http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...out/index.html

    It is for setting up ATI Radeon cards and s-video


  5. #5
    Senior Member
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    Originally posted here by nihil
    A couple of things to check first:

    1. Is the video type set on your computer the same as that supported by your TV

    2. Is the resolution set to 800 x 600 or less..............most TVs won't support anything higher

    *Looks at #2*.... your age is showing on this one nihil ... or your TV's age heh.. The TVs I've owned in the last 2-3 years all support up to 1024x768... same for most of the Hotel's I've been too lately ..

    Kitten_Hurling:

    ATI has wonderful installers for many of their video cards off their website (My laptop has a 128MB ATI Fire GL V3200 and I'm running Ubuntu). A nice control panel was added that makes it very easy to switch in and out of TV mode. Should you not take this route you have to ensure that your X config has the TV out section properly configured...

    After all that is said and done... You will not want to use your TV for TV out... unless you have a really nice newer LCD TV... CRT TVs just don't give you the quality... everything will appear fuzzy and rather crappy....

    Peace,
    HT

  6. #6
    Just Another Geek
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    I use lots of TV-outs, mostly while I'm VJ'ing.. Believe me, you don't want to spend more then an hour trying to read texts on a TV screen... Resolution and, more importantly, the refresh rates are just to low..

    SVideo uses a monochrome signal and a seperate color signal..

    Things that can go wrong are

    *) Bad cable.. Color signal not coming through.. B/W screen..
    *) SVideo->Scart.. Not all scart connectors on TVs support an YC signal.. B/W screen..
    *) PAL / NTSC set to the wrong standard


    A lot of the newer LCD TVs also have an VGA connector...
    Oliver's Law:
    Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

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