Silent DX9 card with proper macrovision support

goink · Post by **goink** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:11 pm

Having tried my MX400 card for a new DVD player/entertainment system I realized that the TV-out signal does not properly support macrovision, which makes DVDs really hard to play (assuming signal going to TV).

Other requirements are: cheap (relatively, less than $75)

And no, there was no VCR involved. The card just doesn't have the right chip on it from what I have found (thanks to google).

So I am looking for a DirectX 9 capable card, AGP, with a working TV-out for playing DVDs. And since noone seems to mention much whether or not macrovision is supported, I am looking for advice on specific models that would work for what I am trying to do.

Advice greatly appreciated.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:10 pm

This is interesting. Do you have any suggested Macrovision DVDs for us to rent or buy so we can test this theory? I've never had a problems with the built-in video on an nForce2 board, nor have I had any problems with my ATI 9600 (aside from general random interference unrelated to DVDs).

Yeah, basically, I haven't had a macrovision problem in a LONG time. FWIW, there are hardware devices out there that will strip macrovision from a video signal.

yeha · Post by **yeha** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:48 pm

i haven't used tv out for a looong time, but have you tried giving tvtool a go? or tvcc? see here for some links. i know i used to use tvcc on my old geforce2 mx, much better than the driver's crappy tv out options.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:52 am

I've never had a problem with TV out on my nVidia cards so it looks like you maybe got unlucky with your model.
Then again I've never bought the budget ones.

The ones I have used (including current) for DVD playback on a TV are:
GeForce 3 Ti200
GeForce 4 Ti4200
GeForce 6600GT

SpHeRe31459 · Post by **SpHeRe31459** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:00 pm

The problem with the older GeForce cards is that their TV-out support was optional and used an external chip to impliment. There were a few brands/models of TV-out chips that didn't do Macrovision support and therefore will flag DVD software and will deny playback to the TV.

The GeForce 4MX (not 4 Ti) and the GeForce FX and up all have NVIDIA's own TV-out circutry integrated. And it is of course Macrovision compliant.
The ATI Radeon line is a similar story ATI has their own TV-out design that is Macrovision compliant as well. However ATI is not recommended for standard TV-out, it is one of the fuzziest implimentations. You will find a modern NVIDIA card's TV-out to be sharper with more color separation.

For the buget of ~$75 look for a fully enabled (128-bit memory) GeForce FX 5200 (watch out for the cheap POS models with only a 64-bit memory interface, they are very common and make an already weak card weaker).

goink · Post by **goink** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 6:22 pm

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably go with some version of FX5200 then...