TV Out Performance
The Geforce3 boasts a new TV Encoder chip, its the same one that will be used on the new Microsoft X-box, as such it offers higher output resolutions than the older Conexant BT869 encoder chip, it is also built directly onto the graphics card rather than on a separate daughter board as seen on the GeForce2 series of cards, this has got to make assembly easier in the factory and means less components are used as well, which has got to be a good thing on the whole.The tech specs
Conexant's CX25870/871 is specifically designed to meet TV out system requirements for the next-generation desktop PCs, notebook PCs, game consoles and set-top boxes. With pin- and software-forward compatibility to the Bt868/869, manufacturers can quickly bring to market new solutions that support adaptive flicker filtering, ATSC High Definition Television (HDTV) output, true international television display (NTSC, PAL and SECAM output), and resolutions from 320 x 200 to 1024 x 768.
Features
- Adaptive flicker filter technology
- Supports 1024 X 768 resolution
- Displays 16:9 aspect ratio and supports WSS
- Worldwide video support (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
- Macrovison support
Using TV out
Once you have the TV connected to the SVHS output on the 3D Prophet III, the option under output devices in the GeForce3 control panel becomes selectable, its then simply a matter of choosing the correct region for TV output, in this case you just choose United Kingdom, the screenshots below show the control applets.
I initially had problems with the TV output this is due to the Hercules GeForce3 needing a different connector cable than the Hercules GeForce2, the short connector cable needs to have a white end on it to work with the Prophet III, the older connector cable with a black end doesn't work, but so long as you remember this and don't try and use an old GeForce2 connector then TV output works fine.
The usual grumble is with the TV output not filling the TV screen correctly on my 25" TV there are 1 inch borders around the image this is somewhat annoying, as this hasn't really changed from the GeForce 2 TV output, which had the same problems. with the old GeForce 2 cards you where limited to 800*600 as the maximum resolution for TV out but on the GeForce3 you can now select up to 1024*768, to be honest this looked very small on my TV and as such it wasn't much use, but on some of the huge TV screen available now HDTV etc it is feature worth having. One feature that the new Conexant encoder does have is Macrovison support, this means that you cant connect the TV Output to a Video recorder and record the DVD, this feature is basically to prevent illegal copying of DVD discs I presume, not something that's really worth doing anyway since Video's and DVD tend to come out at the same time anyway.
I tried using TV Tool Version 5.02 to increase the screen size but the latest Version of TV Tool doesn't recognize the new Conexant encoder properly, so I was unable to improve the picture or make it fill the TV screen. I suppose the next version of TV Tool will support it properly.
