I'm looking to buy a HDTV out video card. I see the "Dragon" uses a 6200TC. I try to buy most of my PC parts from Newegg.com. I found a few Geforce 6200's but none that have the HDTV adapter included. I did find a 7300s that have the adapter with them. Will the 7300 work out of the box?

Also is there a better place to buy a 6200 card (w/ the adapter). Most places I have looked at only show the card, w/ mention of the adapter. I'm open to other options, my mobo has both AGP and PCIe slots. At this point i'm looking for "cheap and easy", my ati issues almost made me scrap this project.


Thanks for your help.

Actually, the Dragon doesn't use HDTV-out, it's intended to use the DVI port to connect to your HDTV. It's also possible to convert the analog monitor port to component, if you go through the work of getting the timings right, but it doesn't have component-out by default.

That said, if you want to use a card that does offer component-out, check out the thread "NVIDIA HDTV-out", which has instructions for setting up your X config file to work with HDTV-out (see my second post, no mode-lines necessary). As far as compatibility goes, all you need to check is whether your card is on the supported cards list for the nvidia driver, if it is, then any HDTV-out it offers should work just fine.

When you first hook it up, expect something less than spectacular, it will probably be low-res and in the wrong colors to start out with, follow the directions I put in the HDTV-out topic, and all should be fine...though you will almost certainly have to deal with overscan (the edges of the screen being off the screen). My card (an integrated 6150) doesn't seem to support overscan adjustment for HDTV-out, so my only option is adjusting the settings of MythTV.

How do you do DVI to HDTV? My set has component only no HDMI, DVI, or vga.

So If i buy the 7300 i should beable to add those items in my config and it should work.

I have to say sofar this had been a huge pain in the butt. Finding any "real" help on "mythtv hdtv-out" is next to impossible. It seems people say "it worked for me" but give no details. I just want this damn thing to work.

I think most people either use s-video/composite output from the video card or have a TV with DVI/HDMI/VGA input.

There are some VGA to component adapter boxes I've seen that might be your best bet.

Using a VGA or DVI to component adapter is an option, but I'm not at all sure it's a good one: first off, if you're using a DVI-to-component cable, you have to make sure your DVI port is capable of analog output, mine isn't...if you have both a DVI and a VGA port on your video card, chances are it isn't, and only the VGA port has analog output, if the card comes with a DVI port and a DVI-to-VGA dongle, then you can be sure the analog output you need is there.

The other big down-side is that you have to work hard to get the mode-lines set right in your X config file, though I did find a site that explains how they work (the Linux HTPC how-to)...of course, I don't have a DVI-to-component cable, and I've never tested whether the settings described there actually work...it does look like they've got it right, though.

In your case, I would personally recommend getting a card that has component-out unless you get a thrill from writing your own mode-line, or you think you can save a significant amount of money if you go with using a VGA-to-component adapter instead of a video card with component-out. After the install, all you need to do is add three lines to your X config file (see below), hit ctr-alt-backspace, and all should be fine. I just completed an install today, it took three minutes at most to get the display working correctly, after completing the install and the initial MythTV setup.

To be specific, here are the changes that need to be made to /etc/X11/XF86config-4 (all these settings also work with xorg.conf, if you ever try a distro that uses xorg)