Ok, so i have my backend system up (Nforce2 chipset motherboard, Hauppaauge PVR 150 MCE, 200gb HD, AMD 3000+ processor). Things are running well, and i've been booting a PC in the basement up off the CD as a frontend.

I've gotten around to building an actual frontend PC, and I have the install complete. it's a shuttle system (forget the model, but it's Nfroce2 if I'm not mistaken) the processor is a 2400+, so lots of juice there, I've put in an FX5200 fanless AGP card. It seems to come up fine and I'm able to watch television when I'm connected to a monitor.

The video card has SVGA out, and Svideo out. How do I get this signal from my video card to my television if I don't have an Svideo in? Is there a recommended approach to this that gives a nice crisp picture without costing a lot of money? A friend suggested buying an "RF modulator" and hook that up.

Is this my solution? What's this going to cost me? Is there another way I can get the goodness onto a television screen?

Go to Radio Shack. You have a question, they have answers.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Haha, that is pretty dam funny.

Some nvidia cards with s-video out can also do composite out if you have the correct dongle which usally comes with the card.

I am without dongle. If I were to find/buy/ninja a dongle from somewhere else, what it likely work with my dongleless video card? or would I require certain hardware on my card for this work properly?

Honestly, I bought the cheapest video card I could find that didn't have a fan, and did have an Nvidia chip. Thus the lack of things like dongles (and any other fancy pants stuff video cards come with these days). Perhaps cutting a corner here is going to burn me (or at least cause me to dump out some more cash).

Go to Radio Shack. Get a convertor that will accept SVIDEO and output to what your TV will accept.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

The RF modulator your friend mentioned should work for you. I have a Radio Shack modulator with RCA and SVideo inputs, CATV to TV output. Cost me about $30.00 U.S., IIRC.

I'd recommend staying away from the RF converters as the signal that eventually gets to the TV is somewhat crappy. If you're trying to do this on the cheap there is another method but it means trashing an existing S-Video and RCA cable (this is assuming that your TV has the normal RCA video-in connectors).

Clip the end off of the S-Video cable. You'll see two core wires with their own casing and some grounding/shielding. You'll want to strip the rubber casing off and seperate the ground from the other two wires (about an inch removed will do fine). Next you'll want to clip the end of the RCA video cable off and strip it, as well. You'll see a core wire with grounding/shielding surrounding it. Now comes the tricky part; take the two core wires from the S-video and the one from the RCA and strip them. Then, twist them together (make sure the the ground line doesn't get caught up in there, too. Tape those wire ends up (scotch tape will work but electrical is better). Finally, take the two grounds and twist them together and tape them up.

If all has gone well, you have just made your own S-video to Composite video converter.

Good Luck!

Fantastic. Thank you very much for the instructions. I will certainly try that, and I'm confident that it's within my technical ability =)

This is my first post so.... if including a link to an outside site is not proper etiquette here, I apologise in advance.
I had the same question about an building an S-video to composite connection. I ran across the link below in a home theater forum. Several members of that forum reported positive results using this instruction.

http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/svideo2cvideo.html

Hope it helps!!!!! Zathras

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Zathras warn.. but no one listen to poor Zathras

Shimpai ja nai

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

If your TV has a scart socket, you can get svideo-->scart which will look a lot better than composite

If you don't want to bloody up two cables, you can also buy the svideo to composite adapters online. I think I found one using Froogle for $10. Hell, if you're in Phoenix, AZ let me know, I've got like 2 of the things I'm not using now. Sell 'em to ya for $3

Thanks for the offer, but I believe I have all the parts required. I should be fine.