question about PC-TV

joe · Post by **joe** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:25 am

Hello again

Is it possible to use your PC to play atari games and view them on a televison screen? I remember I was at a friends house and he set his PC up to play solitaire on his TV screen and it was very HARD on the eyes. Kinda stretched out and flickering.

I was wondering if it possible to have this setup with a normal looking screen that is not hard on the eyes. If so, what would I need? I saw this product on ebay. Is this the type of product I need? All help would be greatly appreciated!

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:36 am

video card with svideo out

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:27 am

An a tv with svideo in. Also if it dosnt, get a svideo to compossite adapter, then you can plug your computer in that way.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:44 am

If you have a video card or what to install one that supports video out than there is no problem. ATI is probibly the best place to look, I have a 9000 Radion all-in-wonder that supports tv-in and tv-out. The original video card I had offered that function to it was a G-force 4 TI card, the thing about it was it only offered tv-out.

Now about those two I mentioned, thay have the coaxial connvetion that every tv uses. This makes it easier to hook up your tv to you PC. I will tell you thouhg I have never experimented with tv-out so I would be unable to help you with setting it up or using it. ATI does have a very good manual that came with both my father's ATI 8500 Radion and my card so that could help a lot.

I hope this helps you.

joe · Post by **joe** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:24 pm

thanks for all the replies. before i go ahead and try this setting this up, will the quality be good? after seeing my friends setup I am afraid of getting the flickering and stretched look. thanks again for all the responses, i appreciate them very much.

joe

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:26 pm

1 youll only get 648 x 486 res. as that is the ntsc standard.
2 if you set the refresh rate right, there wont be any flicker.

jaytee · Post by **jaytee** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:33 pm

it will look like crap.

unless you make something on the computer specifically tailored for viewing on a tv, ie powerpoint with big letters, its gonna look smushed and funny and hard on the eyes.

i suppose atari games wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it seems like a lot of bother.

Post by **gannon** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 3:39 pm

640x480 doesn't look too bad on a tv, but 800x600 looks awefull.

Geebs61 · Post by **Geebs61** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:05 pm

I have a Radeon 9600 with tv out, and it looks fine on my tv. I set the tv up as a second monitor, and It will do resolutions up to 1024x768. Granted at that resolution you cant see anything(text-wise, graphics look normal), but at 800x600 everything looks fine. I have never gotten any flicker and I run all sorts of emulators on the screen, From Atari 2600 to N64. The graphic quality turns out to be about par with the original hardwares quality. I even use this method to watch movies on my tv. Like I said, I've never had any problems whatsoever. Perhaps your friend had something set up wrong. Really, I think it all depends on the TV you are using.

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:26 pm

Also outdated video card drivers can make a difference.

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:12 pm

I use an old, external PC to TV bridge for running emulators on a TV. Since it came out in mid-1993, I have to run it in 640 by 480 mode, but since most game systems were less than that, it's OK. The picture gets cut off the sides of the TV a bit, but I get no flickering or weird display sizes or anything.

Next, I'll try to set it up to a multimedia projector! WooHoo! 6' wide Asteroids!

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:43 pm

There was a kid at my school (one of my friends brothers) that played dr mario at the talent show. He got a snes emu, some roms, a projector, maxed out the difficulty. It was halarious to see him play snes on a 10' screen (aka a wall...)

someone · Post by **someone** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:42 pm

I use my Radeon 9700 to watch TV that i record on my pc on the TV and you can't really tell that it's not live TV.....

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:00 pm

I play 2600 carts on the TV all the time now. (my folks don't like piles of carts everywhere

!)

I found a pretty good article on this topic on NESplayer.com:
http://www.nesplayer.com/technical/emu-to-tv.htm

Unidentified Assilant · Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:47 pm

My parents tell me to get rid of my old consoles because of lugging about carts, I never listen to them though, even though I have emulators