[ADVERT] this is how you get good quality PC video to a TV

["David Anumudu" <david.anumudu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you want to get a decent picture on a *conventional* TV from a PC, then
the Xcard is by far the best way of doing it. The card has an interesting
history, it was originally designed before the days of high powered CPUs to
allow DVD playback from a PC. In recent years it has gone 'out of fashion'
as software DVD playback has become dominant, but there are still some
applications where you cannot beat it
1] driving conventional TV sets (i.e. sets without either VGA or DVI
connections, so your regular CRT models)
2] where a high power CPU is not appropriate due to noise/space/cooling, so
typically your small form factor PCs
3] again similar to point 2, if you need to output digital audio then this
is built in to the Xcard, and you also get a remote control.
4] as the basis of a media server jukebox outputting to high end external
video processors via SDI - this uses a special add on board to output the
picture data in to a broadcast format and then route it to an external box
for processing and display..

Out of the box the Xcard supports composite and SVideo, and you can buy RGB
Scart output cables as well.
http://www.pluggedin.tv/item--RealMagic-Xcard-DVD-and-Divx-player--PITVSS002
http://www.pluggedin.tv/item--SCART-RGB-Connector-Kit-for-REALmagic-Xcard--SIGMA-RGB

Finally, you need a nice user interface - TVedia is just the thing, though
there is media player that comes with it.
http://www.pluggedin.tv/item--TVedia-XCard-enabled-media-player--8DIM-TVEDIA

One point to bear in mind, you don't ever see the Windows desktop, all that
comes out of the Xcard is the media player interface (either the supplied
XMP interface or TVedia's much nicer version if you opt for that)

hope this is helpful, any questions then drop me a line

cheers
David
pluggedin.tv