Descent on my TV !

El Ka Bong · Post by **El Ka Bong** » Mon May 02, 2005 10:16 am

Hi Y'all ..!

.. I thought I'd prop' up this forum with an entry, maybe it belongs elsewhere, Technical forum maybe..? ...but it enthused my online D3 sprit to play way into the night to discover this... so here it is:

I just plugged the S-video output on my PC into a 27 inch television, and was quite surprised by how well my PC could display things...!

Descent 3 looks not that bad, and I've played D3 now a few times exclusively with the TV.. anarchy and CTF. Do folks ever set up TV monitors to allow "spectators" at LAN Parties..?

But what really was a surprise is how well the video output from Win-XP media player's skins appears. Now I have a psychedelic entertainment "big" screen in my study ! That "RAndomization" skin is cool when Bela Fleck is Playing on my PC...

So my technical question is; does anyone else know how to improve the quality of the S-Video output from a PC .? I get slow, upward moving, dark lines on the TV that look like a resonance glitch or noise in the S-video signal ... To get the best image is it a cable quality issue or is it in my TV's settings ( tried changing the TV settings, not much change).. Are there S-video options to tweak in my ATI card .? I need to try a Monster Cable perhaps..?

P.

386DX · Post by **386DX** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:51 am

Download ATI Catalyst drivers; its gots some options for that.

Pun · Post by **Pun** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:11 pm

tech forum.

I know someone who plays D3 on a projector. I havent seen it yet, but it's meant to rock.

El Ka Bong · Post by **El Ka Bong** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:40 pm

I've tried playing D3 on a wall sized screen, about 8 ft x 6 ft.. .. I was sea sick for about 15 minutes afterwards, that is, after I quit playing from being seas sick. Everybody else watching got totally sea sick, and left the room... a 27 inch TV is not too hard to get used to...

Has anyone ever proven if a Monster Cable worth the extra cost ? ..

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:52 pm

You get what you pay for but I've not tried them yet.

Plebeian · Post by **Plebeian** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:10 pm

I've used both Acoustic Research and Monster. Haven't noticed a real difference between the two (other than price). What I get usually depends on if I'm feeling spendy and whether there's stock of the level and length of cable I'm looking for.

Don't go with just any cables the store happens to have, but any sort of "name" should be fine.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:00 pm

Monster cables are a complete rip-off. The only difference is that the insulation is thicker. Thats it. I cut open one of their audio cables, and the wire wasn't even 18 guage. It might've been 20 at the most. (those of you that don't know, 20 guage is really ★■◆●ing thin stuff. Like half a mm or so.)

At any rate, to answer the original question, no. You're not going to get that svideo to look a whole lot better. The only way you'd be able to get a decent picture is if the TV had either DVI or VGA (d-sub) inputs.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Mon May 02, 2005 4:42 pm

MD-2389 wrote:Monster cables are a complete rip-off. The only difference is that the insulation is thicker. Thats it. I cut open one of their audio cables, and the wire wasn't even 18 guage. It might've been 20 at the most. (those of you that don't know, 20 guage is really ****ing thin stuff. Like half a mm or so.)

agreed, monster cables are teh suxor for A/V usage.

they are just as crappy as your wal-mart generic cheap-ass crap.

El Ka Bong · Post by **El Ka Bong** » Sun May 08, 2005 10:03 pm

Technical Update !..

.. my choices from my ATI Readon 9250, to play D3 on a TV are with Just S-video... I have not DVI etc..

So, I felt 'spendy' and went and bought Monster 2 and Monster 3 S-video cables, 12 feet long costing $80 and $120 Cdn respectively... These I compared to the $20 Radio Shack S-video Cable I originally talked about in this thread...(also 12 ft long).

And so it is true that you get what you pay for..

$120 Monster 3 S-video cable with injected gas insulation around uber-conducting materials provides the best resolution and least noisy signal ..scoring 8.5 out of 10 on my expectation scale... This is a 12 foot long cable...

The $80 Monster 2 S video cable was a huge imporvement in resolution, especially when trying to play and read text in a Stadium Game,... It has fancy conventional isulation, and uber conducting materials so on the 27 inch screen I was satisfied with the TV visuals. I'd say 7.0 out of ten on the staisfaction scale. The slow moving, horizontal dark and bright fuzzy lines were appreciably reduced, but still there...

The $20 Radio Shack cord was poorly insulated (lots of dark and light horizontal drifting lines..across the whole screen), and for a 12 foot cord it delivered lowest resolution. Only 5.5 out of ten on my expectation scale.

..so ... I'm returning $100 worth of cords and keeping the Monster 3 S-Video cable.. .. which is still quite 'spendy' of me ... since it all started with just wanting to play D3 on my TV...

And so let me suggest that at the next LAN party someone sets up few couches and a Monster Cable hook up to a 42 inch TV monitor... to watch the action of the $5000 tourney semi finals... ! .. or would that be the $50 tourney semi finals ? .. I remember at Califest creening my neck to watch on a 17 inch monitor Suncho vs Hostile ..! ..

El Ka Bong · Post by **El Ka Bong** » Sun May 08, 2005 10:17 pm

aghk !,,, Double post..