Bought crappy bedroom PC

[The Professor]

Well, here's the deal. My bedroom is 7ft by 7ft with about 80% of the floorspace taken up by a bed and wardrobe and stuff, so I'm planning to get a PC to plug into my standard def tv for going on internet and MSN and stuff with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I've already bought the PC, it has a 1.8Ghz P4 processor, 512 RAM, 20GB HDD and a non-built in video card (which gives the tv-out ability). I'll probably replace the XP on it with some form of Linux or dual boot, haven't decided yet.

Has anyone else got/tried this kind of set up, and if you have what sort of cables are best (or necessary)? As far as I know from reading up, you can get composite - RCA cables or S-video - RCA cables or S-Video - S-Video cables. Obv HDMI is out of the question.

[N!ck]

The simplest way to do it would probably be via s-video as that's what the TV output on the graphics card most probably is. You're probably going to have to run something like an 800x600 or even 640x480 resolution which won't look particularly brilliant expecially when the quality won't be very good anyway.

Or is it a RCA output on the graphics card? What does it look like?

[The Professor]

No idea, its not here yet Blind buying ftw. If it turns out not to have an RCA output would it be worth paying a fiver for a video card which has one? I'm not too bothered about quality because its kinda my only option, I'll take what I can get. As long as text is readable and its not like 3 words per line I'll be happy with it.

[N!ck]

No idea, its not here yet Blind buying ftw. If it turns out not to have an RCA output would it be worth paying a fiver for a video card which has one? I'm not too bothered about quality because its kinda my only option, I'll take what I can get. As long as text is readable and its not like 3 words per line I'll be happy with it.

Well when you get it try it with whatever it has and then decide whether you like it .

[The Professor]

Is using an RCA output better quality?

[N!ck]

Is using an RCA output better quality?

I couldn't tell you. My guess would be probably but i don't know for sure. Maybe Google it and see what others think. I've only tried s-video myself just to see what it was like. It was on a HDTV though so it looked shocking as it was 800x600 output resolution.

[The Professor]

800x600 is fine for me, that's what the PCs at school use on their tiny little I think.

Final question: does the highest output resolution depend on the TV or the video card?

[N!ck]

800x600 is fine for me, that's what the PCs at school use on their tiny little I think.

Final question: does the highest output resolution depend on the TV or the video card?

Both. My TV was blank when i increased it above 800x600 so that's probably TV determined. What size is the TV? It may be a limitation to the interface though. The max s-video may be able to handle might be 800x600, i don't know. Not got time to look into it now as i'm off out.

[PaulMacC]

Im using S-Video, the quality isnt amazing but you can make everything out and watch videos on it, sure I have to switch resolutions but it isnt that bad.

[Kyle!]

Quite simply, S-Video is terrible for text. You don't want to use S-Video at all, try and get an RCA capable one.