Video Card for HD movies

[slick_tech15]

I'm connecting a computer to my HD Television, but i don't have a video card for it. What would you guys suggest?

 

[veedubfreak]

an 8500gt can handle hd fine. If you look around you can find an MSI with hdmi out without the adapter. Its the one im running right now. Looks EXCELLENT even playing normal dvds. Just waiting to get my hands on an LG hybrid drive for bluray/hd-dvd playback.

edit, this is the card i have. The only bad thing about it is that it uses passive cooling. I ended up mounting a fan near it for a little extra cooling. The heatsink gets a bit warm.
Newegg.com - MSI NX8500GT-MTD256EH GeForce 8500GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Silent Heatsink Video Card - Retail

 

[slick_tech15]

Thanks a lot. But if I were to get one of those without the hdmi port and instead purchase a dvi to hdmi adapter, would there be any quality loss?

 

[Apokalipse]

ATI Radeon HD 3850
really good price/performance, power efficient, and very fast.

they come with:
* UVD engines, for full hardware acceleration of HD movies (in other words, they take all the load off the CPU) - so they'll be able to handle HD movies much better than the 8500 GT
* two DVI to HDMI adapters, or a single DVI port and a single HDMI port, so you can plug an HDTV into your video card and run the full resolution

Thanks a lot. But if I were to get one of those without the hdmi port and instead purchase a dvi to hdmi adapter, would there be any quality loss?

no.
DVI can output the full resolution that HDTV's use.

Some of the HD 3850/3870 cards will come with an HDMI port, but there won't be a difference between an HDMI port on the card, and using a DVI to HDMI adapter

 

[veedubfreak]

DVI > hdmi port wont lose any quality, but...unless im wrong here, dvi only supports 1080i while hdmi supports 1080p, so using a converter you wont be able to output 1080p. I could be wrong on this one. But also, the card i linked and am using also supplies sound if you dont have a board with good onboard sound. And its 100 bucks cheaper than a 3850

 

[Apokalipse]

DVI > hdmi port wont lose any quality, but...unless im wrong here, dvi only supports 1080i while hdmi supports 1080p, so using a converter you wont be able to output 1080p. I could be wrong on this one.

I'm pretty sure DVI -> HDMI can support all HDMI modes (including 1080p)

But also, the card i linked and am using also supplies sound if you dont have a board with good onboard sound.

So does the 3850

And its 100 bucks cheaper than a 3850

yeah but the card's not nearly powerful enough to do the rendering on its own. the 3850 does all the HD video rendering, since it has UVD on the GPU. That's going to free-up resources.

 

[veedubfreak]

So far my 80 dollar 8500gt is working just fine, i havent had a chance to test out HD encoding yet, as i havent found anyone who has the LG bd/hd-dvd player in stock

 

[Apokalipse]

So far my 80 dollar 8500gt is working just fine, i havent had a chance to test out HD encoding yet, as i havent found anyone who has the LG bd/hd-dvd player in stock

with an 8500 GT, the CPU will do most of the encoding for HD video

 

[gurusan]

If you don't plan on gaming then there's no need to spend money on a good 3dcard like 3850.

Get the 8400GS....19 dollars after rebate and full HD decoding.
Newegg.com - Foxconn FV-N84SM2DT GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

 

[gurusan]

with an 8500 GT, the CPU will do most of the encoding for HD video

That's not true. Only the 8800 series do not support full HD decoding.