[blm14]

Ok, so (as you can probably tell by the fact that this is my first post) I am a newbie. Not to XBMX or linux in general, but to the combination of the two specifically.

I have a wonderful old 37" analog CRT television that I love; I don't plan on replacing it any time soon. Right now I have a lovely old xbox1 running XBMC hooked up to it through my VCR, as the TV only has coaxial connections but the VCR has got RCA connections which the XBOX can connect into.

I love my little old XBOX, but she's starting to grow old. More and more of the video that I want to watch is being released in 720p or higher and in annoying MKV files which are taxing her little pentium III cpu.

So, I am thinking it's time to get an HTPC and throw ubuntu/XBMC on that. The problem is I want to keep the old television. I've installed ubuntu many times successfully and built regular PCs from scratch for years, so I'm OK on that front. I admit that building an HTPC may be a little harder, but I'm ready for that. It appears that the lynchpin is going to be the video card. I need a card that:

1) Is good enough for XBMC with regard to the necessary OpenGL and shader support AND
2) Has drivers for ubuntu which actually work (non-trivial, in my experience) AND
3) Will output either directly to my TV via coaxial or (preferably) to the analog video component of one of these:



Please don't hurt me for asking such a simple question! once I have the answer to the video card question I think the rest of the hardware will be easy to decide upon. TIA!!

edit: I should mention that it would be cool if this setup could play 1080p files. I realize it would have to be downscaled to work on my analog television but you may have guessed by now that I'll less concerned with crystal clear HD video and more interested in just having a setup which can play ANYTHING on the TV I already have.

[bobo1on1]

Get an nvidia card that supports vdpau, and if you want to get the best quality from your tv get or make a vga to scart converter which you can use with a special modeline.
This is the one I made: http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/

Of course you need a tv with a scart input, if you don't have that then s-video is your best bet, almost all videocards have that.

[crackers]

The last NVidia card I bought (a 9500) had a dongle that provided composite (the yellow RCA plug), S-Video, and RGB outputs, so if you need to experiment, look for something like that in the video card package. As for your audio outputs, just use a mini-plug to RCA converter and you're good to go.

And NVidia is probably the closest to "works out of the box" on Linux, in my opinion. Rarely you do have to fight a bit with getting the right packages installed, but once that's done you're set.

[blm14]

But those composite yellow plugs are digital output, no?

Anyways that sounds pretty good - nvidia sounds like the way to go. Maybe I'll splurge on one with 1GB video ram so I wont have to worry about higher resolutions in the future.

As an aside - is there a website specifically devoted to HTPC build components? Thanks!

[bobo1on1]

No, composite is always analog, and one of the worst versions.

[blm14]

Is there a better analog output that I could send to my old-school CRT television instead of composite?

[bobo1on1]

Yes, rgb via scart or s-video, rgb is the best you can get in this case.

[blm14]

Ok, but my TV doesn't have an s-video input. Wouldnt that mean I'd need a converter from S-video to composite, in which case I am in the same position as just outputting directly to composite?

As far as SCART, I've actually never heard of that connector. All my TV has is coax and I have my VCR connected to the TV and the VCR also doesn't have SCART (going by what SCART plugs look like on google images heh).

But if I get a card with S-video AND composite output on-board then I could try both so I will probably do that.

[spiff]

they don't know what scart is 'cross the pound bobo :/