I desperately need to output video to my TV, and have not figured out how to do it yet.

It seems like the best solution is to buy a cheap video card with DVI-A output, and use that as a second card and convert to an S-Video signal with an apple DVI-A to Video converter. Can I make this work in a simple, fool-proof way?

Here's my situation:

I have an ASUS 8800GT card running on an Intel P5K-E motherboard, 10.5.4 Vanilla kernel (afraid to update for now). Using NVInject with custom NVCAP.

The card has 2 DVI outs and a composite out. I've tried everything I could think of to output to my S-Video TV, including buying the Apple DVI-to-Video converter and a Composite-to-S-Video box from Hong Kong. The composite output doesn't seem to work at all, no matter how I fiddle with the NVCAP settings. The apple converter doesn't work because the 8800GT is DVI-Digital, not DVI-Analog, despite what the website specs say.

Do you guys think getting a second card will work? I don't need it to have good acceleration, I just want to output a basic video signal so I can watch TV. I've been reading about setting up dual cards, and it looks like many people lose CI and QE on both cards. Can anyone recommend a gfx card with DVI-A output that would work out of the box with my setup, without making composite plists? Will updating to 10.5.5 help with my problems, or make dual cards more difficult? I really appreciate your help, I've been struggling with this setup for months.

Thanks very much in advance.

hmmm


see this image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ector_Types.svg
modern graphics cards come with either DVI-D (digital) or DVI-I (both), nothing is going to come with a DVI-A (analog only) DVI port nowadays.
take a close look at the ports, i would expect it to have a pair of DVI-I (Dual Link) ports
every 8800GT pic i've seen shows a pair of DVI-I ports, you should be able to use a DVI to VGA converter, in fact most 8800GT cards would come with this adaptor

however... the apple DVI to video converter is designed for specific macs, specific graphics cards, usually ATI ones, and i would not expect it to work on an aftermarket nvidia 8800GT

i think you'd need a generic, or a nvidia specific DVI to VGA converter, and then something to go from VGA to composite or svideo

Thanks very much for the reply.

I think I may not have made myself clear -- I know the 8800GT has only DVI-D ports, which is why the apple converter is not working. My thought was to buy a completely different cheapo card that would have a DVI port the Apple converter works with. I was asking for a recommendation of a card that

1. Is cheap
2. Has a DVI port that will work with my apple DVI-to-SVideo converter
3. Would work as a secondary card along with my 8800GT without messing anything up

Can anyone help with that? Thanks again!

PS -- As for your suggestion of VGA-to-SVideo, I don't know of any reputable VGA-to-SVideo converters that go for less than $60, and people generally agree that their output is basically unwatchable.

you are sure they are DVI-D? Asus shows their 8800GT as having dual link DVI-I ports, both in spec, and visually in shots of the cards.

the reason i ask is the apple converter will not work regardless, (as its usually for a specific mac/video card line) and if your using that as the determining factor rather than looking at the ports themselves, they may be DVI-I & a different adapter may work

as for recommending a 2nd graphics card, i've never ran more than one graphics card before, 2 monitors is enough for me.
hopefully someone else will be able to help further

I don't know of any DVI to S-Video adapters other than the apple one. Believe me, I've looked

Can someone help me by suggesting a card that would work?

This apple page says that an ATI 2600XT should support my converter on the 2nd port:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2809?viewlocale=en_US

I could buy that card right here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814131057

Will it work, though? Will it fit with my Geforce and function as a secondary card without making me lose CI and QE?