1080i HTPC -> HDTV ... which cards can do it? (1 Viewer)

[Daren Welsh]

The search engine seems to be down, so I did some searching on the AVSforum. The "definitive guide" recommends GeForce cards, but then I've found several threads where people say their GeForce cards either flat out won't do 1080i or they just output a doubling of 540p (so you get line 1 twice, line 2 twice, and so on; no interpolation):
thread 1
thread 2
thread 3
Right now, I've got my old 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 in my HTPC. It'll do 540p just fine, but I really want to try 1080i. I can't get it to do an interlaced signal with powerstrip, but then maybe I'm just a retard and don't know how to set up the software.
I'm willing to get a new video card for the job, but I definitely want to know that the card I buy will do 1080i before I lay down the green I have an opportunity to buy an old geforce 2 TI 64MB card for pretty cheap, so I'm trying to figure out if that card will work ... otherwise it's back to finding a new retail card.
Any help?

 

[Jeff Peake]

I bought a Radeon 9000Pro last weekend at Circuit City for $100 (they had a $50 rebate on it).

It does 1080i. I havent been able to get 1080i looking good on my Pioneer SD-643HD5 however, windows looks bad, dvd's look OK. I am using 1440x480p for dvd playback and it looks superb. Windows just about fits the screen perfectly at this res.

I would like to get 1080i working better, I think I need to play with the powerstrip settings more. When in 1080i mode the desktop is about twice as tall as the screen.

 

[Matt DeVillier]

1080i will work for dvd playback with any card that supports it as a desktop resolution (all Radeon / Geforce cards) assuming you are using the new VMR9 renderer (requires directx 9 beta). If you're still using overlay for video playback, then you can only get interlaced resolutions from older Radeon drivers, since ATI has disabled it in newer builds. AVS forums are the place to read up on this though