As far as TV output goes, for games, the Brooktree BT869 just about covers your basic needs, however when it comes to presentations or text display you're much better off with the Matrox G400. The ATI Rage 128's ImpacTV2 does a fine job at games and doing the basic job of putting your desktop on your TV, unfortunately once you try and view some text on the screen you start to realize why the ImpacTV2 isn't used as a presentation aid too often. The old Chrontel chip can be used as little more than a reference guide for the rest of the controllers, however it is obviously a chip that was ahead of its time.
The Voodoo3's quality was on the disappointing side as well, which was interesting enough considering that the Voodoo3 used the same Brooktree chip that was present on the TNT2 and Savage4 boards AnandTech tried. The quality difference between TNT2 boards was negligible, as all of them used the same chip, however the difference between the Voodoo3 and all other implementations of the BT869 was definitely worth mentioning.
For DVD output, the Matrox G400 holds the quality trophy, although the color banding issues AnandTech experienced during the tests was a bit disappointing. If you're going to use your computer as a DVD player for your TV or home theater, keep one thing in mind, although the video may be there, 5.1 Dolby digital is still out of the reach of your run of the mill sound cards. There's just no replacing a true home theater system, although you can come pretty close...
0 Comments
View All Comments