Play MAME on my TV

[kingb33]

I'm thinking about playing MAME / GameEX on my TV. I have a Nvidia 260GTX video card with an S-video port next to the 2 DVI ports. That s-video port I assume is used for TV out? I can't use the 2 DVI ports because they are used in my dual monitor setup. It is as easy as buying an S-video cable and running it from the video card to the s-video input on my TV? Or is it something totally more complicated? Do you navigate on the TV just like you would on a PC monitor with you mouse?

Thanks in advance...

[Alpha17x]

I'm thinking about playing MAME / GameEX on my TV. I have a Nvidia 260GTX video card with an S-video port next to the 2 DVI ports. That s-video port I assume is used for TV out? I can't use the 2 DVI ports because they are used in my dual monitor setup. It is as easy as buying an S-video cable and running it from the video card to the s-video input on my TV? Or is it something totally more complicated? Do you navigate on the TV just like you would on a PC monitor with you mouse?

Thanks in advance...

Yes an s-video cable should allow you to connect it to your tv so long as your tv has an s-video input, but one thing you may need to check before you go buy a cable is if the plug on your video card and tv look exactly the same, if so you may need an adapter. The surest way to do this would be perhaps to get a tv tuner card, but you should also be able to do it with S-Video. If the connection works your tv will work just like your monitor but you should know that unless your tv is an HDTV it will need a resolution far lower than most monitors (think 320 x 240) however a fair amount of the arcade games seem to run at around there or lower.

You should be able to do it, windows won't look as sharp as it might on an lcd.

That's how I have my second 'cabinet' running. it's actually a small form factor media center PC that's connected to my entertainment system and pretty much operates like a console.

[kingb33]

Yes an s-video cable should allow you to connect it to your tv so long as your tv has an s-video input, but one thing you may need to check before you go buy a cable is if the plug on your video card and tv look exactly the same, if so you may need an adapter. The surest way to do this would be perhaps to get a tv tuner card, but you should also be able to do it with S-Video. If the connection works your tv will work just like your monitor but you should know that unless your tv is an HDTV it will need a resolution far lower than most monitors (think 320 x 240) however a fair amount of the arcade games seem to run at around there or lower.

You should be able to do it, windows won't look as sharp as it might on an lcd.

That's how I have my second 'cabinet' running. it's actually a small form factor media center PC that's connected to my entertainment system and pretty much operates like a console.

thx Alpha ill give it a whirl and see how it goes and report back. thx!

[bkenobi]

If it's an s-video output, then it will work on any TV with s-video inputs. The only other TV out that's ever used (on US cards anyway) is an RCA. Many video cards these days use a 7-pin din that has the 4 outer pins mapped to the same location as an s-video needs and the 3 inner pins for RCA and/or Component. If you have one of these cards it may be necessary to have an adapter cable to use s-video, but not usually. Either check the docs for your card or plug a cable in and find out what happens. You may need to turn on the TV output in your drivers, so seeing nothing when you plug a cable in doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[kingb33]

If it's an s-video output, then it will work on any TV with s-video inputs. The only other TV out that's ever used (on US cards anyway) is an RCA. Many video cards these days use a 7-pin din that has the 4 outer pins mapped to the same location as an s-video needs and the 3 inner pins for RCA and/or Component. If you have one of these cards it may be necessary to have an adapter cable to use s-video, but not usually. Either check the docs for your card or plug a cable in and find out what happens. You may need to turn on the TV output in your drivers, so seeing nothing when you plug a cable in doesn't necessarily mean anything.

awesome thx guys. u guys are always helpful. i give it a try tonight and see what happens

[Brian Hoffman]

awesome thx guys. u guys are always helpful. i give it a try tonight and see what happens

If your tv has issues with the svideo. You can always goto walmart and they sell the multi input svideo,rca to coaxal cable

They are mainly used to connect your svideo dvd player to your tv that doesnt support it.

They are like 15-25 dollars

[kingb33]

Actually i was looking at that "s-video" port next to the 2 dvi ports on my video card. It looks like a s-video port but the pin configuration looks a little different than a standard s-video input There are more holes. Alpha may be right i may need an adapter?

The specs on my card say this:

-----Display Connectors: 2 Dual-Link DVI-I, HDTV + TV Out

it looks exactly like this

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews...7900_GT_DVI.jpg

[bkenobi]

Like I said, it will work fine with S-Video. They sorta conform to the S-Video standard except they add the center pins to carry extra info. You can just plug an S-Video cable into it and straight into the TV.

The only problem might be if they modified the key on the DIN. If so, then you will need an adapter, but the pin layout should work without it. Good luck!

EDIT: Here's a link to the standard S-Video pinout.

http://pinouts.ru/Video/SVideo_pinout.shtml

[kingb33]

Hi Guys,

Actually the back of my LCD TV has a few open inputs I could use besides S-video.

I have open / free:

1-DVI

1-Component Video

1-Standard PC VGA

1-S-video

Could I run that free HDTV + TV Out port on my video card to one of those free inputs on my LCD TV instead of that S-Video? If so, what kind of adapter would I need? I was looking on google could find anything.

I'm also really wondering if my Nvidia card will even let me use 3 monitors at once? (my Dual monitor PC setup using the 2 DVI's and my LCD TV using that HDTV-Out) I mean it's called "Dual-View" not Tri-View.

Thanks!

[chriss]

i might doubt that your video card supprts 3 displays at the same time.

i do vjing and to get 3 monitors working we use the matrox triplehead

[kingb33]

i might doubt that your video card supprts 3 displays at the same time.

i do vjing and to get 3 monitors working we use the matrox triplehead

thx for the info....yeah i was so caught up in just getting it to work with an adapter i forgot to even think would my card even do it. like it said that why its called dualview i guess..haha

i'll look into that box u mentioned. is it expensive? and it lets you each monitor independently?

thx

[bkenobi]

You should be able to use the TV out at the same time as the other 2 connections IF you have the TV display the same thing as one of the other two monitors. I can't guarantee this will work, but I'm virtually positive it should be possible to set it up that way. I'd give it a try before you buy a bunch of expensive hardware. Either way, you're going to need an S-Video cable, so you might as well give it a shot and see what happens. You can't hurt anything by just plugging it in.

[LB11]

Ben's right, the TV out should be able to clone the other monitor with no problem. If not, you could always just enable it while you are playing mame (disable second monitor) and switch it back when done, but I don't think you will have to.

[kingb33]

yeah that is true...ill give it a go tomorrow.

thx Guys!

[alexdog69]

typically that style connector will support a break-out cable that looks like

this

or this

....and that will let you use component to feed in a HD signal, which should look much better.

[kingb33]

Hi guys it worked but an odd thing...and im not sure if its supposed to be this way?

To recap:

I have a dual monitor setup using both DVI ports in the back of my Geforce GTX260. And an TV out as well.

When i plug the TV Out to my TV the the picture doesn't automatically show up from the PC. I have to go into nvidia control panel and it makes me "choose" 1 of my monitors and the TV.

After I do that and choose TV, then the desktop from my primary monitor shows on the TV. But it turns off the my 2nd monitor. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be this way? Then why have 2 DVI's and TV out?

I'm sure i can run both monitors AND just have the TV clone what is on the primary right? But I'm not sure how, I don't see a setting for that.

thx!

[Tempest]

I didn't think that you could, but I know someone posted above that you can?

Do you have your manual?

I have an 8800GT, and I will see what my manual says if you don't have one , or can't find one (Google) for your card.

[bkenobi]

You might try using Omega drivers instead of the NVidia ones. They enable some things that the official drivers don't. I don't know if these drivers will affect this functionality of the TV output, but you might give it a try.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Draco1962
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