video card for 2 TVs

[sonofdan]

I have no clue what I am doing when looking at video cards, I'll be honest(clueless). This is what I want to do-I want to be able to have 2 of my TV's able to play from one computer. My one TV only has s-video and the other TV has HDMI, DVI, and s-video. I was wondering if I can buy just one video card or do I have to buy two, and also do I need a audio card as well?

Any suggestions towards what video card would be a bonus trying to keep a cheap budget if possible.

Thanks,

[enaberif]

I'm confused by what you even want to do..

Use 2 monitors on 1 pc for wat?

[sonofdan]

Sorry for not being clear. I want to be able to watch a movie in either room I am in, whether it is my bedroom or the family room.

[Dr_BenD_over]

S-Video shouldn't be used in this day in age at all. It's terrible.

[sonofdan]

Well the tv it is hooking up to is not the greatest either I have the choice of s video or rca hook up to it so I think the best option is s video, I do not really want to buy a new tv just to have a better connect for a tv I use in my bedroom.

[bkh2]

What is the proximity of your two rooms? There's a limit to the wire length, unless you have a signal booster. In terms of a card that can handle your TV's, I assume your S-Video TV has a resolution of 640x480 (or something low) and your HDMI TV is 720p to 1080p? In that case, you can go with almost any card above 4000 series from AMD or 200 series from Nvidia. You could even get away with less if all you're doing is watching video. Will you be doing any gaming?

[sonofdan]

No, I won't be doing any gaming at all, those specs seem just about right. My TV distance between the two are about 25-30 feet.

[JD]

No video card with HDMI has S-Video out. Likewise, no video card with S-Video out has HDMI out. Granted you could convert DVI to HDMI but you'd have no audio and have to run a separate cable. However to have the same video display on either TV, the one connected via HDMI/DVI would be running at 640x480 (or whatever resolution S-Video is) as it would be in "Clone" mode.

If both TVs had HDMI, then this would be quite simple. However, as it stands with your current TVs, I'd say not to bother.

Perhaps hookup the PC to the HDMI TV and buy one of those simple media player units that should have S-Video/RCA output for $100. It'll connect to your PC over the network and play the media as well.

[sonofdan]

Alright, thank you for all the help

[bkh2]

I think you can just use the TV's as monitors and just 'extend desktops' to either one, depending on which one you use as your main, can't you? In that case, each resolution will be independent of each other. If you have an audio loop cable for the video card, you can get audio through HDMI via DVI port, correct? Either way, you'd need headphone jack -> Red/White component to get sound on the S-Video TV.