video card to TV? 1

[malshade]

I had an idea this week (which I thought was a great one) which involved connecting my PC to my 27" TV. I noticed that my video card had a round looking port on the back. I assumed this was an s-video port and went to Wally World to pick up a 6' s-video cord. To make a short story shorter, the port on the card isn't s-video. If the port isn't s-video what is it? Is it possible to make my idea into a reality?

 

[Jay10826]

Yes, its quite possible to make your idea into reality, assuming the video card is halfway decent. A lot of video cards do have video-out to hook up to a tv. What color is the little round port and how many holes does it have? You should take a picture and post it if possible.

 

[malshade]

I thought I had better include the card model in my post. When I came to post I thought, "Wow, such a fast response!" Excellent news! The port is black and has 4 holes (2 on each side), if I remember correctly. The port reminded me of a PS/2 port.

nVidia FX 5600

I must've just bought the wrong cord but now I'm thinking perhaps my TV doesn't have the right interface. I'll have to check on my lunch break.

 

[dakota81]

Sounds like an s-video connection to me.

If an s-video cable doesn't fit in it, than that hookup is likely for a dongle that provides an s-video connection (the dongles are video card specific).

 

[Jay10826]

That definitely sounds like an svideo port...was the problem that the cable didn't fit into the tv or it didn't fit into the video card?

Thats actually just the chipset of the video card, so i think that means that some brands are different than others. But i looked up the Gainward version of it, and it does in fact have svideo, so i would bet yours does have it.

 

[dakota81]

Addition, there are very simple, very cheap s-video to rca converters - though I haven't had much luck getting them to work right. But then again I haven't tried in a few years.

 

[malshade]

The cord didnt seem to fit into the video card. Port kinda looks like this:

____
/* *\
* __ *
\/__\/

Bear with my illustration but I'm proud of it!

 

[Jay10826]

Is it the port in this picture on the left:

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.../14-133-127-05.jpg&CurImage=14-133-127-01.jpg

 

[malshade]

I just went home a bit before lunch to grab my work-phone and checked the port on the card. There are actually 9 ports laid out like this:

* *
* * * *
* * *

strange eh? is that VIVO?

 

[malshade]

In my previous post when I said '9 ports' i meant to say 9 pins, thanks.

 

[dakota81]

Yep, you've got a vivo card, there's supposed to be a dongle with your card. I don't know if you can get a replacement from the manufacturer or not. MSI card?

 

[Jay10826]

I see what you're talking about, there's a picture of the ports on your card here:

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2003q3/chaintech-5600u/index.x?pg=2

It says "The card's video input and output ports are handled by a VIVO dongle" and there's a picture of that on that page too. That card might be a different brand than yours, but it should be similar.

 

[LloydSev]

what it looks like, if you have a 9pin connector, is that your vid card has an HDTV s-video out.. you must have picked up a normal 4pin s-video cable.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[malshade]

Finally! VGA ViVo adapter.

http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A9654004

Thanks everyone for your help.