Topic: Graphics card out?

[Chicci]

I'm a teacher who would like to display slideshow prestentations on a TV monitor from my PC.  In the simplest terms, (I'm just warming up to doing my own hardware stuff  ) what do I need to purchase, install, etc.  And can it be done for under $100?  It's gotta be cheaper than bying and LCD projector/

[Sandra]

Hi Chicci and welcome aboard  

When you say a TV monitor I assume that you mean a normal TV ?
I assume that you are one of our american cousins seeing as you want it for under $100 not £s  

You will need a graphic card with TV out,(preferably an AGP one if your PC has an AGP slot or a PCI if it hasnt got an AGP slot)I recently bought one in the UK for £49,128mb DDR Geforce 4 MX 440 SE AGP,(but there are some even cheaper) and from what I have seen when comparing USA prices to UK prices things seem to be the same price to you in dollars as they are to us in pounds sterling  
To connect the TV out from the card to a TV I have used a S-VHS lead to S-VHS lead(sometines called  S-VID).
You will then need another lead for the audio from the PC to the TV,this will go from your soundcard (onboard or a PCI one),as a 3.5mm stereo jack plug to two phono plugs,via the LINE OUT socket,( I believe that you call them RCA plugs in the good ol' US of A ).
Depending on the distance of your PC from the TV the price will vary a little for the leads but they arent expensive.
I bought a 10 metre high quality S-VHS lead last week for under £10 (I did have a cheaper one already which cost £2 but I want to run it under the floor of my house so I wanted to use a better quality lead hoping that it will last longer).

I hope that this has answered your question,if there is anything that you are unsure about get back to me and I will see if I can clarify it for you  

[Chicci]

Thanks for the help!  That's what I've been looking at, but I wanted to double check before I bought anything.  Yes, I'm stateside That explains why it says I'm behind a day.  

I forgot to mention that I'm running a Win 98 OS.  So I'm pretty sure I'm a PCI slot.  I'm recycling my old, slower puter into my classroom.  It will still be better than the one the school gave me.  I just had one more question.  If I already have speakers for my PC do I need to run sound to my TV?

[Sandra]

It depends Chicci if the sound is ok coming from where the PC is for you or not in relation to the TV.
If you are doing a slide show presentation then I assume that you would be doing the commentary yourself so the sound wouldnt be on your pc or TV would it?
If you added the sound to the presentation already on your PC (sheesh,you yanks are lazy at times   ) then if the pc speakers are good enough and suitably placed then that would be ok or you could even get leads to extend the PC speakers into a more suitable location,whichever way you did it its not going to be expensive.
The dearest thing would be the new graphics card.
The OS (win 98) doesnt determine which kind of card your PC will take,its the motherboard itself.If you can identify which motherboard you have and let us know which cards you are thinking of buying then hopefully we can tell you which will work or not or if one may be better than another for a similar price :doggie:

[Chicci]

Thanks again!   I'm keeping the computer and TV on the same media cart, so that's why I was asking about the speakers.  And they're good enough for the work I'm doing.  My husband just "borrowed" my car and the PC is in the back seat so I can't check what I've got.  I'm itching to get started on this thing and now I'll have to wait until he get's back.  (See I'm not so lazy after all)  

This is a great site, I'll be back if I run into any troubles!

[Robotochan]

Hey sandra where did you get that lovely £2 cable?  

[Sandra]

I got it from ARD electronics Robo :

http://www.ardelectronics.com/

Part no. 110-00781

The better quality one that I just bought is

Part no. 110-00828

Fortunately they are only about 5 miles from me so I can call in and pick stuff up if its a small order as the postage is only free for orders over £60 ex vat now :doggie: