Choosing a graphics card...

[tacticalcity]

I've had expensive video cards do a terrible job of displaying the various shades of black (dark scense in movies become impossible to see) and others do a great job at showing the minor differences between the various shades of black.

So my question is, how can I tell by looking at the specs on a car whether or not it will do a decent job?

I'm not looking for model recommedations. I'm looking for things to look for when comparing cards. I want to be able to make an educated choice between my various options that goes beyond brand loyalty or on board memory capacity to figure out which card will be more enjoyable for watching all the dark and scary movies in my collection (lots of dark scenes in them).

[smird]

You could check the reviews at CNET, newegg etc. I would imagine though displaying dark images would be more dependent on your monitor.

[tacticalcity]

Well the monitor is an Maxent LCD TV with DVI inputs. I've had several different computers hooked up to it in the past. Some did great in this area, others not so much - and both were expensive as hell. So I know there is significant room for improvement but also a big risk of spending a lot of money only to get the same crappy results.

Tried looking at reviews. None that I found cover the spefic criteria I am looking for. Most are about how well certain games play on them and refresh rates. They are not geared towards how well they work in "media center" movie watching enviorment.

Plus I'd like to find something a little older. Hoping to find a great deal on ebay or something along those lines. I'd just like an expert to educate me on what specific things to look for in the specs or features list to help me find the right card. It doesn't have to be the latest and greatist. This machine is not used for gaming. It just needs to be able to sperate out all the various shades of black. Something my current cheapy on board card cannot do and some of the expensive cards I've owned in the past could not do either.

[jarhead995]

need screenies.

[tacticalcity]

To clarify what I am talking about?

Movie scenes at night where the guys are lit up by ambient light and there are all kinds of subtle shades of dark grays that allow you to see what is going on in detail. Except the video card displays several of the shades as solid black, so you loose all the detail and can't really see what is happening. So for example if a couple of guys are fighting in the dark, all you see are two black blobs moving around the screen admits a see of dark gray. When you are meant to see lots of detailed shades so you tell exactly how the victor subdued the vanquished.

Only screen shot I could come up with would be the crappy example, not a good example. And that computer is at home, not here at the office.

[damndave]

I don't know a whole lot about it, but I would assume it has to do with the monitor, but in your case a tv.

With every video card I have ever run the blacks looked great on a monitor.

[Scratch705]

look for cards with HDMI output, usually those cards are designed for media center use in mind.

[smird]

You might ask here, these guys are all about the HTPC

http://www.avforums.com/home/computers.html

[Oshiat]

www.tomshardware.com is another excellent source of information.

[tacticalcity]

I don't know a whole lot about it, but I would assume it has to do with the monitor, but in your case a tv.

With every video card I have ever run the blacks looked great on a monitor.

Definately plays a role. But I've had other computers hooked up to it. Some of them did an excellent job, some not so much. So I know a better video card will do wonders. Just have to figure out how to determine without a lot of trial and error which will do the best job.

It is not a huge deal. It's just a watch a lot of guy movies. Which means lots of dark scenes. Want to make those as enjoyable to watch as I can.

If you're a movie buff, my home entertainment setup is pretty great. I have a main server with 1362 movies on it as well as the complete series of my favorite TV shows from past and present. The TVs in both bedrooms and the living room have a PC hooked upto them. They are all networked together via CAT5 and a router. So they can all access those movies and run them without any stuttering or loss of quality. The interface for all of them is Media Center, which is running Media Browser to easily sort through movie categories and find the right movie for your mood. HuluDesktop, Netflix, and a built in DVR recording my favorite TV shows help you find something to watch when those 1362 movies or TV shows don't catch your fancy. A bunch of Call of Duty, Hitman and other video games are installed on the living room and spare bedroom/office computers as well in case you want to do some gaming. And of course my music collection with over 2000 songs (not sure of the exact number) is available on all the computers as well. Watch a movie, listen to music, watch TV, play a video game, on any room on demand, whatever you want whenever you want.

It is big time overkill...but Geek/Movie Buff heaven.

Those who have not run Media Browser (a plugin for Windows Media Center), it is pretty damn cool. Makes organizing and scrolling through your media collection much easier. Has movie posters, detailed descriptions of the film, actor bios, and even a find similar movie feature that really comes in handy. For those who have never run Windows Media Center, and are into movies, you don't know what you are missing!

http://www.mediabrowser.tv/

These are not the SKINs I am using (you can change the look and feel of the graphics using a bunch of different user created skins), but it gives you an idea of the organization and easy of use it brings...especially to a huge collection like mine.

View once you have already selected a main category...


View one you have selected a particular film before clicking "play"...(different skin than above)


View if you choose to look up actor information, allows you to select an actor and see all films in your collection staring that actor...(different skin than above)

[Merc1138]

Your problem isn't the monitor or videocard itself, it's the videocard drivers. ATI and Nvidia based cards have separate brightness/gamma control options for video playback that you need to adjust. It doesn't matter what card you buy, if you don't properly adjust the video playback brightness/gamma, it's still going to look like poop.

[tacticalcity]

Well, I can double check to see that the driver is up to date and correct and see if the manufacturer has an app to adjust it and do so before buying anything new. However, I do know some cards are better at video playback than others. Some cards simply are not up to the task.

Still I have no problem exploring your idea further and seeing if it won't help. Better to burn some time than to throw more money at the problem.

[Merc1138]

Unless you bought an absolute piece of garbage(like something onboard using an intel graphics chipset), it's not going to matter much with digital output. Years ago with VGA connections it mattered due to the components in the DAC(digital to analog converter), but if you're using displayport, hdmi, or DVI, you aren't using a DAC(and in these days the matrox g400 and g450 blew everything else away for vga output quality on a CRT).

Exactly what videocard do you currently have?

[Recession]

Black levels are purely dependent on the monitor itself. The reason why you get different levels of blacks with different computers on the same monitor is because those computers had different gamma settings.

IPS and VA panel based LCD monitors produce the best level of blacks but come at a premium price.

Many of the mainstream LCD monitors you find at electronic stores and online use a TFT based LCD panel which are great for gaming due to their fast response times but sacrifice color/black quality.

*EDIT*

Just realized you were talking about an LCD TV. What is the contrast ratio on it?

[Merc1138]

Black levels are purely dependent on the monitor itself. The reason why you get different levels of blacks with different computers on the same monitor is because those computers had different gamma settings.

IPS and VA panel based LCD monitors produce the best level of blacks but come at a premium price.

Many of the mainstream LCD monitors you find at electronic stores and online use a TFT based LCD panel which are great for gaming due to their fast response times but sacrifice color/black quality.

Or you can just adjust the gamma settings. There's a difference between having poor definition with bad black levels on the monitor, and simply not adjusting the videocard's output at all(which he obviously hasn't done based on his statements above).

Seriously, the solution for this won't cost anymore than a few minutes of time.