Why does my TV tuner look like crap?

[Bobdude161]

Hello, got a Beige G3 running OS 9.2 with an ATI Mach64 3Du Pro card. So far I've been playin the PS2 hooked up to the card and boy does it look crappy. I'm usin BTV to get my signal but when the resolution goes higher than 320x240 it all gets stretched out. Is this it's highest resolution? You would think Gran Turismo 4 would look as nice on my Mac as much as it does on my TV. I'm also usin S-video, but it really doesn't make a difference on quality. Is there any way to make the resolution any better???

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by Bobdude161

Hello, got a Beige G3 running OS 9.2 with an ATI Mach64 3Du Pro card. So far I've been playin the PS2 hooked up to the card and boy does it look crappy. I'm usin BTV to get my signal but when the resolution goes higher than 320x240 it all gets stretched out. Is this it's highest resolution? You would think Gran Turismo 4 would look as nice on my Mac as much as it does on my TV. I'm also usin S-video, but it really doesn't make a difference on quality. Is there any way to make the resolution any better???

Your TV doesn't look like crap, it looks like TV. Although US TV (NTSC) has a nominal resolution of 525 lines including the vertical blanking interval, its actual resolution is much lower. The digital equivalent to NTSC is called Standard Definition TV (SDTV) or 480i. The equivalent computer display is 320 x 240--exactly what you are seeing. On a dedicated TV set, the display is so blurry that you don't notice that there is not a lot of data in your image. A computer monitor is much sharper, revealing TV video's every weakness. Outside the US, TV has 625 rather than 525 lines, but is still low-resolution compared to a computer monitor.