S-Video computer --> TV General question

Hi all!
I have a general question regarding S-Video out from computers in general. I just don't get this guys. If i connect a "consumer box" ie a DVB-T receiver or DVD-player or something via S-Video to my (old) Sony CRT TV I get excellent picture quality (well...but it's good) The picture is centered on screen and is fairly stable with good enough colors.

If I connect the S-Video out from a computers graphics card to the same TV the picture is utterly crap. It's off-center, unstable, not filling the screen, and the colors are washed out. I know there are several tools for adjusting the tv-out from various graphics cards depending on what operating system you use. How come it's impossible to set the parameters for the tv-out so that the picture gets as good as from the consumer devices? I mean, it's just a signal right? If I were to set the same parameters as the ones provided by the, for example DVD-players s-video out, I should get the same picture quality...right? But I have never ever seen anybody accomplish this!?

Any thoughts or ideas about this? Yeah, I know, "get a LCD and use DVI --> HDMI" you say! And yes, I have that too, on my other TV. But my old Sony is still very good for a CRT, and I'd like to use it with a HTPC. And as a technician, this question bugs the h..l out of me :-/

Cheers, and thanks for your input!

/Mr.Mac

The biggest problem is probably that it seems impossible to turn off "S-video sharpness" in the drivers. Something that is usually possible to turn off is flicker filter and it should be turned off for maximum quality when watching video.

I have got almost perfect S-video out from my ATI Radeon HD 3450 card by turning off most of the fancy filters and stuff in the drivers.

But it doesn't get as good as when connecting VGA->RGB SCART and that is what I run now. The picture quality on my CRT TV from my PC is now better than from my Dreambox!
See http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/index.html for info on what is required to make this work.

burken

Looks interesting indeed. I'll see if I can adapt the settings to my Mac-mini, as it has a Radeon graphics chip. Thanks for your reply :)

Cheers

/Mr.Mac