HD Output from PC

[Hightower]

I've finally caught up with the times and plugged my PC at home into my HDTV.

 

I saw this from ebuyer: ASUS HD 2400PRO 256MB DDR2 VGA DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

 

Has anybody here hooked your PC up to TV with a card like this? How does it output? Looks like DVI or VGA - can those handle HD quality outputs?

 

I'm just a little confused by it all - any advice would be appreciated.

 

All I want to do is get it better quality to my screen because it's not the best at the minute using VGA, but I'm also wanting to get a Blue-Ray drive for the PC later on.

[somabc]

Both VGA & DVI can handle HD resolutions. You can buy an adapter to turn DVI into HDMI (and vice versa).

 

The picture quality should be good on both, but best on DVI/HDMI as its digital.

 

Just think of the TV as a big monitor! Make sure you match the native resolution of the TV for the best picture.

Edited June 23, 2008 by somabc

[Hightower]

I have a card in at the minute that has a DVI output (I think it's a Radeon X3xx/X550/X800 - one of those). Does that mean I don't need a new card and if I convert the DVI to HDMI I can have HD output?!

[Whitestar]

Yes.

 

All you need is a DVI to HDMI Adaptor and and HDMI cable.

Once its all plugged in, just set your output resolution to the native resolution of the TV.

[Dos_Box]

It's got HDCP (You can't play HD to your HDMI TV on Windows without this), you may have a problem with sound though unless this info has changed: The Great HDCP Fiasco

[Hightower]

It's got HDCP (You can't play HD to your HDMI TV on Windows without this), you may have a problem with sound though unless this info has changed: The Great HDCP Fiasco

 

So does this mean my current card won't play HD to my TV unless it has HDCP?

[Hightower]

I've just stumbled upon this Philips HDMI to DVI Conversion Cable -1.5m|SWV2442W/10|buy Philips HDMI to DVI Conversion Cable -1.5m|review Philips HDMI to DVI Conversion Cable -1.5m|lowest price Philips HDMI to DVI Conversion Cable -1.5m|Philips SWV2442W/10|

 

Would this enable me to have my TV displaying in HDMI? If so, would this also allow me to watch Blue-Ray when I get the drive in true quality?

 

As I say this whole confuses me - never been big on A/V. I have a 32" TV (Not sure on exact model) that supports 1080i/1080p. Anyone know what the native res would be?

 

Currently using VGA in the TV it's set to about 1280.

 

I'm getting excited about this now!

[tonyd]

That cable sounds a lot like the one I've been using (Scan Computers UK: 3m Scan HDMI to DVI-D Male Cable (v1.3) Gold Plated Male to Male (CDLDV-303)) to link a DVI PC upto a HDMI LCD TV. Running Vista it just works, no problems at all. Sadly you have to link the Audio up another way since the PC cannot output it the HDMI cable ;-( Has anyone seen an adaptor to do this? Not a problem for me as I use a separate amp for sound though...

 

Re. resoultion, I believe most 32" LCD screens run at 1366 x 768, so you will NOT be getting a full 1080 HD picture.

 

If you do encounter issues with HiDef playback then AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html) can be use to 'work around' any HDCP problems.

Edited June 23, 2008 by tonyd

[Dos_Box]

Yup. The basics are that (I've looked for more info, but it seems Microsoft are keeping quiet on the subject) that if you want to connect to your HDMI TV and view HD content then you need a graphics chipset with a HDCP chip. If not then Vista will knock down the picture quality. Also, if you want HD sound it MUST go down the HDMI cable to the tv and use a recognised HD audio chipset. If (like I did) you get a graphics card with an audio jumper to the SPDIF socket to allow the audio down the cable then this will not allow sound to be heard when viewing a Blu-Ray or HD DVD as Microsoft have judged the SPDIF signal no to be of high enough quality. I ended up getting this board (GIGABYTE - Support - Motherboard - Driver - GA-73PVM-S2H (rev. 1.0)) as it has built in HDCP and HD audio integrated into the HDMI socket. Its a whole bag of worms that I suspect the Microsoft are trying to get out of with the rumored massive update to Vista Media Centre coming later this year. If people realise that Vista Media Centre will not play high definition content unless they jump through numerous hoops then there will be a massive backlash. It's probably a good job that Vista take up has been so poor for this reason alone.

[somabc]

It's got HDCP (You can't play HD to your HDMI TV on Windows without this), you may have a problem with sound though unless this info has changed: The Great HDCP Fiasco

 

You can play HD without HDCP, only HD-DVD & Blu-Ray make use of HDCP as far as I know. Any other HD source is fine. For example I can watch BBC HD on Windows Vista & XP. I have also downloaded HD video files and these play fine on Vista. If HDCP is on and you do not have a fully compliant HDCP system you are SOL. HDMI can carry HD audio, if you use DVI to HDMI adaptor it will not carry sound as DVI does not carry audio. If you were going to use HDMI for HD audio you would need to connect the HDMI cable to your Home Cinema AMP not your TV as the TV will not be able to make best use of the audio stream (ie does not have the req amount of speakers). You can use SPDIF / optical out to an AMP to use Dolby Digital / DTS 5.1. This will not sound as good as audio from HDMI.

 

Yes I know they dont make it very straightforward do they!?

Edited June 23, 2008 by somabc

[Dos_Box]

You can play HD without HDCP, only HD-DVD & Blu-Ray make use of HDCP as far as I know. Any other HD source is fine. If HDCP is on and you do not have a fully compliant HDCP system you are SOL.

 

I though that this is what we were talking about?

[Hightower]

I think I'm just going to keep it VGA to VGA (which it is at the minute) - that way I know the sound works etc.

 

Like I say, the tv is 1080i/p but I can't seem to get it up to this res using VGA to the VGA port on the TV. Oh well.

[Dos_Box]

You won't get HD resolutions unless you use the HD ports.

[Hightower]

Well my current setup is VGA to VGA with an audio cable going from sound card to phono in TV. If I do decide to go down the route of DVI to HDMI can I still use that sound setup or does it have to be something else?

[CHR1S]

You won't get HD resolutions unless you use the HD ports.

 

This isnt true, you will get HD resolutions from any output VGA/DVI or HDMI.

Depending on the VGA card you may or may not get the 1920x1080 or lower exactly but you might get a very close approximation of it i.e. 1360x768 instead of 1280x720 being an appropreate one.

I use VGA and DVI -> HDMI converter on both my HD TVs and it works fine.

The only trouble you will run into is as said before discs with HDCP protection wont run on a VGA or DVI connected display.

[CHR1S]

Well my current setup is VGA to VGA with an audio cable going from sound card to phono in TV. If I do decide to go down the route of DVI to HDMI can I still use that sound setup or does it have to be something else?

 

Depends on the quality of the sound you want, HDMI will transfer digital (DolbyHD or 5.1) audio over to the tv but if the tv only outputs in stereo then its no different to a phono connection. However if you have a 5.1+ AV amp with HDMI or Optical/SPDIF then it will process and output in HD/5.1.

[somabc]

Well my current setup is VGA to VGA with an audio cable going from sound card to phono in TV. If I do decide to go down the route of DVI to HDMI can I still use that sound setup or does it have to be something else?

 

That audio setup is fine there is no need to change it. Obviously it will only do stereo but hey ho.

 

There are 2 choices for audio out to TV/AMP either down HDMI cable or another separate cable (could be digital- optical/coaxial for 5.1, or analogue through phono as you have for stereo).

 

(sorry i see chris has beaten me to it above)

 

VGA can do 1080p, I use this myself with Xbox 360. It really depends on what your TV accepts. Mine will accept 1080p over VGA & DVI but not over component. It will accept 720p over all 3.

 

A good place to ask more questions is http://www.avforums.com/

Edited June 23, 2008 by somabc

[SYNACK]

Only some newer graphics cards output the audio down the HDMI cable most require a separate means of getting it to your AV equipment. Here is one that does sound to:

Asus EN7600GT: HDMI/HDCP graphics card - Crave at CNET.co.uk

 

Oh and 1080p resolution in computer terms is: 1920×1080