DVI to HDMI ?

timboellis

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Feb 19, 2007
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I was asked to install a cheap machine into someones house onto a 42" LCD TV, however upon going to wire it up the TV does not have a SVGA port, however the PC I got was a Compaq SFF Evo which only has SVGA.

But could I buy a cheap card like a MATROX G450 32Mb PCI Graphics Card, this has a DVI dual head SVGA and a DVI.

So the question here would this work connecting this with a DVI to HDMI cable?

I suspect the card will not be HD ready but will it matter or will it not work at all, as all it will be used for is surfing the web, I cannot buy a AGP card or a PCI-E card as it is not supported on the machine, well a small form factor AGP but they are a bit thin on the ground
 

WhyFi

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Apr 12, 2006
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It should work. Pin-for-pin, DVI and HDMI are the same, except DVI doesn't carry any audio info. As long as you don't have any HDCP issues between the TV and PC, you should be fine.
 

WolfDragon

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May 3, 2006
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From someonw who runs a 32" HDTV for a monitor, using a dvi-hdmi link will not have the greatest results.

The main issue is that if you have a 720p TV you will only get a resolution of around 1280xY, where Y is appropriate for your aspect ratio, mine is 16:9

What this means in realistic terms is that the frontpage of yahoo would be easy to read but it woudl be larger than the screen can fit.

If it is a 1080 style of HDTV then you will get a larger resolution which would probably be more appropriate.

My video card is a X800Pro AGP, the drivers from ATI recognize that with the dvi-hdmi link you have a tv connected to it and simulates the appropriate signal languages for your tv.

Be warned, you will only have 2 or 3 resolution settings to choose from, all the others will be very distorted, and using programs to try and set custom resolutions and timing can permanently damage the driver board of the TV.

I have no information for nvidia cars but I imagine that they follow the same lines of thought.

Unfortunately there is only so much you can do with a HDTV without an svga port.
 

HotFoot

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I have my computer hooked up to a 32" LCD TV via a DVI to HDMI cable, and it looks very sharp. The TV's native resolution is 1366x768, and my computer is putting out 1360x768, which means I have two extremely narrow black "sideboxes", each just 3 pixels wide. I play MS Flight Simulator 2004 and it looks just fine.

Of course, each pixel on the TV is larger than pixels on a computer monitor, but in terms of DVD-playback it's as sharp as you can get. I have no problems browsing the internet and doing work on the TV other than the monitor isn't sitting at an ergonimic desk.

There should be absolutely no difference in the video quality between the HDMI and DVI, since these are pin-compatible. The only drawback of not having native HDMI support is that you have to run a separate audio connector.
 

mpjesse

Splendid
No offense to you, but I don't get why someone would wanna hook up a PC to a 720p monitor. I can see for the purposes of gaming, but that's about it. Buying an up-covert DVD player is a much better option IMO.
 
Personally I'd want the PureVideo and AVIVO benefits, better than upconverting DVD players, but only to those who truely notice such things, and if price is an issue, it's far cheaper buying the upconvering DVD player like you say.

It's really nice seeing the difference, especialy nice little features like noise reduction, inverse telecine, and other sharpening tools. Of course they are appreciated most when it's 480i/p->1080P you're trying to clean up in the upconvert.
 

HotFoot

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To each his own, I suppose. My computer handles pretty much every media need. I've ripped my entire CD collection so I have a 4000+ song jukebox at the click of a button. The same goes for my TV series collection. For movies, I prefer not to watch compressed formats, and I don't have the cash for terabytes of HDDs yet, so I still pop in DVDs to watch movies. Playing games is just a bonus, really. I just like the simplicity of having a single box that does it all for me. Also, besides the case that's on order, all the parts are coming from my desktop PC, so it's not like I went out and spent $1200 on a DVD player. What I've done so far has been very affordable. As a bonus, the machine runs FAH, and in the past I've used it as a server to store and share gigabytes of data I used for my M.A.Sc. Frankly, I can do whatever I want with a dual-boot WinXP/ubuntu PC. Things will only get better as download-to-rent (or own) video content becomes more available.

Now, if you're starting from scratch and all you want is to play movies, then I really don't see much point in building a computer to do it.
 

mpjesse

Splendid
so your pc is basically a media center. in that respect it makes perfect sense. i was refering more to the knuckleheads who just have a crappy pc hooked up to their TV. ;-)