Media PC Problems
Recently I snatched up a 720p 32″ LCD TV with 2 HDMI ports and a VGA port, which was drastically on sale. I was told in store that HDMI was backwards compatible with DVI, and it even said so on the package of a converter. I also have a video card with 2 DVI outputs (and no VGA outputs), 256M DDR3 RAM.
Unfortunately it turns out that HDMI is only backwards compatible on pin out. As DVI and HDMI are both digital signals, they are both encoded. There are differences in this encoding, which can cause problems in hooking up DVI and HDMI devices together. Unless the device accepting the input can understand the encoding of the other format, problems are very likely.
In my case, the problem was that the desktop my computer was using extended past the screen slightly in all directions, and that all of the text and images I attempted to view were blurred, and lower quality than the ones on my wide screen monitor.
It also turns out that my large screen TV is actually lower resolution (720 lines instead of 1028).
To fix this situation, I am left with a few options that I can see. The first option is to return the television and buy one with a higher resolution and a DVI input. The one that was suggested by the people at tech support has a full 1080p display capability, several additional inputs, and actually has specific programming designed for computer gamers to reduce screen lag, and allow for faster response speeds. The screen size, however, is the same, and the TV costs twice as much.
The second option is to upgrade my video card to one that includes an HDMI output and a DVI output. These range in price from $70 to $160. Thankfully, this solution is less expensive, however I would not gain the advantage of the 1080 resolution, or the additional software. There is also the possibility that the monitor has HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) hardware.
The third option is to keep my current video card to use for my monitor, and use a separate one to connect to my HDTV. If I can find one that is SLI capable, I can potentially connect the two cards to expand the capability of each. This will still leave me enough room (but just barely) to install my TV tuner.
Option 3 is to buy a card that includes HDMI and VGA outputs, with an SLI
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Heh, gotta love options. I’d hold out for the 1080P, myself…then again, it’s not my money. A note, none of your stuff is Vista “content protection” ready, so, if you do spend the money, be prepared to resist going to vista until you have the money all over again.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I have a basically identical video card, a 19″ flatscreen with DVI and another 19″ flatscreen with just VGA. I can’t tell the difference between the DVI and the VGA in most cases. In some cases, the DVI monitor fails spectacularly.
Graphics are graphics. Go with option one and save your money for something important.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Oh, and as to resisting going to Vista, resist anyway.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Option 1 actually costs half a K more to get 1080 than getting a new graphics card.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:36 pm
…
Option 4. Return the monitor, get another one that has a pricetag that a sane, intelligent person would pay. I know you have the intelligence, and I’ll try to help you with the sanity. Basically, if the price is expressed in terms of K, buy something else.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
It’s not a monitor. It’s an HDTV with multiple inputs and circuitry that a monitor would not have. I don’t want to get into exact costs. But to get a 1080 32″ TV costs $700 more than the one I have, with the extra ports and the anti-lag add in (I haven’t found another one available with the DVI input, but without the added screen resolution and anti-lag add ins).
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
So it has toys. I’m not impressed, and I maintain my point. It is a device used to turn digital information into visual information and is simply not worth that kind of money, no matter what it does in the process of converting that data.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
It is also a device to turn digital information into audio, and analog information in multiple formats into visual and audio.
I can hook up multiple game systems, and my computer to one of these monitors, as well as getting a feed strait from the wall. It has it’s own built in speaker system as well, and I can get audio from far more sources into it than I could feed into my computer.
For reference, smaller monitors than I was able to get this TV for often cost far more.
Check out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824133004 for example.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Also, I don’t intend to go to Vista, unless I have to put it in a VM to use necessary software.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I’ve got the 19in version of this one and love it.. considering ordering this when I have the money..
http://www.amazon.com/HANNS-G-HG281DPB-Widescreen-LCD-Monitor/dp/B000TJV9KW
Though there are other options.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Thank you all for the suggestions, but at this stage I’m looking at a large screen. I think I’ll wind up getting a video card with an HDMI port so that I can interface with my current screen.
The basic requirements I’m hunting up are 1 HDMI port, that it use a PCI express port, and that it have at least 256MB of memory. The HDMI port must actually be a port, and not a converter on a DVI port (as I’m currently trying this setup, and it doesn’t work).
My preferences after that are (in the following order): Reliability, that it use 128 bit GDDR3 or above, that it is based on the 7600GT graphics chip set (so that it can be SLI’d with my current one), and finally, if it could have a VGA adapter on it to, that’d be just plain old keen. And of course, lower cost is better than higher cost.
For those that don’t know, GDDR2 and above are special memory types designed for graphics cards. Larger numbers mean later (and more advanced) memory types.
I’m currently searching for such graphic cards myself, but if anyone runs across one with a similar setup, please let me know.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I’m currently looking at two different cards.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S5ZQXS/ref=nosim/?tag=dealtime-ce-feed-20&creative=380333&creativeASIN=B000S5ZQXS&linkCode=asn
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150235&ATT=14-150-235&CMP=OTC-d3alt1me&cm_mmc=OTC-d3alt1me-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150235
Any more advanced cards with HDMI cost far more, is also HDCP compliant, which is something I am definitely interested in avoiding.
Unfortunately, it seems that my television IS HDCP (High-Bandwidth Content Protection) compliant. I’m not sure if this will cause problems, or is a part of the problem that I was experiencing on my TV earlier in connection with my DVI conversion.
Outputting from a HDCP compliant source to a non-HDCP compliant device will cause the resolution to be drastically cut, but I’m not sure if outputting from a non-HDCP compliant device to a compliant device will cause problems. It doesn’t matter nearly so much, as at this point I will almost definitely be returning it in order to buy one that is not HDCP compliant. I may wind up buying a large monitor that is not HDCP compliant, and simply use the surround sound system I’ve been meaning to get for audio, if I can find a high quality, low cost switcher for the inputs.