Anyone have experience with this?

[Daxxax]

I have a 34" Widescreen Sony HDTV. I'm thinking about buying a DVI to HDMI cable and hooking up my gaming computer to the TV to use as a monitor. My video card is a Radeon 9600 Pro. I'm just wondering if anyone has this type of setup and if they could tell me how well it works/looks.

I've already tried connecting with a S-cable and needless to say, it looks like sh!t. Text is extremely blurry and almost unreadable. Keep in mind I will mostly be playing games, listening to music and the like, but if it works good enough to surf and word process that would be great too.

Thanks

 

[Greenman]

I thought the connector on the TV was just a plain old DVI? It looks like a dvi connector. I was going to try this, but I needed a 12' dvi cable to make it work, and I'm to cheap to shell out $50 for a cable. (I have no problem spending money, but when being robbed I prefer a gun be pointed at me).

 

[lavaheadache]

I have a 30" philips widescreen hdtv that I connect sometimes using a dvi to hdmi cable. Games look amazing but the windows desktop is a pita to make look good. I was playing far cry at something like 1900 x 1200. The problem is though on the windows desktop all of the icons are microscopic so you have to go in and change the icon dpi in the settings, and mess with other stuff.

 

[Daxxax]

I figure I will need to mess with Windows settings to get it to look good. I usually play games at 1024x768 32bit, same setting as my desktop.

The TV has one HDMI jack on the back. At first I thought I would need to get a DVI to Componet adapter/cable. I didn't realize I had a HDMI jack until just the other day. I guess I'll give it a try and see, I can always return the cable if it doesn't work out.

So what else could be plugged into the HDMI jack? DVD players? Cable boxes?

I only have the one jack so I might need to make a choice in the future of what I want plugged into it, unless they come out with some sort of switch device.

 

[imported_Ivan244]

Daxxax-Which TV do you have? I have the 34XBR960. Most excellent HDTV! I've tried hooking it up via HDMI and it works sorta. But not at the resolution I want. Tried playing around with powerstrip but need more info to find out how to choose a preset HDTV resolution.

Watching Discovery Channel HD with HDMI cable from my Time Warner cable box to the TV is incredible.

 

[Peter]

SVideo is 480 lines interlaced, with barely enough bandwidth for 360 pixels horizontal. Of course that looks poor.

HDMI is DVI plus encryption for copyrighted contents. It can be used as a normal DVI port, to feed the display its native resolution.

 

[Daxxax]

Originally posted by: Ivan244
Daxxax-Which TV do you have? I have the 34XBR960. Most excellent HDTV! I've tried hooking it up via HDMI and it works sorta. But not at the resolution I want. Tried playing around with powerstrip but need more info to find out how to choose a preset HDTV resolution.

Watching Discovery Channel HD with HDMI cable from my Time Warner cable box to the TV is incredible.

I'm not sure of the exact model #, but I'm sure its similar to yours. 34" widescreen Tube TV.....I've had it for about four months and absolutely love it.

I have read that you need to be careful when connecting the DVI-HDMI cable to the PC and TV. Since the cable has a ground, you need to have both componets unplugged before you connect the cable into them. Anyone else have any experience with this?

 

[Peter]

You should have both PLUGGED (i.e. grounded to Earth) but turned OFF when making the connection. General ESD precautions apply.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Peter
HDMI is DVI plus encryption for copyrighted contents. It can be used as a normal DVI port, to feed the display its native resolution.

Um, not quite.

HDMI is DVI plus surround sound in one connector. There are a few TVs that can take a 'normal' DVI connection, but it's not a common feature.

HDCP is an encryption/copy protection standard used for HD programming. It is used for both DVI/HDMI and FireWire connections that stream HD content. You can have HDMI without HDCP.

 

[Peter]

Er, yes. Sorry I had my acronyms mixed up there.

 

[Daxxax]

Originally posted by: Peter
You should have both PLUGGED (i.e. grounded to Earth) but turned OFF when making the connection. General ESD precautions apply.

That makes sense, thanks for the info.

 

[HDTVdesignteam]

Just remember that when using a pc or ps3 with your new HDTV that a static display will burn in over time. Awful expensive to replace those HD monitors. It will take time, but we have replaced HD monitors at kisoks and instore pc connected displays that have burnt in. Not anywhere as often in control rooms with moving images. Even test patterns left on will start to move in order to preserve those expensive HD monitors.
GT

 

[Daxxax]

Originally posted by: HDTVdesignteam
Just remember that when using a pc or ps3 with your new HDTV that a static display will burn in over time. Awful expensive to replace those HD monitors. It will take time, but we have replaced HD monitors at kisoks and instore pc connected displays that have burnt in. Not anywhere as often in control rooms with moving images. Even test patterns left on will start to move in order to preserve those expensive HD monitors.
GT

But I have a Tube TV, burn-in isn't as bad a problem with those, compared to Plamsa, right?

I don't plan on having this PC running very much, I'll boot it up to play games and shut it down when I'm finished. I'm married with kids so my PC gaming is capped off at just a couple hours a week at best......

 

[HDTVdesignteam]

I'm talking Sony Tube HD monitors. They still burn in over time. I got kids too.......

 

[HDTVdesignteam]