Connect BFG 6800GT PCI-e to NEC-50XR4

[sfanous]

Well I already own the NEC-50XR4 plasma, and I'm in the process of receiving my BFG 6800GT. Now I want to connect my PC to the plasma through my Yamaha RX-V750 receiver mainly to watch my Divx and Xvid files and for some gaming too, but have a few questions and would appreciate if anyone could help me out.

1-Which cables are compatible with the BFG (DVI, Component, S-Video, RGB or Composite)
2-Which cable type would you use from the above?
3-Given a distance of around 12 meters from the PC to the Yamaha, which cable would be the best bang for buck? Do all cables support 12 meters?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SynthDude2001]

If your receiver/TV supports DVI, it's almost always best to use that. I've hooked up my 6800GT to a Sony HDTV before over DVI at a LAN party, and it worked quite well.

Edit: 12 meters is kind of a long run though; I don't have any experience with cabling that long.

Edit 2: To fully answer your first question - DVI and RGB (assuming by RGB you mean standard 15-pin D-Sub/VGA) will work just fine with the card, the RGB of course requiring an adapter that should come with the card, since both main outputs are DVI. There should also be an S-Video output, but it will be far, far less resolution and quality than DVI. You can usually use Composite too with an adapter on the S-Video port, but Composite is even worse than S-Video as far as picture quality goes. As far as Component, there's really no inexpensive way to output that from a 6800GT card; you'd have to buy a DVI->Component transcoder which I believe costs a few hundred dollars. The ATI cards have a simple $30 DVI->Component adapter available (in fact I used to use one with my old 9700 Pro), but I've been told it won't work with the Nvidia cards.

Like I said though, DVI will always give you the best picture quality, barring some sort of freak problem with the cables or display timing or something.

 

[sfanous]

Thanks for the excellent reply SynthDude2001

The receiver doesn't have a DVI plug, but the plasma does. Howerver I haven't been able to find anything over 10 meters for DVI.

Which would you go for given the choice of RGB (D-Sub/VGA) and S-Video?

Thanks

 

[SynthDude2001]

Out of those two, the RGB will be much better than S-Video, but at such cable lengths the signal might degrade...I'm not really sure. If at all possible, I'd try to see if I could find a DVI cable that long. Or else move the computer closer to the plasma.