Good cheap video card with HDMI output

[imported_boe]

I see a lot of cards that say HDMI support but I don't see HDMI connectors on them - do they come with DVI to HDMI converters? I've read a few posts about the converters not working as well as they'd hope. Any suggestions? I'm not using it for gaming but I might be using it for movies - passively cooled would be fine.

 

[kaiten]

I don't know about the converters. I use a $6 monoprice dvi to hdmi cable with a Gigabyte 8400GS GV-NX84G256H that is passively cooled. It works just fine at 1920x1080 with Ubuntu/MythTV.

 

[hiromizu]

I just got an 8600GTS with HDMI out and it was a big mistake. Be careful..these cards do not actually have sound circuits built in to push the audio through the HDMI cable. You have to hook up a cable from the SPDIF out from your motherboard/soundcard to a jumper on the video card to get the full AV HDMI to work. In addition to this, some HDTVs will disable the audio if you do not feed both the audio and video through the HDMI cable. Screwed me up big time.

 

[s44]

$55AR 2600XT. The HDMI adapter (which should, in fact, route the audio through) comes free as part of a combo deal -- look in the bottom left corner.

 

[Binky]

The card linked by s44 does not have an HDMI adaptor.

This one comes with an HDMI adaptor and should work without the SPDIF from the motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102699


You can also search newegg for the MSI 8500GT that is passive, half height, and has native HDMI (but it needs SPDIF from MB for audio).

If you can wait, wait. The new generation ATI cards are coming out soon.

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: Binky
The card linked by s44 does not have an HDMI adaptor.

This one comes with an HDMI adaptor and should work without the SPDIF from the motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102699


You can also search newegg for the MSI 8500GT that is passive, half height, and has native HDMI (but it needs SPDIF from MB for audio).

If you can wait, wait. The new generation ATI cards are coming out soon.

This card doesn't pass any audio.

Think about it...HDMI connections expect video and audio through the same cable. If you run from DVI to HDMI, you're only sending the video. The audio will have to go analog and through a separate cable to a separate source input which defeats the purpose of HDMI.

 

[Binky]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
This card doesn't pass any audio.
Think about it...HDMI connections expect video and audio through the same cable. If you run from DVI to HDMI, you're only sending the video. The audio will have to go analog and through a separate cable to a separate source input which defeats the purpose of HDMI.

Actually, it does pass the audio. The ATI cards do things a bit differently than Nvidia - they process the audio in the GPU. You don't even need any soundcard (or onboard sound). This 2400 will pass both audio and video over an HDMI channel without any help from any audio device.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us...iew.php?gpid=186&grp=3

 

[Butterbean]

ATI 3850/3870 has native HDMI

From Specs:

"HDMI output support"

Supports all display resolutions up to 1920x1080
Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: Binky

Originally posted by: hiromizu
This card doesn't pass any audio.
Think about it...HDMI connections expect video and audio through the same cable. If you run from DVI to HDMI, you're only sending the video. The audio will have to go analog and through a separate cable to a separate source input which defeats the purpose of HDMI.

Actually, it does pass the audio. The ATI cards do things a bit differently than Nvidia - they process the audio in the GPU. You don't even need any soundcard (or onboard sound). This 2400 will pass both audio and video over an HDMI channel without any help from any audio device.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us...iew.php?gpid=186&grp=3

Wow. Question...how does it pass audio if it has a VGA and DVI output only? Doesn't it require an HDMI output or is it somehow passing it through the DVI and by using a DVI-HDMI cable, it is able to push the audio as intended? If so, I'm gonna have to sort of go ahead and send back the 8600gts I just bought.

 

[imported_boe]

OK, let's say we were willing to buy any video card on the market that made this easy so we didn't have to worry about SPIDF - are there any with native HDMI out - no DVI adapter? Also I'd like to make sure it can handle very high resolutions.

Thanks

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Wow. Question...how does it pass audio if it has a VGA and DVI output only? Doesn't it require an HDMI output or is it somehow passing it through the DVI and by using a DVI-HDMI cable, it is able to push the audio as intended? If so, I'm gonna have to sort of go ahead and send back the 8600gts I just bought.

There's a connector on the video card PCB to connect the audio as well I think. Good question about DVI though...I'm not really sure, but I figure card companies would have thought of that already.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Wow. Question...how does it pass audio if it has a VGA and DVI output only? Doesn't it require an HDMI output or is it somehow passing it through the DVI and by using a DVI-HDMI cable, it is able to push the audio as intended? If so, I'm gonna have to sort of go ahead and send back the 8600gts I just bought.

There's a connector on the video card PCB to connect the audio as well I think. Good question about DVI though...I'm not really sure, but I figure card companies would have thought of that already.

ATI uses some of the dvi pins to pass the audio.

i dont think all of them are normally used so they are probably reserved pins.


some tvs have rca ports that are assigned to a dvi port for video cards that do not have the audio through hdmi or are using a dvi-hdmi adapter and are not ati cards.

my vizio has this on one of its ports (it has 2 hdmi, but one of them has 2 rca jacks for that purpose)