Hooking up computers to TVs

[StevenNevets]

I belive this is possible but that's about all I know.
So how does it work, a special cable or something?

Right now I have a Sony 60" widescreen TV and playing my games on it would just be insane

Hopefully my new setup will be the following, is this strong enough?

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80721-8

Ram: Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220095

Video Card: MSI RX1900XT-VT2D512E Radeon X1900 XT PCI Express 512MB DDR3 Video Card w/TV-Out, Dual DVI, & Video-In Retail http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321985

 

[The Raven]

You can get away with a lot less! I had a 3400+, 512mb, and a 5200 256mb vid card and was able to play games on the tv. It's just a matter of how good you want it to look. And when it comes to that, I think your TV specs would be the more important factors. Speaking of: what model do you have? Link to manual or list of ports/specs?

BTW I love using my tv for PC crap. I need a better display though. Just upgraded to a 7600gs and component cables and am lovin it! Now if I just had the quid for a 50" plasma...

 

[StevenNevets]

Here's the model name: KDF-E60A20
I found it by googling all the brands on the screen

Specifications
http://www.dlptvreview.com/dlptv/sony-kdfe60a20.html

"Resolution: 1366 x 768 Pixels"
You know those gaming benchmarks on differnt resolutions - would I get similar results on a TV or would it slow down the game more

 

[bigpow]

That resolution looks low/standard to me.
I think u shouldn't have any problem with ur hardware.

now if ur talking about the new Sony bravia 1080p, that's another story!

 

[TronLeakage]

You'll be able to plug it into either the HDMI input (using a DVI to HDMI adapter I think) or, more easily, the component input on the TV and run it in HD. Most current videocards have a DVI output and a TV-out with component. The hard part isn't getting it running on the TV, it's the hassle of configuring every game to use your TV's goofy resolution. I had my PC up until recently running through my 1080i HDTV via component input and to combat overscan I ended up running the PC in 1688x992 resolution. At least with my TV, you couldn't just run 1024x768 and have the TV stretch it out to fill the screen like most monitors would, instead you'd end up with black bars all around the screen. The only other resolution I could run was 720x480 (480P), which is too low. So I had to configure every game to use my odd-ball resolution and adjust the viewing angle on first-person games to match 16:9 which can be a huge PITA. It was also some work to get Windows to display readable text and in my web browser.

As far as performance, in your case at least, the resolution isn't too high. It should have similar performance to running games in 1280x1024. You should be fine, although not everything may run at full detail. Mine was a Pentium 550 @ 3.93GHz, 7800GT @ 478/1200, 2x1GB DDR-400 and the only games I had much trouble running at nearly full detail was Oblivion and FEAR. I never ran AA though, since it was barely noticable on the TV.

And truth be told, alot of games kinda sucked on a TV. Alot of text in games was too small to read from the couch since I had to run it in such a high resolution (WoW was unplayable and I could never read any of the chatting in FPS games). In FPS games, you'd be a disadvantage online because you can't see as much small detail as when you are sitting right in front of a monitor. If you are just casually playing games that aren't online, it isn't bad though since you don't have to worry as much about being perfect and you won't have any text you have to read. If your TV allows you to run other resolutions and stretch to fill the screen, it wouldn't be bad though.

Honestly I think it was cool for all the emulators I had running, but PC games are just kinda meant to be played sitting in a chair in front of a monitor and just didn't cut it for me sitting on a couch playing on the TV. That's why I got a couple monitors recently and a new case. Now I just need a desk and a chair.