Question about connecting HDTV to PC

[DesiPower]

I have a Sony 46" TV that I currently connect through VGA. I sometimes do see some jerks, my video card 9500GT, does have DVI ports but no HDMI, what if I connect through DVI-HMDI cable? will that improve quality? even if it does not get rid of jerks, will the picture quality anyhow improve?

 

[busydude]

The picture quality greatly improves(DVI/HDMI>>>>>>>>>>VGA). I am not so sure about the jerks.. may be some one with Nvidia card can help you with that, but you should not be getting any jerks with HDMI/DVI.

EDIT: Can you list all the specs?

 

[mosox]

For smoothness try this
http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate-x264-1080p-movies-over-the-gpu-guide/1

 

[DesiPower]

The picture quality greatly improves(DVI/HDMI>>>>>>>>>>VGA). I am not so sure about the jerks.. may be some one with Nvidia card can help you with that, but you should not be getting any jerks with HDMI/DVI.

EDIT: Can you list all the specs?

Pentium D945
3GB DDR2 667
mobo - Intel D945GNT
DVD-RW, no Blu-ray

not working at the moment...

 

[notty22]

By using the hdmi port, at least on my Panasonic plasma VS the front VGA. The hdmi input makes use of the televisions video circuitry.
Where the VGA input, even the sharpness/ contrast/ brightness features are not featured. There is other options for those, but different than normal inputs.
Also your gpu driver will detect (at least mine does win7, amd and nvidia) your television and correct available timings/resolutions. When using HDMI

I use MPC thats included in the K-lite codec package. Usually d/l the full version. Select dxva option when installing , whats recommended.

 

[tviceman]

I had noticeable overscan using HDMI with my TV. When I switched to VGA, the overscan problem disappeared.

 

[snuuggles]

I had noticeable overscan using HDMI with my TV. When I switched to VGA, the overscan problem disappeared.

That reminds me, when I was trying to find a new TV to use as a monitor for my pc, one of the (3 or 4) TVs I tried and eventually returned was a Sony LCD, I think the model was kdl-46v5100.

Besides eventually figuring out that I wasn't going to get the minimal ghosting/input lag that I wanted from any lcd tv, I found that the sony specifically did *not* have a true 1-to-1 pixel mapping setting. As I recall, there was a setting for it, but when you looked at fine detail and text, there was a blurryness that indicated to me that it was not mapping 1-to-1. And I eventually compared line-by-line what I was seeing on the sony vs another 1080p tv and confirmed that the sony was missing a few lines at the top and bottom - and sides as I recall! I didn't think to call it what it obviously was: overscan.

Just a warning, movies looked fine on it, text and pc computing was unbearable on it. I didn't think to try VGA, I thought most VGA ports on TVs were not able to supprt full 1920x1080p, so I didn't bother to try... maybe that was a mistake.

hth!

 

[Borealis7]

do i really need to invest in an HDMI cable in order to get a good picture? i'm looking at connecting my 37" Panasonic Viera (IPS, 1080p) to my Radeon 5850. distance is about 3 meters (10 feet). does cable quality really matter for this digital format? (for coaxial cables i can understand, but this is digital...)

 

[birthdaymonkey]

do i really need to invest in an HDMI cable in order to get a good picture? i'm looking at connecting my 37" Panasonic Viera (IPS, 1080p) to my Radeon 5850. distance is about 3 meters (10 feet). does cable quality really matter for this digital format? (for coaxial cables i can understand, but this is digital...)

Generally you don't need a fancy cable unless you're running it a long distance or through an area with a lot of interference. Try a cheap cable. If the signal makes it to your TV, then you're good to go. If you get drop-outs or no picture on the screen, you might need to spend a bit more to get something with better shielding. A cheap cable will most likely be fine; as long as the digital signal makes it to the TV, there's no difference in quality between a cheap cable and a $300 monster HDMI cable.

 

[piasabird]

When you output from computer to TV you can get varying results. However, the output is dependent on the capability of the video card and the drivers. Not all video cards are Full HD. Also when you convert DVI to HDMI, you only get about a 720p in the conversion. If you adjust the settings on the TV side make sure you have the TV set to the design specifications of the Video Card. If you set it too high you will over heat the video card and get that jerky or interrupted results. Just by turning down the resolution a little on the TV you can get better results.

I think you would get better results if you had a true HDMI Out Cable. You may also get similar results with a true DVI plug if that input is available on the TV (never tried this). I only have a 720p capable Integrated video so I used a DVI => HDMI converter and connected a HDMI cable to that. Just used the cheapest HDMI Cable I could buy.

 

[snuuggles]

do i really need to invest in an HDMI cable in order to get a good picture? i'm looking at connecting my 37" Panasonic Viera (IPS, 1080p) to my Radeon 5850. distance is about 3 meters (10 feet). does cable quality really matter for this digital format? (for coaxial cables i can understand, but this is digital...)

I'm running a 25' hdmi cable I got from monoprice.com from my ps3 to my lcd tv for playing/watching blurays. I've never had any problems.

Also when you convert DVI to HDMI, you only get about a 720p in the conversion.

I may be misunderstanding what you are saying. AFAIK DVI to HDMI is a 1-to-1 conversion. The only difference is that DVI doesn't carry sound. There is zero resolution loss going from DVI to HDMI.

I guess there might be some old hdmi ports that don't support 1080p data rate, but nothing sold in the last 5 years would have a port that doesn't support full 1080p@60hz.

 

[Zap]

what if I connect through DVI-HMDI cable? will that improve quality? even if it does not get rid of jerks, will the picture quality anyhow improve?

If it does 1:1 pixel mapping then picture quality may improve a hair. Any jerkiness usually has to do with your computer, for instance if it isn't able to keep up with the HD bitrate. It has nothing (or little) to do with it being VGA versus HDMI.

I found that the sony specifically did *not* have a true 1-to-1 pixel mapping setting. As I recall, there was a setting for it, but when you looked at fine detail and text, there was a blurryness that indicated to me that it was not mapping 1-to-1.

A lot of HDTVs will automatically scale the HDMI inputs, or won't report the proper settings to Windows. Not all of them do this, but annoying that plenty do.

when you convert DVI to HDMI, you only get about a 720p in the conversion.

Wow, this kind of misinformation is typical of some other user around here who I won't mention. :\ DVI can be converted into HDMI because the video part of the HDMI signal is basically DVI-D. It is basically pretty much an adapter because it doesn't do any video conversion.