Questions about hooking up a LCD TV to my PC

[MarcVenice]

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to these kind of things. I've noticed things like ACI, Scart, S-video, Component in, HDMI-in and even a PC-in 'port' ? Not sure if these are all the right translations in English btw.

What about contrast and those things? Concrete example is a LG 32LC52. Keep in mind, my price range is like 400-500 euro's, poor student that's trying to save some space and still buy a cool LCD tv. These screens CLAIM to be HD ready, but they aint, my 20" WS monitor runs at a higher resolution. Not really to interesting in getting a higher res then 1366 x 768 because I can't afford it.

One very important thing is, that I can hook it up to my PC, and stream movies from my PC to my TV, like erm divx movies and stuff? Not to worried about streaming content from my tv to my PC, although that would be a plus if possible, a tv-tuner card is possibly required though, which cost money too. I have a 8800gts 320mb, with 2 dvi ports ...

Also, I want to hook up my speakers to my PC, I'm guessing I'll need a soundcard for that to be possible, but then I want my TV to display whatever movie I want to watch, but I want my speakers to make the sound, whilst hooked up to my pc, and not directly into my TV?

Jeez, long post, but I'm completely clueless on what is possible and what is not ... Any help is appreciated, even if it's a rude link to a post I should read up on first before asking so many questions

Summarized:

- Hook up TV to PC, what to look for, special vid card needed, ports ?
- Use speakers hooked up into my PC * with soundcard * for the TV sound, possible?

Marc

Oh, if this should be cut in half or something, and be posted/moved to Audio/Video & Home Theater, by all means, go ahead. I wasn't 100% sure where to put this ...

 

[Jax Omen]

Hey Marc. Pretty much, all you need to find is an LCD that meets your TV-needs and has DVI input.

As for the speakers, depending on your motherboard you probably won't need a soundcard, unless you're an audiophile. onboard sound is pretty good nowadays. Make sure the ones you get have long enough cords if you want them by your TV!

 

[Engraver]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
Hey Marc. Pretty much, all you need to find is an LCD that meets your TV-needs and has DVI input.

As for the speakers, depending on your motherboard you probably won't need a soundcard, unless you're an audiophile. onboard sound is pretty good nowadays. Make sure the ones you get have long enough cords if you want them by your TV!

You don't need a DVI input specifically. There are adapters for just about anything out there, but your best bet would be to get a DVI -> HDMI adapter. Some TVs come with a VGA input specifically added for PC usage (Viewsonic N3760W for example).

You can run sound from the PC to the TV, but it differs depending on the TV. Some have a separate sound jack for non-HDMI audio for those outputting from systems that don't support the HDMI versions what carry sound as well.

 

[Jax Omen]

DVI would be the easiest for him, though, as he already has DVI-outs, so there's no need to buy an adapter

 

[MarcVenice]

Thanks for the feedback guys. After asking some more questions, I think it's not possible to hook up my speakers DIRECTLY into my PC. Right now the speakers run into a amplifier/stereo/cd/radio player, and from there I have a cable running into the motherboard. I need that amplifier, don't I? These speakers I'm talking about are from grundig, 100w each. They are good enough for my needs, but there's no way my PC can handle 100w speakers, right ? And the PC doesn't have the necesary ports to receive the speakers jacks.

And to conclude, as long as a TV has a HDMI in I can hook it up to my PC, even if that means buying a HDMI TO DVI adapter? How about image qaulity or loss there of?

 

[Jax Omen]

DVI and HDMI are the exact same thing, only a different pinout on the connectors, and HDMI adding cables for audio. There's no conversion other than the physical plug.

Yes, with a DVI-HDMI cable, you can hook your PC to any TV that takes HDMI inputs.

 

[webada]

The LG model you are looking has HDMI input, so its best you get DVI to HDMI cable for your video.

As for your audio, assuming you have a soundcard on your PC, you will need a minjack to 2xRCA audio cable (white and red). You can connect the RCA to AMP (or TV directly if you want to use TV speakers instead)

once its all hooked up, turn input source on TV to HDMI input that's connected to PC and then turn AMP sound source to the RCA input that you used and you are good to go.

 

[MarcVenice]

What's this RCA you are talking about? You are saying I _CAN_ jack in my speakers into my pc, assuming I have a soundcard, and I no longer need the amplifier? Are you sure my PC/soundcard will be capable of supplying the speakers with enough power, I mean I wouldn't have an amplifier, right? Am I missing something?

The speakers are hooked up to my PC right now, but its through an amp but I want to bypass it, is that possible?

 

[Jax Omen]

No, you'll need the amp for powering the speakers.

 

[webada]

ditto, you don't want to use teh grundig without amps anyways, there is just not enough power from PC.

I didn't know the speakers are hookedup to pc via amp right now, if so, you don't need the RCA cable (how are you doing this without it?)

 

[MarcVenice]

I think I have a RCA cable. One end plugs into the green port from my motherboard. Then there's two that plug into the amplifier.

Thanks for all the info guys, now I need to go and find a nice, affordable LCD tv. Not sure but I might buy a used one, but I want to make sure I buy a decent one with the options I need. Not like my monitor that only has VGA in, so I can't use scaling on it :S I live in Europe btw, so if you guys happen to have suggestions, I'll glady take them, it doesn't have to be huge, 32" perhaps ? 720p is enough, dvi in would be a plus, but I'm not against getting a converter. The thinner the bars on the screen, the better.

 

[UpstartXT]

DVI and HDMI, in terms of image quality, are the same thing. You can buy a cable that has one end HDMI and the other end is DVI, so don't let that affect your buying decisions.

My current rig uses home theater speakers hooked up to a receiver. The correct setup is taking a cable that has mini jack at one end and plugging this into the sound card / onboard audio on the back of your computer, then taking the other end which is RCA (1 red 1 white) and plugging this into the back of your receiever. The receiver then powers your speakers and sends the audio signal to them. Then you take your video cable, plug the DVI end into your video card, and the HDMI end into your tv. Splurge on the TV, as long as you do thorough research on the model you are going to buy to make sure it is a good TV, you won't regret spending the extra money down the road.

 

[Jax Omen]

I'm gonna add, despite your current scaling issue, it might be worth waiting until you have the money for a 1080p TV.

720p really sucks. As you said, your current monitor has better resolution.

 

[Larries]

I have a dumb related question.

The Sapphire 3850 card says it has "HD-Audio" support. What does this mean? Does it mean if I use the DVI-HDMI connector to connect the graphics card to a LCD TV, and select the card as my sound card (I think I can select it in Control Panel as my sound card), it also works like a sound card too? Will this work for games too?

Thanks.

 

[lopri]

I have tried DVI-to-DVI or DVI-to-HDMI to hook up a PCI to LCD TV without much success. I don't know if you've guys have actually tried it with today's TVs? I think I remember seeing a very detailed post (maybe from AVS Forum) with regard to how to get accurate pictures/text on LCD TV from PC. I believe there is a reason why TV manufacturers call the VGA connection as 'PC port'. Text may not be as clear as on LCD monitor, but it's usable. On the other hand, digital-to-digital connection from PC to TV was just unbearable.