Help a gamer out with his Sony 32" HDTV and HDMI question..

[Gargamel]

Hey guys this is my first post here but I have been a long time reader, just never needed to post anything that I couldn't really figure out from these forums.

I know this topic has been covered many times in similar fashion before but the info I need just wasn't there, so put away that flaming you were getting ready to hand out. Ok here goes.....

All the relevant information, I live in Japan and stuff here is expensive for computers, more so than when I was back in Australia and so I need to be careful with my funds, my cabbage if you get me. I currently have a MacBook 1.83 core duo, running dual screen at 1300x 968 the same native resolution as my Sony Bravia KDL 32v2000 LCD HDTV. I use a mini VGA to VGA, then a VGA to VGA into the TV's PC input connection at the back of the TV.

You may be saying well, what is your friggin question then? The title says gamer, and you know I am not playing games on my core duo laptop, that was just a reference as to how I have my TV already set up. It runs so nice in this set up, I cannot notice any difference in picture quality between the source and the destination, in fact the TV actually cleans it up making it look better than the source, being my laptop of course.

K, that is out of the way, sorry for this book I'm writing here, I just don't want to leave out details. Ok, so I have just asked a friend to take apart my gaming comp from Australia and ship it out to Japan, it's bubble wrapped and on it's way. I just wanted to salvage the Lian-Li case cause they are like $300 over here and the corsair ram cause they don't sell corsair cheap here and all they have is generic buffulo crap. Wait the question is coming,
I want to buy a new mobo, GPU and CPU, which is about $1000 USD. I was looking at

Intel Core Duo e6600 = CPU

mobo supporting quad core CPU ( Do you think I need it? or just get a Asus P5B Deluxe?)

???????? GPU (8800GTS, 8800GTX, R600/700 etc)

The problem is the GPU, I want to hook it up to my TV with HDMI and I know it can be done with DVI to HDMI connections, however so far as I know those connectors just don't exist over here. I was also looking at the TV out on the 8800GTS and GTX and was looking at some pics of the connector, it looks like an s-video connection with a dongle that has three input connections, video and left right audio? Can someone explain that to me?

I just want to know a good setup for a new build using the above HDTV as the monitor for gaming, BF2, WoW and maybe some NWN2 etc. Thanks for your help sorry for the long post aye. :roll:

 

[MCMONOPOLY]

The first and foremost thing you should do is read your TV's manual, because you may discover (to your dismay) that you can't connect your Pc to your TV's HDMI connector with an DVI->HDMI cable, since most HDTV don't allow for that. I know i was foiled with my brand new Samsung 32 incher...

Also the "S-video" like shaped port on the back of the card is to plug a HD video component cable, which are in fact 3 cable for the picture (red green and blue) and none for the sound.

As of right now if you want to hook up your Pc to your TV using the HDMI sockets on the TV, you have to buy yourself a GFX card that comes with a HDMI socket.

But the problem is that the only ones i saw available were of the X1650's flavor, nothing you want to be playing games with (IMO).

Anyhow, check the manual first, then you should have the information needed to make a decision.

 

[MCMONOPOLY]

I've checked your TV's manual, and indeed, it doesn't support HDMI inputs from a PC. See Page 15, item 5 of your manual for details.
It's been done before with older sets, but i think they don't allow it anymore for content protection reasons.

But if you still want to go ahead and try it here a Linky to a good supplier of quality cable at affordable prices. BTW the sell great products, of equal or better quality of what you can find in retail store at a small fraction of the price.

Good luck!