I'm building a new gaming system and am planning on purchasing an 8800GTS G92 512MB GPU. Now, I've always been intrigued by the HDMI connectivity and am interested in going with HDMI over DVI. However, this card just has dual DVI and TV connectivity.
My question is: Is it worth the money? I want an impressive looking image and will either be using a 22 or 24 widescreen LCD. That said, what type of card and monitor would you suggest for a mid-ranged budget?
HDMI is an HD connection to an HD TV. don't even worry about it if your using an LCD computer monitor. Now if you eventually want to get a HUGE LCD then look at "dual link DVI"
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Exchange Engineer - Am I working to live, or am I living to work?
The HD 3870X2 comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter. I wonder if you can just buy an adapter like that and use it with any card, like the 8800GTS or 9800GTX.
Personally, I'd rather have the DVI output of the card linked to the DVI input of the monitor, with no adapters in between. The fewer links in the chain, the less chance of introducing noise.
You should probably compare screenshots made with an 8800GTS and an HD 3870X2 and then pick the one that looks best to you. There are people who swear ATI cards make better looking images, but also people who say nVidia is better at it.
HDMI is just an extention of the DVI protocol, so you wont see any difference in picture. What you do gain with HDMI is intigrated sound and some control protocols i think (cant remember beyond sound)
If you are to use a big screen or TV you have to use HDMI....
No you don't. You can use a DVI to HDMI adapter.
Bonus points for giving bad advice in a short and 'certain' statement.
If you're just connecting to a monitor you will not see a difference between DVI and HDMI. Manufacturers are putting HDMI in their cards so people can connect their computers to their HDTVs. But, as stated already, you can simply use a DVI to HDMI adapter to do this as well, but sound will not transfer, you will need to run that from your computer to your stereo/tv as well.
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Antec Nine Hundred, Gigabyte P35-DS3R, Intel Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz, Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, eVGA 8800GT 512MB, G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 4-4-4-10, Seasonic S12 ATX 650W, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA, Samsung 22" LCD, Windows XP Pro 64-bit
HDMI is just DVI w/ 5.1 audio in a smaller connector. Plus I've heard of people having issues using HDMI on some monitors and such. My buddy has issues with Vista 64bit and his HDMI monitor. I have to unplug and plug my video back into my TV with my DVI to HDMI cable if I want to play at 42"
Not worth it really, there are quirky issues. If you are making an HTPC then worry about it.
If you're just connecting to a monitor you will not see a difference between DVI and HDMI. Manufacturers are putting HDMI in their cards so people can connect their computers to their HDTVs. But, as stated already, you can simply use a DVI to HDMI adapter to do this as well, but sound will not transfer, you will need to run that from your computer to your stereo/tv as well.[/quotemsg]
Exactly... further more, it's just logical. I don't know of any video cards that have integrated sound as well, therefore, logically any HDMI/DVI configuration that you have hooked up to your video card is only going to output video. Audio is a whole other story.
On this note, let me pose one question to those with more knowledge than myself (which is probably most of you). Is there a difference, picture-wise, between using HDMI vs component (red, green, blue)?
I have heard mixed reports. Sorry to hijack the thread.
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* Disclaimer - The above poster is not an expert on any subject relating to computers and does not pretend to be. The above poster cannot and will not be held liable for any advice taken by the reader.
HDMI vs. component is theoretically the same quality. HDMI is digital the entire way, component is analog back to digital. I would challenge anyone to connect 2 identical TVs and DVD players and show us the difference.
Didn't Tom's do a review on this a while back?
HDMI is just one nice, neat cable vs. an octopus of wires.
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Remove the warning labels; evolution should take care of the rest.
The HD 3870X2 comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter. I wonder if you can just buy an adapter like that and use it with any card, like the 8800GTS or 9800GTX.
I actually use the DVI to HDMI converter that came with my HD 3870 on my 8800GTX.
I'm guessing there's some advantage to an HDMI output over an S-Video?
HDMI is capable of higher resolutions than S-Video. Putting S-video on seems like a waste, but I guess they thought there was enough reason to put one on.
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* Disclaimer - The above poster is not an expert on any subject relating to computers and does not pretend to be. The above poster cannot and will not be held liable for any advice taken by the reader.
Yea the whole S-Video thing is what signaled my wtf . Yea S-Video can handle a maximum resolution of 720X480 right? If you want to hook your HDTV into your computer (I'm assuming you mean a signal from your computer to your TV not the other way around) you'd just need a card that has DVI output which is pretty much anything now. Some HDTV's can handle VGA or DVI inputs but if your TV doesn't support DVI (I don't recommend using a VGA input due to the reduced quality) you can get a DVI to HDMI adapter that will accept the DVI input from your computer and transfer it to a HDMI output to your TV. Of course if your video card you end up getting has an HDMI spot on it like the 9800 mentioned above you'll just need a straight HDMI to HDMI cable.
Most people have said it already, but I'll reiterate. DVI is the same thing as HDMI. HDMI is just a DVI connection that also carries audio. Same resolution and everything is carried over. HDMI is required to run HD-DVD players and Blu-ray players with their HD audio tracks. Other than that, HDMI does give some control (such as turning a tv on when the dvd player turns on).
Someone also asked about component(red blue green) vs HDMI. Not much of a difference http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/mes [...] 22868.html check out this article. Only difference is really that is analog or digital conversion of the signal. Some say digital is better, but it remains to be seen.
I'm interested in the option of plugging my 46" HDTV into my computer. Does anyone know of a card that could handle this connection as well as DVI?
I've got my old AGP Radeon 9600 Pro piping out to both my 40 HD LCD (through a DVI to HDMI cable) and my old LCD monitor through it's analog VGA out. It's running a desktop of like 3600x1080. If my old system can handle that, I'm pretty sure most of you guy's would be fine connecting to an HDTV.
I plan on building a new comp later this year.
Message edited by Ragnorok64 on 04-22-2008 at 10:41:14 PM
ChrisMetalG 
chris.m.mcnamara@gmail.com 
. Yea S-Video can handle a maximum resolution of 720X480 right? If you want to hook your HDTV into your computer (I'm assuming you mean a signal from your computer to your TV not the other way around) you'd just need a card that has DVI output which is pretty much anything now. Some HDTV's can handle VGA or DVI inputs but if your TV doesn't support DVI (I don't recommend using a VGA input due to the reduced quality) you can get a DVI to HDMI adapter that will accept the DVI input from your computer and transfer it to a HDMI output to your TV. Of course if your video card you end up getting has an HDMI spot on it like the 9800 mentioned above you'll just need a straight HDMI to HDMI cable.