Radeon HD 4350 DVI is better than HDMI

[Ryan0827]

This is my first post on TomsHardware so hopefully I won't be dissapointed.

I recently bought a video card (XFX HD-435X-YNH2 Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Low Profile Ready Video Card) and 2 LCD monitors (SAMSUNG 2494HM Glossy Black 24" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 50000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers) from Newegg.com. I connected monitor 1 to the video card via DVI cable and monitor 2 to the video card via HDMI cable. For some reason the the text on the HDMI monitor is blurry, while the DVI monitor look great. At first I thought monitor 2 was bad, so I switched the cables. Now monitor 1 looks bad.

Next, I assumed the HDMI cable was bad. So I got 2 other HDMI cables I had at my house. Same result. The HDMI connection looks very poor on the monitors.

So I figured the HDMI port on my Radeon HD 4350 port was bad. So I called the manufacturer (ATI Graphics) for an explanation. They said I would have to purchase a monitor that is capatable for "PC HDMI connection." Is this true? I though all HDMI connections were the same.

I'd like to have a dual monitor setup but the HDMI port sucks! The D-Sub output is ok. But I can visually see with my monitors side by side that the DVI connection is much more crisp than the D-Sub and HDMI connections. Any ideas why? Should I return my video card? Get new monitors?

Any explanation would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Ryan

 

[gamerk316]

The answer is simple: TV's do a LOT of post-processing, which is probably screwing with the HDMI picture, where the DVI input [the PC Input for most TV's] generally forgoes any post-processing [for gaming purposes; TV manufacturers started to realise >100ms Input Lag was NOT a good thing to have ].

HDMI and DVI pass the same EXACT signal, so the only factor is how the TV processes the image.

 

[Ryan0827]

So let me see if I fully understand what you are saying...The DVI port on my video card is for PCs. The HDMI port on my video card is for TV. The TV is able to do all the post-processing, but my monitors are NOT able to do the post-processing, thus I get a crappy picture on my monitor.

So I guess the HDMI port on my video card is only good if I was going to use my big screen in the living room as a monitor? What other purpose would the HDMI port have?

So in order to have a dual monitor system I need to get a video card with 2 DVI ports?