ATI 6770 DVI and HDMI connected at same time ?

[Welshy1966]

Hello, please go easy on me, i'm an ageing gentleman with not much knowledge of computers and technology.
I have an ATI Radeon 6770 1gb video card in my computer which is connected to an ASUS VH222T monitor via a DVI(?) cable because the monitor has no HDMI input.
I was wondering if i would be able to purchase a HDMI cable to connect my video card to my Panasonic TH42PX70B plasma TV so i can play movies on my PC and watch them on my TV.
Is it possible to even have both the DVI(?) and HDMI in use at the same time ? Would there be any altering of settings needed every single time i wanted to watch a movie on my TV, or would it be a "set up and forget" job ? By the way, my monitor is set to 1920x1080 resolution.
If anyone could explain a step by step guide for an old man without much of a clue, then it'd be greatly appreciated ! Many thanks in advance.

 

[cklaubur]

Yes, it is possible to use DVI and HDMI at the same time.

When both screens are hooked up, Windows should give you the option (under "Screen Resolution" in Win Vista/7/8, "Display Properties" in XP) to mirror the desktop or extend it. Mirroring will show the same image on both screens, while extending will allow what you want.

Casey

 

[chugot9218]

You may want mirroring, I just went through this same thing, the problem with extending it is you will have to control everything from your PC and pass it over to the extended screen. If you mirror, you see your PC screen and can operate from either end. However, this is assuming that they are in separate rooms, I ran a 35 foot hdmi from my PC to HDTV so mirroring works best for me. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Welshy1966]

Thanks for the replies so far, good news that both ports of my 6770 can be permanently connected simulataneously
So if i chose the mirroring option, would i be able to leave my desktop resolution at 1920x1080 and the movie would display fine on my 42" 1080p plasma tv ? I think i read somewhere before that the TV display needs to be set at 720 dpi or something ? What would be the best resolution for it ? I'd rather not have to keep altering my desktop resolution whenever i wanted to watch a movie on the TV to be honest.
So would and extended desktop mean i could set up two seperate resolutions on my PC and TV ? I'd just like a "set up and forget" option if thats possible ?

 

[Simu]

yup, it is possible if you use extended desktop option.

 

[chugot9218]

Yes, but you will not have start menu/toolbar access from the extended desktop. If your monitor and your tv are the same resolution (1080p from the sounds of it) you will not have to mess with resolution at all (with mirroring that is).

 

[eodeo]

Mirroring would be best if you dont need the extra room that extended desktop gives.

If both displays have native resolution of 1080p- that would be perfect. Just set it to that and it would be "set up and forget"

 

[Welshy1966]

Thanks guys for all your help. I like these forums and i'm going to stick around. It's about time i got up to date with technology
Tomorrow i'm going shopping for a HDMI cable !

 

[TeraMedia]

I just checked the specs on that plasma. From what I can see, it isn't anywhere near 1080p or even 720p resolution. It's native resolution is 1024 x 768 according to http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Panasonic-TH42PX70/Specification.php, which was the only spec sheet I could find online. If that plasma TV is indeed from 2007, then given the 42" size I would not be surprised at all that it isn't 1080p because they couldn't make plasma pixels that small back then.

This is probably why you think it is limited to 720p input on the HDMI port. The manual probably tells you what PC resolutions it supports at the VGA input (which, by the way, you could use from your AMD/ATi Radeon card's DVI-I output port with the help of a simple DVI-to-VGA adapter).

If your monitor is truly 1080p, and your TV is 1024x768 as I suspect, your best bet might be to connect your ATi's DVI-I connector to the VGA port using an (inexpensive, passive pass-through) adapter (which may have even come with the card), and connect the HDMI connector to your monitor's DVI-D input using another (inexpensive, passive pass-through) adapter.

The resolution of the TV isn't exactly 720p, so no matter what you try to show, you're going to get some image scaling - but as long as you are at least 6' away from the TV, you probably won't see the pixels anyway. Also, the aspect ratio of the TV is off. It has a 4x3 pixel ratio, but is rendering a 16x9 image, so the pixels aren't square. You may need to fiddle with the TV's zoom / stretch settings to get video to look right. Alternatively, you may need to configure your video-playing software to recognize the inconsistent aspect ratio. Using an HDMI connector on the TV instead of the VGA connector would mean that you wouldn't have to mess around with settings like that, but you'd need to tell your computer that the TV is 720p, and the TV would perform image scaling on all content.

Most importantly, you probably do NOT want to mirror your screen. Use extended desktop.

 

[popatim]

Just a note on DRM protected content (DVD's/BluRay) is that it will typically only allow you to use it on one display at a time.

 

[TeraMedia]

popatim's point is correct for BR / HD-DVD. I'm not aware of that being a limitation for DVDs.

More on your screen: The HDMI inputs do accept 1080p, according to another page at the link I provided. Again, your screen is going to scale the image, but as long as it does a good job, you might not care. That would also make things easier from a setup standpoint, because you could use a cloned display (except for Blu-Ray content).

 

[Welshy1966]

If your monitor is truly 1080p, and your TV is 1024x768 as I suspect, your best bet might be to connect your ATi's DVI-I connector to the VGA port using an (inexpensive, passive pass-through) adapter (which may have even come with the card), and connect the HDMI connector to your monitor's DVI-D input using another (inexpensive, passive pass-through) adapter.

But if i buy a VGA cable instead of a HDMI, i'd have to run a seperate 3.5mm audio cable of equal length, wouldn't i ? So on top of buying the VGA cable, DVI adaptor, and audio cable, i'd also have to buy a HDMI cable anyway to connect the PC to the monitor, plus another adaptor to connect the cable to the monitor because it has no HDMI. Correct ? So that's quite a bit of extra expensive, and extra cabling. Whereas, i could keep my current VGA connection from PC to monitor (without changing anything whatsoever) and just go out and buy one simple HDMI cable to run from the vacant HDMI slot of my graphics card to the plasma tv.

The resolution of the TV isn't exactly 720p, so no matter what you try to show, you're going to get some image scaling - but as long as you are at least 6' away from the TV, you probably won't see the pixels anyway. Also, the aspect ratio of the TV is off. It has a 4x3 pixel ratio, but is rendering a 16x9 image, so the pixels aren't square. You may need to fiddle with the TV's zoom / stretch settings to get video to look right. Alternatively, you may need to configure your video-playing software to recognize the inconsistent aspect ratio. Using an HDMI connector on the TV instead of the VGA connector would mean that you wouldn't have to mess around with settings like that, but you'd need to tell your computer that the TV is 720p, and the TV would perform image scaling on all content.

Now you're totally baffling me
I suppose i'm not really bothered about having a perfect picture on the tv (despite paying for a high quality HDMI lead for the connection ). I wouldn't be watching DVD's so DRM isn't an issue, everything i watch is usually in avi format and pixelization due to the compression on most of the files leaves a lot to be desired files anyway. I just want a nice simple solution for now.
Thanks for your detailed info though, its very much appreciated

 

[chugot9218]

Sounds like your TV is not 1080p, but supports 1080p downscaling through HDMI. It sounds like it will convert the image down to 720p, so you shouldn't have any issues and audio should come across fine. I believe they sell VGA/DVI cables with an integrated audio cable, but I am not sure.

Also, do not waste money on an expensive HDMI cable, I got a 35ft that is of good quality/manufacturing for like 25 bucks as an example. I have used bluerigger and 1 other brand.... just don't go for monster. My dad bought his TV from best buy and the tech tried to convince him he needed diamond monster plated hdmi cables, only 800 bucks for 2 3ft and 1 6ft cable.... what a steal huh?

 

[Welshy1966]

I need a HDMI cable about 6 metres to reach from the PC to my Plasma. I had my eyes on this, do you think its going to be good enough ?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/KabelDirekt...hannel/dp/B004XIUBGI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Please bear in mind that i haven't got a lot of money to spend on a cable, but then again i don't want to buy the cheapest of the cheap if you see what i mean.

 

[Welshy1966]

Oh i forgot to mention, here's a link to a pdf of my TV manual.
If you look at page 42 (24/26) there's a chart of resolutions, but it all sounds gibberish to me
What resolution do think i'll achieve on the tv by linking it to my pc via HDMI ?

 

[chugot9218]

Looks like a good cable to me, may just be a rebrand of one I bought. I did not see a link, but from what I read on the TV is that it is an HD TV, which usually indicates 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. Because it can downscale 1080p, I would assume it will give you either 1080i or 720p.

 

[Welshy1966]

Sorry, forgot to paste the link to the manual, here you go.....
http://tda.panasonic-europe-service...2/data/EU/TH37PX70B/OI/775772/TQB0E0364-2.pdf