OK, I know this is definitely a place full of HDMI enthusiasts and such, but I've got a question regarding a computer gaming rig I'm building.

First off, I plan on using my HDTV as my monitor. It's a Samsung 32" LCD HDTV.

I'm getting a Geforce 8800GTS video card with my new rig. It has two DVI outputs and the "HDTV" s-video looking plug.

My HDTV has a VGA input as well as two HDMI inputs. I have two options for getting my signal on-screen here.

The video card comes with a DVI to VGA converter plug. Easy as pie.

I can also buy a DVI to HDMI cable which will give me a "pure digital" signal.

Here's where my problem lies:

If I use HDMI, I assume it's going to set the screen up at 720p instead of 1366x768 which is the REAL max resolution of my TV. Will this cause any issues with scaling or is that a TV specific problem? Can someone explain how that works? Will I have to mess with PC resolutions to get the screen to fit to my TV correctly?

I'd just like to know how the whole DVI to HDMI conversion takes place and what I can count on as far as visual quality with this arrangement. I really want HDMI to work for my needs, but i'd like to know more about it.

Thanks for any help!

Hickeroar,

You HDTV will have a scaler to scale 1280x720 to 1366x768 when coming from your the DVI output on your video card. It should do a very good job of it. The HDMI input will be designed to scale maybe only four resolutions - 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i to your native resolution.

Note that you may have to tell your video card to use HDTV resolutions to drive your HDTV through the DVI output. This is because you could try to send 1360x768 over DVI to your HDTV, but the format will usually be R, G, B (red, green, blue) instead of Y, Cb, Cr (luma, chroma, chroma) which is what the HDTV will usually want. Once you tell the video card to send 720p, it will send Y, Cb, Cr color format automatically. At least that is what the ATI cards do.

I'd just like to know how the whole DVI to HDMI conversion takes place and what I can count on as far as visual quality with this arrangement. I really want HDMI to work for my needs, but i'd like to know more about it. For digital video there is no conversion of the signal. Video cards normally support DVI-I which will support analog output through the DVI connector, that's where the VGA comes into play and a simple adaptor works, no D->A or A->D signal conversion.

larry

Thanks or the info guys. I'll go with the DVI-to-VGA instead of the HDMI cable. Hopefully there are some good options in the vid card menu regarding HDTV and such.

Here's what's weird about VGA on my HDTV: I've got the VGA adapter for my XBOX 360 running into the TV. If I set the resolution to 1280x720, the TV won't display it. If I set it to 1360x768, 1024x768, etc, it works just fine...

Can someone offer me an explanation for this? THIS is what I was worried about regarding the VGA with the new pc... (I know, technically the wrong forum)