I wonder if there is any difference at all between a DVI-HDMI cable or a regular HDMI-HDMI when it comes to picture quality.

Will the picture be exactly the same or will there be any loss of information or worse quality using a DVI alternative.


I will build a HTPC and the new Geforce 8500 and 8600 will support HD decoding and offload the processor 100% but none of the cards have HDMI at this time. They will come but I really don't want to wait.

For the scenario you are talking about DVI to HDMI is a pin conversion. So from a signal standpoint properly functioning cables should have no loss.

However DVI devices usually only do RGB. Your display device may process RGB differently than YCbCr and you may need to calibrate the display for RGB. There are also things like video 16-235 vs PC 0-255 levels that might come into play.